KTM is almost certainly the most dominant marque ever to take on the Dakar Rally, with the Ready To Race brand claiming victory at every single running of the infamous event from 2001 through 2019. So, needless to say, the Austrian outfit knows more than a thing or two about building highly-competitive rally raid bikes. And after ample and repeated requests from the public, the company began producing turnkey replicas of its factory Dakar racers, giving the motorcycling public an opportunity to ride and compete on one of these world-class off-roaders.
Almost certainly the most capable, factory-built turnkey rally raid motorcycle on earth, the brand’s latest 2023 450 RALLY REPLICA is nearly identical to the machines used to achieve KTM’s last nine Dakar rallies – save for the livery and a few other minor details. The rally raid machine is built around a compact chrome-moly steel frame that’s been paired with a 48mm WP XACT PRO closed cartridge fork and a fully-adjustable mono-shock. Alongside the top-shelf, long-travel suspension package, this rugged rally racer also sports hand-guards, a full navigation tower with an integrated stacked projector headlight setup, and a split-tank fuel cell arrangement.
At the heart of the 450 RALLY REPLICA is a liquid-cooled, 450cc single-overhead-cam single-cylinder engine with cutting-edge Keihin engine management and the ECU maps, plus a full race-spec Akrapovič exhaust system and the exact same Pankl transmission found on the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing bikes. Though KTM hasn’t revealed horsepower figures, we’re confident the 450cc single likely generates around 70hp (based on the previous model’s power figures). Engineered from the ground up to tackle grueling multi-stage cross-country competition in some of the planet’s most hostile and unforgiving locales, the 450 RALLY REPLICA also boasts a revised ergonomics setup, a massive carbon fiber skid plate, spoked Takasago Excel wheels shod in Continental all-terrain tires, and a myriad of items from the KTM POWER PARTS catalog.
Expected to become available in September of this year, the 2023 KTM 450 RALLY REPLICA will be limited to just 70 units worldwide. And while KTM has yet to reveal pricing, we anticipate the 2023-gen to carry an MSRP that’s similar to the 2022 model’s roughly $27,000 sticker price.
