Hi lowyat bakers,

Im asking on behalf of my friend. He interested to buy RC 200 2nd hand. Before proceed, wanna know first whether is it good bike to buy? Any KTM owner can comment? Need to know:

reliability
part availability
common problem

If got old thread i can refer to would be nice as well.

p/s: currently he go either Pulsar NS200 or KTM RC 200. others like R15 R25 overbudget for him. and he dont like moped.

Thanks in advance!

This post has been edited by lol~: Jan 5 2023, 05:33 PM

How long does he plan to use this bike before upgrading?

Used KTMs are very cheap. The problem is the QC for CKD units are inconsistent.

Over a period of time, the price of the parts like new TFT dash display would be the same as the value of the whole bike.

Buy KTMs if you want to ride it until lingkup and sell it for scrap. Other than that, the Japanese brands are a safer bet.

Wow that expensive?? How about parts availability and the reliability of the bike itself?

avoid... reliability is a concern with those bikes...i think even the pulsar is probably more reliable than the ktm though i cant be sure.

if he has the budget he can look into ninja250s or z250s.. they arent going for that high these days especially for the older models

Thx for the feedback. Maybe i advice him go for r15

Don't really know what KTM malaysia is doing. They got a good head start...... then they blow it.

Expensive bike. The build quality was so bad.

It is not that the price of the TFT dash is expensive. It is just that the whole bike's value had reduced drastically.

I thought you want to get oven, you are asking bakers

Oh i thoughts the dash is expensive. Value not an issue coz he will go for 2nd anyway.

But how about major problem? Anything comment?

The RC200 is a good bike that requires high maintenance than most people can afford.

high comp engine, 14.5 - almost need RON97 fuel
WP suspension and ByBre (Brembo) brakes - expensive to service

weak electronics - wiring harness, dash quality/reliability
easily overheat - it can cut while your halfway riding, no joke
fuel pump issues when using dirty fuel

if you can maintain it, corner lean with elbow down also no problem

Friends tell me that the engine can get hotter than normal...

Thx for the feedback. Appreciate it. My friend decide to go for ns200

It's one of those bikes that, once you get right, it can be ridden hard and mad, otherwise it just drives you mad.

Quite a lot of parts from the Dominar and Pulsar would fit the RC/Duke. They all share common components. Makes maintenance much much more palatable when you get bajaj parts instead of KTM, you'd roughly pay less than half compared to KTM parts. For the Bybre brakes (caliper and disc), they are the same as the UG Dominar....as with the brake pads and service/rebuild kits....with the exception of KTM's front master cyclinder. WP syspension service components are same for the non branded Bajaj items (may have long suspected the Dominar uses unbranded WP OEM stuff). Chain/Sprockets, regular maintenance items like oil filters, fuel filters are cross compatible, along with other things like the stator/generator, fork components, etc. Stuff like air filters can be found from online shopping for cheap.


The RC is a good fun bike. But typical KTM foibles apply. Electronics have been a bug bear and build quality and reliability has also a concern. If you can find one cheap, it might be worth it. That high compression engine runs hot. recommended to run only 97.

Find a good service centre that does Bajaj bikes and they will know which parts are interchangeable between those 2 marques.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Jan 7 2023, 10:49 AM

thanks for the info

How about the fork internals? Do the Dominar/Pulsar have same fork internals as the RC?

The UG Dominar maybe. Because all KTMs use USD forks. Pulsars and the old V1 Dominar use RSU forks.

Ray@Vi Motorwerks probably can confirm.


Cheap fag like me dont even use Dominar specific parts. I find compatible Pulsar parts, which inexplicably is sometimes cheaper than then already cheap Dominar parts.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Jan 9 2023, 04:20 PM

I heard from one of the KTM owner like they do VC every 10k is that true?