Have sat on the saddles of a handful of those orange Austrian hunks of plastics, but never got to ride one haha. I'm not a fan of them tbh, too flashy, radical styling, and ridden by reckless rascals. But I respect the engineering and their racing pedigree.
Personally, the 200s are a better buy because the 125 engines are too stressed. They make too much power for their size and need to be stressed to pull. And there's not much of a price gap if I remember between them. 680+ k for a 125cc is just too much in Lankan terms. Then again it's not a normal 125, it has more options than an average family car (direct injection, aluminum frame, drilled discs, alloys, Bosch ABS brakes, 6-speed gearbox, race computer, underbody side exit exhaust, adjustable suspension, braided brake lines, projector headlights, LED tail lights, TFT display, Bluetooth,and optional soft compound racing tyres). Also 15hp from that 125cc engine equates to 120hp per liter. That's more horsepower per L than a Huracan.
Friend rode an RC200 recently for a week and is going crazy about it. He sold his fireblade recently.. Had a hornet too.
He says he finds it comfy enough for short trips. Very sharp and agile, says it's like a blade. Which makes sense as its intended use it to be a track weapon, which most KTMs are. There are however 5 gripes:
*Spare parts and servicing is costly. I mean, euro car level costly. A reckless bugger I know crashed his, and to replace the fairings and some cowlings it cost him around 150k. My friend said the bike he rode had some kind of bearing issue (iirc) and was quoted 60-70k to fix it. The Duke 200 and RC 200 share some parts with the Bajaj Pulsar RS200/NS200 since Bajaj and KTM have a joint venture going on (They own 48% of KTM). But even then, David pieris sells those shared parts with the "KTM tax".
*Reliability: once in a while someone complains about how these things suffer electrical/minor mechanical issues. Old KTMs offroaders during 90s were horrible, newer ones are way better but still not perfect it seems. Also I remember reading how the Dukes/RC are known to overheat in traffic despite being liquid cooled. They have some funny acronyms over the years. KTM: KeepThrowingMoney, KeepTrailerMobile, KickTillMonday, KeepThreeManuals, KillsTheMarriage.
But incase you ever wondered.. KTM stands for Kronreif, Trunkenpolz (founders) Mattighofen (birthplace)
*Ride firmness: These are track oriented, with hard seats and stiff yet well engineered suspension setups. The RC comes with low down clip on handlebars, which doesn't help the situation. So you might feel tired riding them around too much.
*Resale: Not so good, even though they hold value these days, they're hard to sell. Even the KTM showroom salesman in Battaramulla once told my cousin to not expect resale when he buys it lol. Also they can be ridden hard and abused so yeah.
*Sound: They sound similar to the Bajaj three wheeler, which also has a 200cc engine 😂. But the bigger KTMs sound good with their twin layout engines.
Also bro, the 125 and 250 offerings from KTM were Austrian imports. But the recent ones are now Indian too. The lankan import 200 and 390s are assembled in India. But quality assurance is there, and so is the attention to detail. You have to admit, the braided cables, the engine block, the embossed logos, the trellis frame construction, the welds, it's a work of art. Even the speedometer is almost similar to the one on the Xbow track car. You get your key with key code/ID card to identify your bike and scanning it will reveal the service information.
Cool details like that make ownership worthy. Reminds me of the old Alfas with the flashy Busso V6.