2025 KTM 450 Rally Replica First Look

[Hugh Janus]

KTM’s 2025 450 Rally Replica is all-new, with a new engine and chassis. (KTM/)

The word “replica” in the title of KTM’s 450 Rally Replica is used in its most literal sense—these limited-production machines are genuine competition bikes aimed at owners who want to use them in anger and are essentially identical to the company’s factory racebikes. The new 2025 450 Rally Replica ups the ante with a new engine, chassis, and bodywork as a one-for-one facsimile of the latest-generation works KTM 450 used in this year’s Dakar Rally.

KTM may not have won the 2024 Dakar—this year’s event fell to Ricky Brabec’s Honda’s CRF450 Rally—but successive generations of the company’s 450 Rally have won 10 Dakar Rallies since 2011 and the mechanically identical GasGas 450 Rally took an additional win in 2022. In fact, KTM has only been off the top step at the Dakar four times since 2001, with a total of 19 wins and 235 stage wins on its résumé. In short, the 450 Rally Replica should give its buyers the closest experience possible to that of a top-level works bike.

The 2025 KTM 450 Rally has a new engine, transmission, hydroformed steel chassis, and a ton of changes. (KTM/)

The company says the 2025 450 Rally Replica, limited to just 100 machines, is the biggest update that the model has had since 2020. The changes start with a heavily revised engine that’s based on the fuel-injected single from KTM’s 450 enduro and motocross bikes, with a new SOHC cylinder head with redesigned ports and titanium valves, plus a beefed-up clutch and tougher transmission than previously. For the 2025 bike, KTM has also added a new dual-radiator cooling system that works better than the previous single-radiator design as well as giving a layer of redundancy should one radiator get damaged during a stage. Like previous Rally Replicas, the engine breathes through a Keihin throttle body and an Akrapovič exhaust, the latter hydroformed to maximize ground clearance and minimize weight.

The 450 Rally Replica is essentially the same bike as the works machines ridden in the Dakar Rally. (KTM/)

Hydroforming is also used for the first time on the 2025 Rally Replica’s frame. Instead of the conventional steel trellis of previous generations, the new version uses hydroformed steel sections that can be made to meet specific targets for strength and flexibility, all hand-welded together to form a complete chassis. At the back the seat subframe doubles as a self-supporting 4.2-gallon fuel tank, which is complemented by two additional front tanks—2.4 gallons and 2.5 gallons, respectively—for a total capacity of 9.1 gallons. Two fuel pumps let the rider choose between the front and rear tanks.

A new carbon fiber navigation tower can either be fitted with a paper roadbook or a digital version. (KTM/)

The swingarm is new, too, die-cast from aluminum and bolted to a WP Xact Pro 7750 shock via a rising-rate linkage. Up front, a 48mm WP Xact Pro 7548 fork is mounted in billet triple clamps. It’s all wrapped in redesigned bodywork that includes a carbon fiber “navigation tower” at the front to hold the roadbook, and a narrower nose to reduce wind resistance and turbulence. An LED headlight, 33 percent brighter than its predecessor, sits behind the transparent nose bodywork, and while the bike comes with a conventional paper-based roadbook system, it can also be fitted with a modern, digital alternative.

With only 100 due to be made, there’s a good chance that all have already found buyers by the time you read this, despite a price tag that’s likely to be somewhere close to $40,000 each.

Only 100 of the bikes will be made for 2025, so if you haven’t plopped down your $40,000, you’re too late. (KTM/)

Source

[Pedro]

Hydroform.

Mark my words, soon it’ll be bigger than 270° cranks. Give it a couple of years, maximum.

[boboneleg]

Absolutely pointless unless you ride rally's 

[Pedro]

4 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Absolutely pointless unless you ride rally's 

isn't that a big part of the 100 people who buy this? 

Looking at it as money wasted for posing, though, I'd rather ride this to the cafe down the street for a beer by the beach than a 210hp ducati with fancy stickers on it. Similar money? Both pointless?

[Buckster]

Two and a half times the price of a Kove Rally Pro.

[boboneleg]

8 minutes ago, Pedro said:

isn't that a big part of the 100 people who buy this? 

Looking at it as money wasted for posing, though, I'd rather ride this to the cafe down the street for a beer by the beach than a 210hp ducati with fancy stickers on it. Similar money? Both pointless?

Yep, unless your racing the V4 Ducati's are pointless as well, especially on UK roads.   The thing about the KTM's is that rich twats will buy them for riding along trails and then wonder why they're overheating , stuttering on the throttle or ending up in a ditch 

[Pedro]

1 minute ago, Marcel le Moose Fondler said:

I think you could buy 3  1290 s for the same dosh...it's has ridiculous has the Pan-Am screaming eagle...lol.

Let me put it in pictures, so it's easier:

Proper race bike for sale:

 

Silly Marketing that sells cruisers:

 

 

[Pedro]

46 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Yep, unless your racing the V4 Ducati's are pointless as well, especially on UK roads.   The thing about the KTM's is that rich twats will buy them for riding along trails and then wonder why they're overheating , stuttering on the throttle or ending up in a ditch 

You think a lot of people buy those to go trail riding?

 

Andre Vilas Boas, portuguese football coach and overall motorsports and rally enthusiast has an ex-Dakar race bike in which he used to commute to train FC Porto, so you might have a point   He has experience racing so can surely handle the bike, I just found it funny that that was his choice of commuting vehicle.

[Buckster]

8 minutes ago, Pedro said:

Let me put it in pictures, so it's easier:

Proper race bike for sale:

 

Silly Marketing that sells cruisers: