Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/120650
INTERVIEW P74 KTM'S STEFAN PIERER turers being part of it than you can imagine. Is KTM already working on an RC8R Evo for that eventuality – maybe using a shortstroke version of your existing 75-degree V-twin engine? We are doing so on a very confidential basis, but we retain the same engine format and for sure you have to do a little bit on the injection, on the throttle body diameters, a little bit on the bore and stroke, as much as you can really to get the maximum power out. Secondly, we have to put in all the electronics that we've been developing to a pretty high level, but we will keep the same overall styling because it is still a very nice bike with a strong personality. Does KTM intend to have a Superbike product to form the basis for National or onemake championships in the increasing number of developing countries with modern race circuits – Russia, India, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and so on? Do you envisage developing a KTM Superbike for a one-make series in such countries? If such a Superbike regulation is coming, then for sure we will try to do this. What we are already doing regarding the so-called RC Cup, with the future 390 singlecylinder full-fairing model, is to make a very affordable amateur racing class in both mature and emerging markets. We are starting with a German series next year as a support class to the IDM Superbike championship, so with the RC 390 you can get a real race bike for 5,000-6,000 Euro – that's affordable. At the same time we would like to have this series running in the ASEAN Superbike series and we have already started talks with the AMA to maybe hold it in America, because we think that this is a perfect program to have affordable racing and to really attract young repeating on tarmac the successful strategy you already followed on the dirt? Yes, it means basically starting at Moto3 and then going up step-by-step with the same rules being applied to all Nationallevel championships. This would make a lot of sense because we've developed a nice business case with our Moto3 motorcycle that we first developed for World Championship racing, " THE RC 125, 200 AND 390 THAT WILL BE LAUNCHED AT THE EICMA MILAN SHOW IN NOVEMBER WILL LOOK A LITTLE SIMILAR TO OUR WORLD CHAMPION MOTO3 GRAND PRIX RACER… " guys. We have to support our young customers, and that brings me back to affordable Superbike regulations, because the youngest generation which is coming up, they are really interested in going racing. Youth is the future for us - we have to get the young guys into motorcycling, we have to convince them to take it up whether on-road or off-road, but money is a bottleneck, it's not a commodity like it was five or six years ago. Now we really have to make sure that young guys can take part in motorsport with a reasonable budget. So it's a question of KTM -Stefan Pierer but now we're selling not only to teams competing in Moto3 GPs, but also those competing in National Championships. I think this really is the direction that Superbike racing has to go in; otherwise the industry will not be able to support it in the long run. I think this will be a huge step in the right direction – if Dorna and the FIM can manage to establish such a Superbike regulation, I think they will do the greatest thing for motorsport for many, many years. CN Check next week's issue for part two with Pierer…