T
he 2012 KTM Factory Edition
started it all. Thanks to AMA
Supercross homologation rules,
KTM needed to have at least 400 mod-
ern, fuel-injected 450-class weapons
in the United States for sale by March
so newly hired Ryan Dungey could
race one. Creatively, KTM offered a
limited run of new models in 2012 with
the performance Dungey and his team
manager Roger DeCoster expected of
the Austrians when they came aboard.
These "half-year" models have been
showing up every year since with vary-
ing degrees of updates and exclusivity.
In a masterful stroke of marketing born
out of necessity, KTM created a special-
edition market in the motocross world
while fueling some good-old-fashioned
championships in the process.
Some years we've had incredible
updates to current year MX models in
KTM's FEs—monumental shifts in the
class. Other years' models have been
less significant and more pedestrian in
desirability. The original 2012 Factory
Edition gave us an all-new single-cam
engine and added fuel injection to the
marquee and Red Bull freakin' graphics.
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 12 MARCH 24, 2020 P53
Life's a blur when you're on the KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition.
WE GIVE THE
NEW KTM 450 SX-F
FACTORY
EDITION A RIDE
THE
ORIGINAL RULE
BREAKER
MAKER
BY JESSE ZIEGLER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER