Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1995 KTM 250 SX By Kit Palmer Photos by Chr is Jonnum t see ms like just yesterday that KTM mot orcycles wer e abo u t the most expensive mot ocross bikes on the track, vet not necessarily the best . N~w, they are one of the cheapest and one of the best . Go figu re. Wh ile h eft y price ta gs m ight ha ve hurt KTM sa les in the past, it was perh aps KTM ' s "Euro" feel an d od d ba ll looks tha t really steered poten tial bu yers away and straight to the Japanese bike sho ps, where eq uivalent mach ines were sign ificantly less expensive, more comforta ble and arg ua bly a lot better. But now ad ays, if yo u w er e to rid e a KTM blindfold ed, yo u might think yo u were ridin g a Hond a, o r a Yamaha, or any Japanese-built bike on the market, for that matter. N o lon ge r do KTMs feel " wei rd" or " too European," and no '<:f< 0\ 0\ ,..-< t--:' l-< (]) .c E (]) u (]) c 18 longer d o you have to completely alt er your riding style to make a KTM go fast. And believe it or not , they are no lon ger the most expens ive bi kes aro und. No, their prices d idn' t go down - the Japanese MXers have ca ught up! A n e w Honda CR250 is n o w ac t ua lly more ex pen sive th an th e .new KTM 250 SX, albeit by ju st $51. The KTM carries a s u gges te d re ta il p rice of $50 48 . The KTM is no longer a second-class citizen. Inst ead, it is - and has been for the last fe w yea rs - a v ia b le option a s a "buy able" 250cc mo tocro sser. Th e '9 5 SX fea tu res many ch anges over last ye ar's successful mod el. Perh aps the m os t obvious u pdat e is the sw itc h fro m inverted to convention a l for ks . Ma rzocchi Magnum 45mm forks are n o w s ta n dard e q ui p men t o n a ll KT M MXers and off- rea ders . Other man u factu rers have climbed on the conve ntio nal fo rk ba n dwagon as well, incl u di ng the It a li an-m ad e T M and Spa nish-b ui lt Ga s G a s m otorcy cle s . Mos t peo ple seem to agree that conventio nal forks are the h ot se tu p fo r offroad ridi ng . We recen tly tested the KTM 250 E/XC "e ndu ro" bike, and a re still ranting and rav ing abo ut how well the for ks wo rked . Man y of the nati on 's top enduro rid ers h ave also ca n ne d the ir inverted forks for conven tio na l sticks, includ in g n ew ch a m p Ste v e Ha tch, Kevi n Hines, Randy Hawki ns and Jeff Russell. . Bu t for mot ocro ss, not as many are sold on th e id ea of go ing back to conventional fork s. The "latest and greatest" is t he them e among the MX crowd, and it so me times see ms hard for them to take an objective look at the past. Many of today's r ide rs, in fact, may h a ve never eve n experienced a ride aboa rd a conventiona l-fork-eq uipped mach ine . That's w hy we're just a little bit surp rised that KTM went with the Mag- (Right) The new KTM 250SX is an allaround good package, highlighted by a strong motor and awesome lorks. (Below) The SX is downright lun to ride. n ums over their for mer WP inverted forks on their motocross models. But after riding the new SX, we' re glad they did. We are just as impressed with the Ma rzocchis on the SX as we we re on the E/XC. On the track, the Marzocchis soak up the small cho p, sq uare-edged holes and ha rd s lams better than any fork we've felt in a lon g tim e. While we expected the Marzocchis to handle the sma ll ripples we ll, we were pleasantly su rp rised b y h ow w ell th ey absorb ed th e h ard im pacts, too . On one of ou r well -used test tracks, there is one whoop section that yo u have to jump into if you want to d oubl e throu g h th e w hoop s, but sometimes, if you do n't ge t a good drive off the first jump, the front end usu ally slams into the face of one of the whoo ps. At th is point, there isn' t mu ch you can do but cri nge and hop e you shoulders do n't pop ou t of their sockets. But with the KTM, you hardl y noti ce the impacl. One of the mai n reasons most of the factory motocro ssers ar e reluctan t to go with the conventional forks is because, at the spee ds they ride, they need that extra rigidity that inverted forks offer th rou gh the stu tters an d sta dium-type whoops: KTM obviously believes that most pe0pl e ca n't truly take a dvantage of the inverted design . KTM also feels that the Marzocchis are mu ch easier to tun e. The Marzocchis feature external comp ression an d rebound damping adjustmen ts; com pression on the left leg and reb ound o n th e rig h t (si tti ng o n th e bike). G rasp ing the Marzocchi forks is a new tr ipl e clam p, whi ch u ses a solid handlebar cla mp tha t is int egr ated into the casting. A redu ced offset of 16mm h as also been d es igned in to th e new cla mp to co mpensa te fo r th e lead in g . axle of the Magn u m fork. KTM claims that the new tr iple clamp is 1.1 pounds ligh ter than its pr ed ecessor . . The new offset m ust work, because we had no major problems gu iding the KTM through the corners and noticed no loss of straigh t-line stability, as compared to last year's mod el. O n ce .in a blue moon, w hile transitioni ng from full throttl e to no th rottl e, th e fron t end shook a little bit. But as far as tu rn ing, most of our testers agreed that the KTM sti ll steers quite well . Perh aps a little on th e slow side, bu t it was not hing you cou ld n' t get used after a few laps.

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