NEW BIKES
o
•
o
o
r-,
0\
0\
e-«
o
N
+-
:fl
;::l
CO
;::l
~
18
~, -
t
'- -
•
"
-
'
TM officially unveiled its complete lineu p of 1998
tw o -stroke off-road and motocross models, and
there's a lot more to these new bikes than the obvious
styling and graphic changes. All of the orange, black
. and gray machines feature big changes in the suspension and
motor departments, and there are even a few new models to
talk about.
Joining the KTM family in ' 98 are the 200 M /XC and
E/XC, and the 380 SX, M /XC and E/XC; and rejoining the
KTM family - at least in the United Stat", - are the 125 SX and
E/XC.
The SX designation refers to the KTM models that feature
fully MX-tuned sus pensions, close-rat io transm issions, MXtuned sile ncers, 19-inch rear wheels, lightweight flywheels.
and sma ller capacity fue l tan ks, wh ile the M/ XC and E/XCs
feature off-road-tuned suspensions, wid e-rat io transmissions,
off-road -tu ned exhaus t/spa rk arrest ors, 18-inch rear wheels,
we ighted flyw heels wit h lighting ro ils, and lar ger fuel tanks.
The on lv diffe rence between the M/ XC and E/XC mod els is
that th'-E/ XCs come standard wit h head light s an d taillights.
Perhaps the bigges t news of all is the Progressive Damp-ing System rea r suspension that all of the new bikes now
in corpora te. This new d esign b reaks away from the nowstanda rd linkage desig n, going to a single-shock, no-link
rear-suspensio n setup. By the use of two pistons and a propri etary needle-valve design in the shock, KTM has been able
to produce a com pletely prog ressive rising rate, w hich was
normally accom plish ed .by the use of linkages. In a linkage
d esign, th e s hock's main responsibility is con tr olling the
