Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RIDING IMPRESSION 1997 /(fM 200 E/XC LE By Kit Pa lmer hirty years ago, American off- road star john Penton stopped by the KTM factory in Austria on his way home from the International Six-Day Enduro. and the ramifications of this visit would soon change the face of off-roading in Ame rica forever. At that time, KTM was primarily in the business of building and selling scooters, mopeds and a few small-displacement street bikes, as well as bicycles. Lots of bicycles. During his vis it, Penton asked Erik Tru nke npo lz (the "T" in KTM) if his compa ny cou ld build a small -bor e off-road bike to his specifications . Pen ton felt there was a market for .... en ;:l 00 ;:l -c 22 small-d isplacement off-road bikes in America , wh ere off-road bikes under 250cc were hard to come by, and he simpl y need ed so mebo dy to build it for him. Penton wa nted a bi ke specifically d esigned for off-roa d rid in g, a nd tha t bike woul d have to have thin gs like an airbox with a high intake, folding footpegs, a speedometer, and lights , amo ng ot he r off-road ne ce ss itie s. No mor e street-conve rted d irt bik es for him . "How man y of these bikes can you sell?" Trunkenpolz asked Penton. 'Thousands," he answered. Trunken pol z thou ght about it for a whil e, and said that he cou ld build this motorrvcle but would have to make big chang"; at the factory . However, Trunkenpolz said he wou ld ma ke these expensive changes so as long as Penton agreed to purcha se 500 of these motorCYcles himself. The two shook hands. - In the fall of 1967, Penton took the first s hip ment of these 125cc , Sachspowered Pen ton "Six Days" bikes and loaded th em up in h is van. He then d rove around the United States, visiting as man y mot orcycle dealershi ps as he could, and convi nced many of them to sell his bikes. Tho se who did suddenly became Penton de alers. The bikes were, jus t as Pen ton had p redicted , a huge s u ccess, a nd th ou sa nds of these new sma ll-bore, greenco lored Pen ton motor cycles w ere so ld . Other Penton models would soon fol low, like the 100cc Penton "Berkshire" and the 175cc "j ackp iner," which fea tured "1M's very own po werplant. The jac kpi ner go t its nam e after the po pular [ackpine Enduro in Michigan which, at that time, was used to decide the AMA ati on al Enduro Cha mp ion . Win that end uro and yo u wer e champ. In th e la te 1970s, Penton so ld the Penton name back to KTM, and the Pen ton era was officially over. To celebrate 30 vears of Penton /KTM mot orcycles in th~ United Stat es, KTM has introd uced limited-edition (LE) versions of the old Six Days and jackpiner models that feature retro color schemespowd er b lue fo r th e n ew KTM LE 200E /XC, and green for the LE 125E/XC. Word has it that only 10 versions of the green 125 and 200 of the blue LE 200E /XCs will be a va ila ble. Luckily , come au tu mn, both mod els will be read ily available in the now-sta ndard KTM orange. The 3D-year anni versary also comes as KTM motorcycles are exp erien cing big cha nges. Pretty much every KTM (Len) Th e KTM 200EIXC LE is a ser iously capable c tt -rc ec ma ch ine. ( Above) Decent bottom-end pow er makes it easy to get out of tight sit uations on the new KTM 200 . (Below) You probably won't be able to get you r ha nds on the blue-colored. Iimrted-.editlon model, but the '98 orange models will be read ily available by fall. motorcycle in its 1998 lineup featu res big changes, from the new PDS Iinkless (or di rect- link) rear-su spen sion system to all -new m ot or s . Ho w e v er , even though the LE 125s a nd 200E/XCs boast ma ny of thes e new changes, th ey are technically being offere d as 1997 models. After all, it would be a little silly to call these 3D-year anniversary LE models '98 models wh en , coun ting back , it w ould be 31 vears since the first Penton. An yhow, 'we recentl y go t the chance to sp in a few cross-country laps on the LE 200E/X C model, which , other than co lo r a n d deca ls , is id enti cal to the orange mod el that will be comi ng out this fall. We we re es pecia lly cu rio us abo ut two th in gs when it came to rid ing the KTM 200E/ XC for the firs t time: How wo uld th e rear Progressive Damping Sus pens io n (P DS) sys te m w ork a n d , overa ll, how wo uld this bike s tack up against the Kawasaki KDX200 (and 220, for tha t matter ), a bike tha t is the lon gstanding king of the 200cc class? But first , the E/ XC' s sus pe nsio n: It seems as thou gh when ever a motorcycl e takes on a big change, wh eth er it's to the motor or the suspension, you so metimes have to reall y co nce ntrate and focus your a tten tion' on those specific changes in order to feel a difference. But not with the 200' s PDS. You can feel the difference im mediately. And for the better. The bike we rod e already had so me miles on it and the shock was well bro-ken in , w hich was evidently a good thing . We are told , becau se of dual-pisto n a nd needl e-va lve desig n, tha t the specially design ed Ohlins shoc k, which uses an 800-po und spring, takes a long time to br ea k in. In the short time we ro de this bi ke, w e ca me awa y v ery impressed with th e 200' s rear su spension. The shock ac tio n is very sm ooth and linea r, an d the re's no harsh feeling anvwhere in the stroke , which becomes qu it e noticeable when th e rear e n d slams into the face of a whoop or plows throu gh a G-ou t. Simply put, the ba ck end feels ve ry stable, solid and predictable - at high or low speeds. All of the 250cc and bigger KTMs are now fitted with 50mm WP Extreme forks, but th e 125 a nd 200cc m od els come equipped with 45mm KTM Magnu m (Ma rzocchi) forks. KTM thou ght about fitting the 125s and 200s with the WP Ext re me fo r ks, but felt th at the 50 m m WP wo uld be over kil l for the sma ller bik es. We nev er reall y go t the chance to tru ly put the Magnums to the test in the couple of hours we rode the bik e, but from what we could tell, we have no doubt that these forks can take a lot of abuse. After all, they did a few yea rs ago w he n they were s tandard equipment on the larger KTMs. Motorwise, the new 200 mak es good power. It has s trong bottom-end - maybe not as s tro ng as the KDX in itiall y, but from midrange on up , the KTM seems to take the cake . Bv how much? That 's hard to tell, since we d id not have a KDX to d irectl y compare it wi th, but the KTM rips. The moto r feels a lot more serious and "racy" than tha t of the KDX, and the exhaust note is certainly more th roaty. The KTM seems to shift well, too, and the hyd raul ica lly operated clu tch has a light puil and good feel. (The 125s use the sa me hydraulic clu tch .) Most of the rid ing we did on the 200 wa s over ex tre mely tight , "woodsy" tr ail s, and

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