Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EURO FILE BY ALAN CATHCART Harley-Davidson to buy KTM· It m a y a t fi rs t s igh t s ee m th e m o s t unlikely of motorcycling marriages, but Harley-Da vid son and KTM are talking abo u t tying th e kn ot . A mana gem ent team from the American giant is under stood to have visited Europe recently for talks, spending time looking over KTM's Mattigh ofen fact ory, as w ell as touring part of the com pa ny's d istribution network: Some hard negotiation on pri ce is reportedl y taking pla ce, with a vi ew to announcing a p ot ential takeover a t the Mu nic h Show op ening on Septem ber 15, when KTM wi ll have a ma jor di splay featuring sev eral new models. The flouris hing Aus tria n o ff-roa d manufacturer ha s made a miracle comeback from its late-'91 bankruptcy, when in an earl y preview of the TPG takeover o f Duca ti , Swiss v e n ture ca p i talis ts Exa n tra lin ked with a group of KTM im p orters from d iffer en t co u ntries to res tru ctu re the co mpa ny an d set it on the road to its p resent success. Fro m 5600 bikes in 1992, KTM production has increased to 26,000 for the 1998 model yea r, yield ing a 27-p erc en t increase in tu rn over to $121 million compared to '97, wi th pretax profits up to $12.7 million . At a Jul y 1 b oard m eetin g , KTM management vo ted to invest $15 million in th e co ns tru ctio n o f a new fac to ry alongsi de the present one, scheduled for com pletion in July 1999 with a view not only to ex pa ndi ng produ ction to a n eventual 40,000 bikes a yea r, bu t also to doubling capacity at the firm's in-hou se R&D de part me nt. The substa ntia l in ve s tm e n t needed to develop n ew models like the Duke street-rod and the new four-s tro ke com petition ra nge (see item below), as well as improve man ufac turi ng qu a lit y an d und erscore th e co m pany 's r e vi val b y w in ning the World O pen-class MX title, was largely offse t by KTM' s partial stock flot at ion two years ag o, w hich wa s heavily oversubscribed. N ow, w ith the share s trading a t a n in creas ed premium on th e Vienna stock market in the wa ke of the rum o rs link ing the co mp a ny wit h Harl ey-David son, the time appears to be ripe for Exa ntra an d its fellow partne rs KTM revamps four-strokes Wh atever hap pens in its hunt to get hitched, expect KTM to launch a n exciti ng arra y of new fo u rstroke off-readers at Munich, primarily as a respo nse to Yamaha's YZ/WR400 an d the expected new fou r-stroke range from Honda. But, ha ving r e va m p e d its en tire two-stroke ra nge in little mo re th an a year, KTM is n ow d o in g th e s a me with it s fourstro kes, starting with the existin g LC4 mot o r. This w ill hen ceforth be used on ly in st reet bikes and rally end uro mod els, bu t though it is still produced in bot h 400cc and 620cc guis es, it will now be fi t ted w ith th e DO HC cy li n d er head KTM has had u nd er development for the past year. Due to be launched at Mu nich The Unit (yes, Unit) is one of wi t h th is revise d eng ine is a expected is a YZ400 rival with replacemen t for the good-sellin g Duke s treet-rod , lik e ly to be known as the Uni t. This was the name of one of the pair of protot yp e s treet sin gles d esigned by the Du ke's creator, Gerard Kiske, which ap peared at the 1996 Cologn e Sho w, and though the new Unit is repo rted ly quite differen t from that in appearance, it does appa rently follow its lead in being more of a roadster than the hard-nosed Duke, even if it is unmistakablv still a fun-b ike. ' . However, for Motocross and hard end uro compe tition, KTM will be revealing at Munich the first of a series of bikes ran gin g from 360 to 600cc in capacity, po wered by its all-new ultralightwe igh t (13.2 pou nd s less tha n the exis ting SOHC LC4) fourstroke engine d esign, which is presently being tested by d evelopme nt rid er Kurt Nico ll, now retired from World 500cc MX racing. The new SOHC four-valve liquid-cooled eng ine is so compact that in 510cc pro totyp e form it fits straig ht into an SX250 two-stro ke chassis, ve t even fitt ed with electric start as sta ndard, the comp lete bike weighs just 253 pounds - 4.4 pounds less than the 250cc two-s troke. Though scheduled to be raced by a full KTM factory tea m in the '99 World 500cc Motocro ss series, the n ew-gener a tion prod uction four-strokes a ren 't expected to hit the sho ps until early in 2000, w hen they'll be fit- in KTM ' s co mebac k to cas h in th eir chips. P revi ou s s pec u lation h ad lin ke d BMW , as we ll a s It a li a n co m p a nies A prili a a n d Du ca ti - n on e, of w hi ch pr e s en tl y has a n off- r o ad r an g e o f products - with a KTM tak eov er , and KTM's new four-stroke models on the way in the near future. Also DOHC, and an eight-valve V-twin. ted with the same PDS d irec t-actio n rear suspension as the curren t two-strokes - but no Honda CR-ty p e alloy fra me. KTM says it plans to stick wit h its steel chas sis, which it claims steers better. . Also under d evelopment , but not yet ready to be sho wn in public even in prototype form, is KTM's 6G-degree V-twin LC8 proj ect - s till under d evelopment in fuel-injec ted eig ht-va lve form, with a target competition debut scheduled for the January 2000 Paris -Dakar race, before a range of customer versions are lau nched a t the Munich Show lat er that vear , in both hard enduro and street end uro guises. Though id'eas for a range of full-tarmac LC8 spo rtbikes have now been abandoned , thanks to the growing number of V-twin motorcycles fro m around the wor ld , a V-twin Unit LC8 is pen ciled in for th e 2001 model yea r. However, af ter the p roblems enco untered in obta in ing exclus ive use of the Folan V-tw in engine design , KTM has jettiso ned the work invested on this a nd left it for the Swedish Highl and com pa ny to adopt. The Aus tria ns now have their ow n ultracompact V-twin motor u nder developm ent , bu t fitted with a counter-balancer as we ll as a proper lu br icati on sys tem and electric start, so it is more suitable for eve ntual stree t use than the Swed ish engine. it ' s know n tha t Du cati ow n ers TP G have ind eed exp lored ad d ing the Aus trian com pa ny to its tw o-w hee led portfolio. Bu t it' s T PG' s fe llo w Am ericans Harley-Da vidson who seem poised to scoo p the u nd oubted pri ze th a t KTM ST4re to go ady The sport-tou ter mark et is abou t to get a little crowded , for alo ngsid e the existing VFR800 Honda (which sets the ben chmark for th e cla ss), BMW's new Rll 00S and the Da yt on a-d erived Triumph T695 sche duled to mak e its debut at the Munich Show in September, comes an other new Euro-entry se t to share sta r billin g in Germa ny in the all-arou nder ca tegory: the Ducati ST4. Co ntrary to previou s management ass ura nce, Du cati is indeed set to launch the uprated ver sion of the desmodfie ST2 it has had und er d evelopment for the past two yea rs. The new bike, to be shown at Munich, is powered by the 916 otto valvole engi ne in revised form, includi ng alternati ve mapping for the Webe r / Ma relli EFl. Chass is and styli ng ar e un changed from the STI , except for the charcoal-colored ven t in the side of the fairin g wh ich d istinguishes the ST4 from the tw o-valver. T1, e new model -entered production before the Bologna factory closed for the Augus t holidays, ensuring a healthy sto ck of bikes for deal ers aro und the wo rld soon after the bike makes its debut. But w ith the VFR800' s engine in tum also deri ved from Ho nda's World title-winning RC45 Su pe rb ike engine, the debut of the ST4 means that the race-track confro ntation between World Superbike's two leading marqu es will be continued in the showroom, too, via these two very different spinoff models! Ducati's ST2, sh own, is s et to be joined by the ST4, an d s ooner tha n we thought. Expect the fou r-valve-per-cylinde r spo rt to urer to make its deb ut at Munich this September. rep resents, with its clean ba lance sheet, sector-leadi ng statu s, volu me gro w th and exciting new models. The Austrian com pany holds several areas of appeal for the U'S, gian t, and not only the obvious on e that bu ying it wo uld give H-D d eal er s an off-road ran ge of b ikes to sell . Harl ey man agement is also understood to wa nt to e xp lo r e a wa y of res tructu rin g the com pany' s Eu ropean distribu tion by using KTM's im porters, as we ll as of positioning its Buell subsidiary better in th e marketplace and facilita ting its en try in to the com p etition arena. H se ems d oubtful a KTM off-roa d connection cou ld help much her e - but acq u iring KTM wou ld a lso d eliver to Harley its own sus pensio n ma nufacture r, in th e form o f Dutch -b a s ed WP , which, togeth er wi th spec ialist Swedis h off-roa d manufacturer Husaberg, makes up the KTM Gro up. The fact tha t Buell already uses WP equi p ment on its spo rtbikes would tie in neatly, too. However, th e ma in rea son fo r the projected link is a less obviou s one . A su bstantia l element of profitability for Ha rley - w hich this spring anno unced reco rd first- quarter sa les and ea rni ngs, with the company's shares rising 30 percent in value so far in 1998 - are its militar y-supply contrac ts, using p urchased Rotax sing le-cy linder engines to equi p machines sold not only to the Ll.S, Army but to other NATO allies as well, including Britain . Acquiring KTM wo u ld not only brin g engine supp ly for Harl ey' s mili tar y lin e in-house via the exi sti ng, well-proven SOHC LC4 mot or (as well as p rovide the basis for a d em on H-D

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