Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

g so im p o r ta n t to KTM , and th is tea m has had the fu ll back in g o f th e facto ry stra ight away. I d id a lo t o f the tes ting m yself (las t year) over the wi n ter, and truly, a lot of the first tests we re a di sas ter. But through it all yo u co ul d see th e po te nt ia l o f th e n e w b ik e . Still, it ce r tai n ly hasn' t been a ll smoo th sai li ng. At tim es through th e wi n te r we had to w ond er if w e we re e ve n go ing t o make i t to t h e g rid . Right u p to the first GP ther e were so me un cer tain times, bu t tha nkfully it has go ne full-eircle since then : W h e n w ere t h e first full y KT M mo or s prod uced? Fo r th e fou rth GP this year - in Italy in May. A Wh a t a re th e ~u r rent cap a c rt y , weigh t and po wer ou tp ut of the 520SXs raced b y Joha n s so n and King? T h e b ik es h av e b e en ab o u t 512cc t h ro u gh o u t. We tri ed bigger; bu t we' ve found 512cc to b e t he b e s t co m promise. The bikes weigh in at 106kg (233.2 pou nds) throu gh technical con t ro l a t a G P th a t ' s ou r r u n nin g weig ht. A n d th e b es t power figure we've had is 66 hp. Q A about the Q T e ll us motocross structure of KTM is four-stroke race team. Th e ra ce te am is based at KTM's factory a t Matigh o fen in Au stria , while at th e GPs, the team opera tes o u t o f a se mi - t ra iler truck, which is a n ew additi on fo r KTM . We purchased th e truck fro m th e Red Bull Yamaha GP road-race team, and th en tot all y refit ted it ins id e. It wound out costing around $200,000. Right at the start of th e season we were struggling to run with even two engi nes , but now with the motor so rted out, we'v e got six eng ines . The riders have two race bikes each, as well as a pra ctice bike each, which is a new developmen t. In the beginning the gu ys didn't ha ve pra ctice bikes. Each rider has one full -time mechanic, w h ile w e have a WP sus pension speci ali s t, a no ther technician responsible for the engi nes, another technician who speciali zes in the frames, and then ther e' s ch ief en gineer Toby Gus tavsson fro m KTM, who has overall res po nsibility of all the mechanics. Back at the factory, KTM's R&D d epartment has been very involved in the ove rall fou r-stroke project, a nd I co u ld n' t even beg in to list how man y engineers there have been invo lved. They literally worked flat-ou t on the four-stroke over the winter . g H ave other r id ers besides Johansson an King been used for R&D inp ut? N o, n obod y el s e o ther than m y self and Lance Smail in the ve ry ea rl y p art of th e program . A Wh en was the de cision made, and b y whom at KTM, to de velop a brand-new four- stroke line? The d ecision was mad e in early '98, by the rnanag.ng director and the sales staff of KTM. They were the first to say "we need a new four-stro ke:' The deci-. sion to then im med iately go racing with the new bike was made in a .meeting at the Austrian 500 GP in May '98, and from then we we re all-go. Q A Wh en were th e fir st proto ty pe n ew fo ur-s tro ke motors p roduced? The first running p ro tot yp e came on- line in Jul y '98, when m vself a nd Lance Smail fro m the U.S. rode the new bike in Czechoslovakia and Germany. Q A · What reaction ride to th fi rst prototypes?· O.You cowulasd yourlly, rea lly as a th e pr ot ent osel-even .. did n' t gh broke jus A.uthou gh ittimereawehave enou feelpower and Asiaa rid ert abo t every .even sneezed near it. who had rid den tw o-strokes all his life and never really gotten on with heavy fou r-strokes, I could really feel the pot enti al of a ligh tw eight four-stroke. It felt like a regular mot ocross bike, with a really tra ctable engine. Lance, too, was impressed . He had a lot more four-stroke experience th an I and reall y felt the pot ent ial of th e bi ke straight away . g Wh a t influence did KTM's ownership of Husaberg and the Husaberg engine design have in t e design of the new KTM four-stroke? The first moto rs we re built with Hu saberg cylinder heads, and we even raced until the thir d GP wi th the Husaberg cylinder heads. And really, that ju mped the program forward by such a hu ge time frame. If we had been looking at designing a brand-new cylinder head from scratch, we'd hav e been months and months further down the lin e. Th e cylinder head on the bike .now evolved from the Hu saberg. A A g As light and fast as the new bikes obviously are, the team has clearly been enduring some niggling mec anical problems th is year? Oh yeah, we have. A What wa s the problem that caused Johansson not to score any points at round three in Austria? ln Austr ia we had an oil-pu m p probl em . Were it not for th at , Pe te r would ha ve won both mot os ther e and wo uld be lead ing the world cham pions hip now. Q A For the KTM customer, w hat differen ces wi ll he see b etween th e KTM four- stroke he buys ne xt year and the bikes raced now by Johansso n and Kin g? He won't see th a t ma ny differences. We've got 48m m fron t for ks, w hile he 'll get 43m m upsid ed owners, but th e in ternals are very simi lar. We have double-adjustment on the shock, whereas the pr oduction bike only has one. Really, they're on ly sma ll d ifferences, and the prod uction bikes will be very similar. As I said, we 're on a 90-pe rcent productio n base wi th our engi nes. Sure, we ha ve trick valve sp rings, and things like that , bu t they' re very small changes. The engine basica lly is p roduction . Q A Has the develop men t of the enduro-s pec 400 and 520cc KTMs been in paralle l with the mo tocr oss team? . Yes . Th e m ot oc ro ss bi kes came fi rs t, a n d t he .end u ro tea ms received their eq u ip me n t slightly later , from the second rou nd of the ir wo rld cha m pi ons hip I believe. Overall though , the two effor ts are ru n parallel. The enduro squa d does n't have a race department as such, and ins tead run completel y off KTM's R&D d epartmen t. Q A, Have your electric-start Q No, neverall?motocrossarerace b ikes hadstart anyw ay, fitted at The bikes to h ile th s A w2.5 kilose.intarter m ot ordead-easytt ery adds up to a nd ba about weight. T e ll us about KTM's reaction to the success worldwide of Yamaha's YZ and WR 400 fourstro es . ' The wo rldwide sales of the Yam aha has obvi ously in spired KTM in launch in g its n ew four-stroke range. Th e interest now by yo u nger rid ers in fourstro kes has certainly been sparked off by Yamaha, and they did a very good job wi th thei r marketing, and their ra ce teams, and th e successes of Dou g Henry in the United Stat es. But when their production bike came ou t, you cou ldn't eve n see one screw on it that looked like their factory bike. I think we ha ve done an equally good marketing job wi th our race tea m, but when our prod uction bike comes ou t it will be a toug h job to find differe nt screws on it. We've d one it a different wa y in tha t KTM cust om ers will be abl e to buy the bike we've bee n racing. gJ A IS it correct that in the year 2003 two-strokes will be banned, due to emissions, from public roads in Eu r o p e, thu s placing increa sing im portan ce and prominence on fourstroke machines? As far as I know, tha t is not a fact ye t. But sure, th ere are guys a t KTM working day an d night on tw ostro ke emissions . A nd there is a law in California, of course. I think it's still a case of wa iting and seeing. But s till , fou r-s tro ke s a re obvious ly critica l to the future of all manufacturers . Q And what of round fiv e in the Czech Repub lic GP . Four DNF s for the team mu st have b een a very black . da y. ln Czec ho, we ll, th e engi nes brok e, sim ple as that, and we had fou r DNFs. Tha t w as p re tt y mi se rabl e . And it's not like we weren' t ex pecting d a ys li k e th at to ha ppen, because we we re, bu t when it does, it' s jus t so d isap po in ting . And before tha t rou nd Peter had won in Italy and we th o u g h t we h a d every th ing cured, but that ' s racing. Q A Wh at wa s the reason for the f a il u re o f J ohan sson s b ike on the las t lap of the sec o n d m ot o o f round nine at Na mur? A sc rew b ro ke off th e .auto-d ecom pression control, and th en mad e its way i n to th e tim in g cha in, b ut thankfull y Peter was just 20 meters from the finish line! Still, it's fair to say the engine is still very new . It's not even d ue for producti on for another five months. The a uto-de ca m p scre w was the first time we had brok en one, so now we've s tre ngt he ne d it. It ' s a con tinua l learn ing process. A where o here ? Q Sino th earyeartorefrformthe KTMWhat plans e the race 2000? team N ext a KTM fou r- stroke A will beyeridrndth ethe World Champien by Joel Smets a nd Peter Johansso in Q onship, while Shay ne King is going to the Ll.S, to race on the four-stro ke. We are a lso lau nch ing a high-class 125cc team nex t yea r, to sprea d in terest in the KTM prod u ct ra nge across mor e classes than jus t the new four-stroke. A Has the factory been under pressure to meet production deadlines for inclusion of the new fourstro es as 2000 production models? Fro m wha t I can see, the factory appears to be well on sched u le. Ther e doesn't see m to be an y major pr oblem s. I think our bikes now represe nt abo u t 90 percen t producti on -spec on ou r e ngi nes , so I don ' t think the re's too much pressure for th e factory to me et its d eadlines. Th e first week of production is abo u t the third week of November. A Finally, does KTM have an agenda concerning the future structure of the World otocross cha mpionships? There's a lot of conjecture as to what format the motocross GPs should take. We very m u ch su pp ort th e idea of tr ip le-h ead er GPs, w ith all three classes - 125, 250 and 500 - all running on the same d ay. Su re; I see numerous problem s in the way those events will run. Even her e at Luxembou rg wi th two classes we have a progr am running fro m 9:30 a.m . to 7 p.m., so the stru ctu re of the races ca n' t work the sa me. But eventually, this is the wa y KTM, and myself, see it shou ld go. As a racin g com pany we can mu ch mor e easily control our racing activity if we ha ve a ll three cla sses on th e one day , a nd th e events would becom e much bigger wi th greater benefits eN to all concerned. A 0> 0> 0> ~ - a5 1Il ..Q E 1Il C. 1Il UJ 37

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