Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128233
whi ch is very ben eficial! How large is your workforce at KTM, an d is the production line still working ju st a sing le sh ift, like two years ago? We currently em p loy 1 10 0 peo pl e her e in Ma ttig ho fe n and have a tota l of 15 2 0 employ ees wo rldwi de. Here in the m ai n fact o ry we're already runn in g a double-shift system o n on e assem bly line. to check out how it ca n work , so whil e we' re st ill o n ju st o n e shift o n th e ot he r four l ines , t ha t may change soon. But we hav e a tw o-shift sys t em at o ur new engine plant at Mu nd er fi ng , ju st a co up le o f kilo met e rs f r om her e, a n d th e re we hav e 140 em p lo ye es working o n tw o assem bly lin es, o ne for fou r -strokes, both twins and sing les, and th e ot her for tw o -strok es, whi ch are still a big q uantity fo r us. It' s interestin g - her e in this sector we are t ak ing market share aw ay from th e J ap an ese. Alth ou gh th e two -strok e is under pressu re fo r m ot ocross and off -road ra cing , in cl osed co urse even ts it's sti ll very mu ch alive , esp ecially in the 125 t wo-stroke/ 25 0 four-stroke c lass, So we still hav e a lo t of demand for it. I think Honda is ve ry cl ev er to fo cu s on both lines, whereas Yam aha , Kawa sak i a nd Suzuki ju st co nc entrate in the future o n th e fou r-st roke in th e off -ro ad rac ing seg ment. A S well as the new eng in e plant, you 've also c ons t ruct ed a new R&D buil ding oppos it e us here, across th e road from the main fac tory, Will the 125 road racing GP team be moving in here over the winter, instead of being based 20 kilom ete rs ( 1 2 .4 miles ) aw ay at Ha rald Ba rto l's ho m e t own of St rasswalc hen? Yes, we o p e n e d t he R&D b l o ck only a co up le of m onths ago and alr ead y ha ve 140 eng in eer s working in th er e. T en p er c en t of KTM ' s t ot al em ploy ees are working on R&D , w hic h we're alread y qu ite prou d of, bec ause it c re ate s man y , man y new id eas - but that number w il l double in th e next two y e a r s ! T h a t d o esn't i nc l u de ra c e m echanics , ei ther, w ho co me and go accord ing to th e race c alendar. In additi on, we are a l re ady c rea t in g st ro n g links between R&D and th e factory road race tea m - o ur chi ef en g ineer W olfgang Fel ber is th e key ma n in linking Harri's efforts with KTM, and for exam p l e he's aw a y a t Vall e lu nga t oday , attending a 125GP t eam t est. Als o, when we previ ou sly decid ed to under take t he M ot o OP cha ll eng e, we we re fortuna te ly ab le to hir e 15 very ex perie nce d eng in e er s , t e chni c i ans and m echan ics for this pr oj ect - so now that we decided to st o p it , I have 15 ve ry cl ever, very good peopl e read y to t ak e o n o t h e r i nt e r e s ti ng a s s i g n me n t s ! We've in tegrated them in t o th e R&D ope ratio n un d er Wo lfga ng Felber, and I'm sure w e will re ap th e b en efits o f th eir skills in the fu ture. ~ But ne verthe l e s s , y o u d ecid ed ~ n ot to go Mo t oGP racin g in the futu re, after all. Why no t ? There are many reason s, but basically it' s t oo exp en sive for a c om pa ny of KTM' s size to t ak e part c o m petitively with the intenti on of wi nning, which is the wa y w e go r ac i n g. Althoug h we are doing very we ll co m mercia lly an d are the m o st pr ofit abl e motorcyc le co mpany in Eur op e, it costs mu c h too m uch to p r o d u c e w hat's need ed to get on the t o p there \ with a product fa r rem o ved from wha t we a ctuall y sell , o r wil l se ll i n t he fut ur e. Ou r t ot a l bu dg et for Mot oO P is Q A $! ; "" ..'ii! p.; 4 ..,. ( must say th is is a beautiful st ate-of- the -a rt des ig n wh ic h makes th e dec ision to put it in th e refrig erator all the hard er! W e' re stil l o pen to an approa ch fro m one team o r ano ther tha t wou ld like to rent o r even bu y the de sign from us , j ust like in Formu la 1 - but to creat e o ur own team an d do eve ry thing o ur selve s, even w ith th e support of an o utsid e spo nso r, it' s too mu ch . Ho w ab out using the V4 eng ine concept for a streetbike , as you told me back in 2001 you originally intended? Yes, in the long term we 'r e still sticking to th at pl an , even if th e eng ine would still need qu ite a lot of redevel opm ent to transform it into a streetbike m otor, as we always inte nded. Bu t th e firs t ste p is to c reate a wh ol e range of m od els with the new V- tw in eng ine, wh ich still has so m uch pote ntial. We alrea dy hav e th e Adventur e 95 0 in p roduc ti on, and as I tol d yo u, we w ill sta rt pro d uc ti o n of th e Duke 990 next yea r, with a full 10 00c c vers io n of our LC 8 engi ne , whic h co ntinues to be suc ce ssful in off-ro ad rallies as a 950 . But th en after th e Duk e the re's a Superm ot o V2 already in th e p ipe line , and the n we'll co m plet e the V-twin rang e with th e RC8 Superbike, w hich has a l r e a dy co vere d m ore than 40, 000 kil ometers (24 ,800 mil es) in testing and which we wil l d isp lay in pro toty pe form with th e 1000cc engine at this yea r's Tokyo Show , o pe ni ng o n Octob er 24 . T h is began as an outs ide proj ect, wh ich we have now tak en over as a fu ll factory mode l, and w ith the chassis geometry and fram e co nst ruc tio n and so on already test ed , I don't think th ere will be much difference betw een th is ea rly prototyp e and the future pro du ct ion bike, eve n down to th e styli ng , w hi c h we ho p e wi l l ap peal to c ustomers . We beli eve we have achieved a KTM f ami ly loo k tha t is both dis tin ct iv e an d p lea sing . Our st rat egy wa s t o crea te a s pec i fic s ty le o f design , w here by loo k ing at the b ik e, yo u kn ew it co uld o nl y be a KTM. We don 't have any herit age in road bik es, so w e h a v e t o c re ate t hat sta r t i ng fro m zero. When do you plan to launch t he RCB on the m arke t, and do you plan to ra ce it ? We' ll probabl y st art manufacturing it in volum e fo rm in 2006 we'll fo llow th e same strategy as the Du k e, so there mi gh t be a sm all run o f bi k es ea r lie r than t ha t. It has a tubul ar stee l chas sis that looks differ ent fro m ex ist ing mod els fr om other com p anies. and the tube fr ame is a d e l ib e r at e c ho ice b e cau se w e ' re experie nced in thi s sec to r, and it also su its th e fac il ities of our new chassis pl ant o pe n ing nex t ye ar. As far as go ing racing with the b ike - yes, of co urse we must. Sooner o r later we mu st est ab li sh th e lin k ag e between thi s bike and rac in g. foll owing KTM's es ta b l is he d w a y o f d oin g th ings , wh ich has serve d us so we ll. It 's too ea rly now t o sp eci f y a dat e, but we w ill go Superb ik e ra cin g; that's clear. W e w il l ha ve a seri es pr o du cti on str eetbike p rod uct that will be cl osel y ba sed o n the Superbike ra cer, so we must. I H ow about t he cont r ove rs ia l \;)t n ew Wo r l d S u p erb ik e r eg u l a tions an d t he vexed issue of contro l t ires? ln m y o p inion it's a good ste p fo rward . T he new tec hnical regu l at ion s wi ll redu c e costs a nd m a k e priva te tea ms competit ive , bu t t he between Eu ro 15 an d 18 m illion ($ 16. 8 to $20.1 m il lio n ) per year, but we a re d oing ap p ro xim at ely 30 percent of o ur rev enu es in th e USA , where the doll ar went down at lea st 2 0 p ercent in o ne ye ar. Th at m eans we lost aro u nd Eu ro 18 -2 0 m illion ($ 2 0 . 1$22.4 mill ion ) last year j ust o n the excha nge ra t e, and that's m y MotoOP budget go ne . On th e o ne hand I and m y partner s are wo rk ing he re as m anager s, but o n th e other we' re als o t he m ain shareho lder s, so we're riskin g o u r o w n m on ey in thi s - quite apart fr om the fa ct that we hav e the respon sib ility fo r 1500 em ployees, so we have to keep th e co m p any in good shape. Th at's the main rea so n, but in add ition I m ust say th at we now real ize that this high -tech form of tw o wheeled F o rm ul a 1 do es not co nfo rm wi th KTM' s est a b li sh ed pol icy o f se lling t o th e c ust o m er t he bi k es we go racing w ith as a factory - and raci ng is th e main issue fo r KTM : It' s the funda menta l basis of th e co mpa ny , th e root s of our existe nce. We co uld never d o t his w ith o ur Moto OP b ik e - b ut we c an m ak e th e link between goi ng racin g and o ur series producti on str eet m odel s, and th at 's with Su perbike. This is our future . How m u c h h av e y o u inve ste d so fa r in Mo toGP , a nd ho w far down t he lin e has the project go tten? Our tot al in vestment so far is around Euro 8 millio n ( $8 .9 6 m illi on ), an d th e en g ine is nearly ready - we 'll have five 990 V4 eng ines c om p let ed by th e end of September , and we'll definitely run it on th e dyn o to see how good it is befor e putting it in to co ld sto rage . Now tha t it 's t ak in g shape in m eta l, I A i e y e . Ie n Ie UV:S • S EPTEM B ER 24, 2 0 03 23