M is acquiring a growing re putation for doing it differe ntly on
the stree t equa lly as well as it
dominates on the dirt - thanks to
the Aust rian kings of the o ffroa d secto r's growi ng expertise at th inking
outside the box of conventional mode l niches
and forging new ones - by focusing on th e
improbable and making the unli kely happe n.
So, at t he re cent Intermot 2004 show in
Munich, th e KTM stand, w hich was by
K
common co nsent an icon of innovation in a
large ly bland overall disp lay (yama ha,
Triumph, Blmot a, Suzuki and BMW, all hon o rab ly exce pted) that offe red little in the
way of outright novelty, pres en ted three
different takes on the burgeo ning V-twin
Nakedsports sec tor, each very different
on e from t he othe r. Collect ively, the trio of
KTM nud iebikes offe red a scatte rgun .
bespoke-tailored app roa ch to the grow ing
importance of the clot hes-off sport bike
ma rket - as in, don't care for that mod el?
Would sir or madam perhaps care for th is
one? O r possibly we co uld interest you in
t he one over there? You get the picture.
Head ing up the array of innovations was
the 990 Supe rD uke ultra-Monste r spo rt
12
NOVEMBER 17,2004 •
rod, just now entering production for
2005, while at the oth er e nd of t he scale
t he forthcoming RCB Supe rb lke's raz o redge bod ywo rk had bee n removed to
cr eat e
th e
w hite
Venom
Nakedsport. Both o f t hese will
comm ence manufacture simultane ous ly for t he 200 7 mod el year - but in
betw ee n for 2006 will come KTM's th ird ,
equally distinct ive Inte rmot ite ratio n on
t he naked ro adst er theme , the 95 0
Supemoto. Th is mod el is distant ly de rived
from th e firm's good-se lling e nduro e nt ry
into the multicylinder marke t, the 950
Adventure , of whic h BOOO have so far been
built and sold in th e first tw o yea rs of production. As th e on ly one of the th ree
Naked options at least putat ively de rived
from KTM's dirt bike he ritage, this is t he
one you might have expected KTM to
make, at least on paper. As a visit proved to
t he com pa ny's extensive R&D cent er
op posite its modern, efficient Mattighofe n
fact o ry just no rth of Salzburg, whe re I was
able to beco me t he first ou tsider to ride
the pro totype of the new bike on th e
street - complete with unpainted , just delivered, preproduction fuel tank! - KTM
C YC LE NEW S
With the new 950
5uperMoto, KTM has
quickly found another
w ay to put its intriguing
L V-twin engine to
ea
good use.
