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/128353
"We're looking at on-road to fuel our growth and are just gettin started on this." In fact, we didn't really understand at the time we launched it that the Adventure 950 was actually our first real street bike; we though t it was a re plica of ou r Paris-Dakar competition enduro, whereas in fact the market to ld us it's a dual-sports road bike . And wh ile we can keep the existing race -orientated model, we have to bring in a second version which is more com fortab le, with a lowe r seat height and the engine changed a little, detai l things like these. Q But a t Intennot, KTM m ade quite a n impression by t a rg e t ing the booming nake d bike ma rket with t hre e new models rat her than just one. What's your thin king behind this? A We wa nted to cover all the bases . The 990 Duke is J'o\more targeted at the fashion segment - it's more hard-edged than the Ducati Monster but still aims at the same kind of lifestyle client. The 950 Supermoto is focused at a cus tomer we're quite use d to dealing with already in the single-cylinder sector, but I expect a lot of Supersport street bike riders will move to this kind of bike in the future. It's still a serious motorcycle that can be ridden very hard, but the insurance costs will be lower. And while speed cameras are a concern for everyone, there isn't the same problem about traffic po lice with such a bike because of the upright riding position, w hich makes them think you're not automatically speeding in the same way as they do ifyou're on a Supersport racer-with- lights capable of 300 kph [ 18S mph] . And then, for the future we have the naked version of our RC8 Superbike, the Venom , which we presented at Inte rmot to see if the market told us we should build it. And it seems we sho uld! Q How do yo u see KTM's deve lo p m ent in the street bike market prog re ssing? A The midterm strategy is to keep a strong footho ld in #-\the off-road sec tor, retaining our market share while developing the twin-cylinder on-road range, which we expect to total around 25,000 units annua llyfor KTMwithin t he next fo ur years. Because of the weak do llar, we expect our off-road prod uction to level out at 6S,OOO bikes a year from 12Scc upwards - so we're looking at on-road to fuel our future growth and are just getti ng started on this. First came the Adventure 950, and now we have the 990 Duke just entering production, with the first batch of I 100 bikes being built right now, which we can then increase depending o n demand - we have no real idea if the market sees us as a street bike man ufacturer in the future, but of course we hope so! T he n next comes the 9S0 Supennoto, which was originallyinten ded to be a 2006 model, but we had such a fantas tic response to the bike when we launched it at Intermot , with so much demand fo r it, we rea lized we must bum p t his up to 'OS - so we'll make the first batch of 1200 bikes ready to go on sale in April next year. T he target price will be less than the higher-performance 990 Duke. so under 12,000 euros. But then comes the RC8 Superbike, wh ich we launched as a kind of co nce pt bike at the Tokyo Show last year, and for us the response was literally incred ible . Before the show, I really wasn't sure we ought to ma nufacture it, because I was afraid the day of the tw in-cylinde r Supe rbike was over. Nothing of the kind! We got so many emails from peo ple who wan ted to ord er o ne, so ma ny magazine fro nt covers fro m all around the world, that I had the co nfidence to proceed with the preproduction pro totype, which we already built and are working on now. We w ill bring it to the marke t in calendar year '07, so ex pec t to see the finished version at Intermot 200 6! And again in response to the feedback we had after we showed it th is year at Munchen, I can confirm the Venom naked version will definitely go into production, and at the same time as the RC8 Superbike - it makes sense to launch them together, since they're t he same base product but with different styling, so will benefit from the economy of scale without stealing sales one from another. Q But su rely you're no t downgrading your offroad involvement? A Definitely not - just that we're treading water in terms Hof market share until the dollar recovers. But we expect a lot of sales for our new 2S0 four-stroke off-road range, which is a very important product fo r us, and we're worki ng already on a very, very nice 4S0cc concept, which Kurt Trieb is doing , who created the V4 MotoGP engine for us. I think this may very we ll set a new benchmark in off-road racing, as a high-end , pure race motocross engine w ith all the stuff taken off you don 't need, like a kickstart, and with many features derived from MotoGP - not pneu mat ic valves, but a very different approach to designing this kind of engine. This will be ready to appear next year and w ill set the new standard for factory-level competition in off-road Grand Prix racing. But though it's a very nice concept, it' ll be too expensive for the average customer. We've already seen our costs escalate so much in motocross, where racing with a single-cylinder four-stroke is four times more ex pensive in terms of materials and maintenance than with a twostroke. Four times! And with four-strokes, Ialready expect costs to go up another SO-pe rce nt more in the future. So, if this is happening anyway, we might as wellgo racing w ith really nice, really trick eq uipment - and that's what Trieb's MX I 4S0 will be . Th is is why KTM trie d so hard to maintain the presence of the two-stroke in the ma rketplace. and it was very satisfying indeed for us to win the MX2 Worl d title this season with our 2S0cc four-stroke and to have our 12Scc two-stroke second in the champ ionship. Now the Japanese have come back to two-strokes, also, which we' re very pleased about. Q Aprilia has already beaten you in terms of tricK offroad equipment, though, with its 450cc V-twin www.cy cleneW5.com MX I bike and its 55 0cc S u pennoto ve rsi o n. Did KTM join the move m e nt t o try t o pe rs uade t he FIM t o hav e t hese ba n ned? A We know from our own experience with the LC8 in Mdese rt rallies that using a tw in-cylinder bike increases costs by between 30 percent a nd SOpercent compared to a single. So, we already agreed in the off-road MSMA discussions with the four Japanese, Husqvarna and KTM - not Aprilia - that there shou ld be a single-cylinder concept fo r all off-road competition, except for Supermoto, where we th ink the twin-cylinder idea is nice. Leaving th is will allow Aprilia to keep on developing this engine, if they wish - but we strongly recommended to the FIM that they shou ld restrict motocross and enduro and rallies to just singlecylinder bikes to hold down costs. But because of the Italian connection in the FIM, it seems they didn't yet take the decision to implement t his, although they have a clea r mandate to do so from the existing manufacturers in this fonn of competition. But this kind of engine with a little bigger displacement. like 600 or 650cc for example, could make a very nice street bike, however - so maybe Aprilia shou ld concentrate on making this kind of bike with it! Q So good, that KTM m ight be interested in mak ing someth ing like this?! A Let's just say that we already had some d iscussio ns Mhe re in Mattighofen abo ut that , and we think it's a good co ncept - but only as a 60 0cc narrow-a ngle Vtwin, no t any smalle r in capacity. It d o esn't ma ke any se nse as a 45 0. Q Spe aking of V-twin Supermotos, yo u a lread y have such a bike under development, only as a 950, not a nyth ing smaller! Do you plan to make a race version of this, maybe for a one-make series, since t he re isn ' t a class for bikes that big in S u pennoto at present? CYCLE NEWS • DECEMBER 8, 2004 31