VOL. 51 ISSUE 11 MARCH 18, 2014 P121
by Suter, and not only because
the 5' 5" tall Salom's riding posi-
tion actually made it feasible for
the 5' 9" me to feel relatively com-
fortable when settling aboard the
diminutive KTM's grippy rubber
seatpad. This after the two Team
Ajo mechanics had lifted the
176-pound bike up and turned it
around to face the track, then de-
posited it on the rear wheel start-
er as if it were a plastic model,
not a real 152 mph motorcycle,
and lit up the engine with a wall
of sound from the Akrapovic twin-
megga exhaust.
The fast 3000 rpm idle, which
helps the tiny slipper clutch coun-
ter any sign of rear wheel chatter
via engine braking and the high
15:1 compression ratio in slowing
for a turn, helps getting off the
mark with no launch control in
the ubiquitous Dell'Orto control
ECU issued by Dorna to all Moto3
teams, but even so you have to
slip the clutch a good deal to build
up momentum from rest.
And momentum is the name
of the game as far as any single-
cylinder racer is concerned,
especially when you have only
a 250cc four-stroke motor to
propel you – although it's worth
pointing out that the 56 hp at
13,800 rpm that this factory KTM
delivers is 10 percent more than
a Manx Norton of twice the ca-
pacity did in still finishing on the
podium in 500cc GP racing 45
years ago.
And with half the weight, too –
in spite of which the KTM felt a
lot more planted and stable than
the much more nervous-seeming
Mahindra I'd ridden not long be-
fore. In terms of stability and sub-
stance, it felt more like a scaled-
down 600cc Supermono than a
scaled-up four-stroke 125cc GP
racer, like the Suter-built bike.
This meant increased rider
confidence, and at the end of
my 10-lap test on the KTM, I was
genuinely sorry I had to give it
back. I was just getting the hang
of riding it.
Compact but not cramped,
the riding stance still wasn't quite
spacious enough for me to get
my helmet tucked away behind
the domed screen and still see
Not quite Moto3 sized, but the
author squeezed on to Luis Salom's
Red Bull KTM at Almeria in Spain.
