All the new KTMs for the next three years
Dealer meeting leak reveals everything...
LEAKED on to a forum yesterday is this cameraphone shot from inside KTM's North American dealer meeting – revealing the firm's entire new model plan until 2014.
Just as revealing as the bikes the firm has got planned are those that are missing from the list. According to this there's no new RC8 variation planned before 2015 at the earliest, suggesting that KTM's foray into the world of superbikes isn't going quite as well as it hoped. Indeed, the majority of the new models are in the smaller-engined sectors, fitting perfectly with claims some time ago from KTM boss Stefan Pierer that he believed 'downsizing' was the future when it comes to engine capacity.
It looks like there isn't too much to get excited about in the immediate future; for 2012 there's just a face lift for the Enduro R690 on the list along with a handful of modifications for off road models.
2013 brings the electric Freeride in motocross (SX) and enduro (EXC) forms, plus a Freeride 350 – which seems strange, as the name suggests it has a petrol engine. More likely it's a code term for a higher-powered electric crosser, wither performance in the 350cc league as opposed to the 125-style speed of the initial Freeride models.
A Duke 350, with the joint KTM/Bajaj single-cylinder engine rounds off the smaller new bikes for the year.
In terms of twins, 2013 brings an Adventure R 1090 as a stop-gap model, plus a new Super Duke 1290 which is believed to have a totally new engine and a complete redesign in terms of appearance and its mechanical components.
Further away, in 2014, the Adventure gets the new 1290 engine and KTM promises two new 350cc bikes – an enduro and, intriguingly, a “Moto3”. That bike is likely to be KTM's next sports bike, taking the style of the firm's 250cc Moto3 racer and applying it to a 350cc single-cylinder road-going sports bike. The firm's boss, Stefen Pierer, has been championing the idea of 'downsizing' sports bikes ever since the financial crisis started decimating bike sales in 2008, and this looks like it's the culmination of that ambition; a relatively low-priced machine, with usable performance and handling that only a lightweight sports bike can offer. He'll be hoping it can catch imaginations like the two-stroke 250cc sports bikes of old.
While all this information looks rock solid, there is one notable omission that casts some doubt on whether the list is complete. Earlier this year a totally redesigned Duke 690, with the style of the firm's Stunt concept from a few years ago, was spotted on test several times – looking like it's basically production-ready. And yet there's no mention of the Duke 690, arguably KTM's most important street bike, anywhere on the new-model list. Maybe there's another slide that the canny photographer didn't get a picture of. Let's hope so, and hope it also mentioned some future versions of the RC8, too...
