Everything KTM thread
- Thread starter Noobie
- Start date
I have a house for getting drunk inDunno, who ever built them stairs has never been shitfaced drunk before
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Where's the panzer skitzy? In the shed as she's an ugly Betty?
Went to buy the SDR 1290
For some reason I thought you'd kept her!Went to buy the SDR 1290
Of course it still exists, we have a good few community members who own Austria's finest and ride them too, ya big jessie
He’s had 2 Triple Blacks, he never talks about it though….
So is that the end of KTM then? To many people with wrecked engines and now bankruptcy ?
I have not heard of a single engine failure in their modern bikes
the absolutely shite electrics on the other hand, I know of no customer here that hasn't had a bike throw up a stupid fault and send a bike into limp mode.. Despite the interweb full of such complaints and chat ktms abysmal denial of any of this is more likely to finish them. Classic example is I went in to have the switch gear changed on my SDR about 2 months ago.. Nah mate they don't give hassle my response is what shite are you talking this is my 3rd switch you have replaced.. Cost for a handlebar switchgear is 590 euro retail 
The last great bikes they made were the gen 1 1290 Superdukes and the 1190 advs. And of course, all the old 990s. Never heard of a single serious problem with them. Lots of silly niggles that were easily fixed but the basic engineering was simple and sound. When the 1290 Super adv came out the electronic problems started with the TFT dash and keyless system and built from there. Now they're throwing more and more of this electro-bollox at every new edition before they've got the last one to work properly.I have not heard of a single engine failure in their modern bikes
You can't work on KTMs at home anymore where they used to be one of the best makes for home maintenance and the company expected and encouraged owners to work on their own bikes with excellent parts back-up. And now they're building them in China...
My bike ain't Chinese but the electrics and back up is fucking horrific Austrian ain't any better
How long do they typically last or fail and should I order a spare just in case?I have not heard of a single engine failure in their modern bikes
All good here so far, but it's been but a few months on a Gen3. I occasionally get an error if I don't power it up correctly. Like if I happed to shut off or stall (once) and try to start, it'll throw some weird error. Shutting off, dismounting then restarting fixes it.
7 months ownership, no problems to report, she loosening up nicely, oo-er missus 
It does seem that in the international press that KTM is close to collapse, but as CF moto and Bajaj who have interest with KTM have not been mentioned.
Only Pierer AG seem to be doing all the shouting, dismissing board member and decimating the factory production staff, down to a single shift and the factory closed for Jan and Feb 2025!
Only Pierer AG seem to be doing all the shouting, dismissing board member and decimating the factory production staff, down to a single shift and the factory closed for Jan and Feb 2025!
Pierer Mobilty AG who are a public listed company, albeit only 25% of the shares are in the public domain, and who own KTM are majority owned by Pierer Bajaj AG who are 50% owned by Bajaj who are probably India’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer. I’m sure KTM will survive but I suspect they’ll be taken private, shareholders in PM will be wiped out and the Pierer part of PB will become a drastically reduced shareholding with Bajaj being the majority shareholder. All in return for the massive cash injection KTM needs coming from Bajaj’s cash reserves.
Oh, and MV will probably be sold off.
Oh, and MV will probably be sold off.
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Code for we bought way too many brands and companies and made a complete bollocks of everything.... Back in the early noughties they couldn't handle production of both road and dirt bikes yet heaped more pressure on themselves
. I love the self administration bit
Its not difficult to see where its all going wrong so hopefully they can sort their shit out sooner rather than later.
They make too many models with very little difference - 20 enduro models, 17 motocross models, thats before we get into the street stuff.
Because of the number of variants, they have masses of stock in the market to represent it each year. This leaves a disproportionate number
of unsold units each year, which they then throw out at cut throat prices both losing them money and also devaluing the brand, while at the
same time fucking off owners who paid full price 6 months earlier. Trade ins then get butchered so folk who used to renew every year or two now
wait 3-4 yrs (this is where I am now with my SDR).
Quality/reliability has undoubtedly gone down hill, though I have yet to experience this personally.
Rinse and repeat for the sub brands such as Husky and GasGas.
MV - what can you say about them. No one has managed to make that business work in 4 decades.
Bikes in general are pricing themselves out of the economy ( base prices, insurance, servicing). The market is screwed as shown by the multiple
dealer collapses. Manufacturers need a sharp range with on point pricing and top line quality and support. Without that, pack up and go home.
( Last ducati I bought was a pani '15 R. I had a year of shit with it spending more time in the dealers than with me. After one year of fault tracing
Ducati gave up and gave me a '16. That experience and the advent of the V4 focused range finished new Dukes for me)
They make too many models with very little difference - 20 enduro models, 17 motocross models, thats before we get into the street stuff.
Because of the number of variants, they have masses of stock in the market to represent it each year. This leaves a disproportionate number
of unsold units each year, which they then throw out at cut throat prices both losing them money and also devaluing the brand, while at the
same time fucking off owners who paid full price 6 months earlier. Trade ins then get butchered so folk who used to renew every year or two now
wait 3-4 yrs (this is where I am now with my SDR).
Quality/reliability has undoubtedly gone down hill, though I have yet to experience this personally.
Rinse and repeat for the sub brands such as Husky and GasGas.
MV - what can you say about them. No one has managed to make that business work in 4 decades.
Bikes in general are pricing themselves out of the economy ( base prices, insurance, servicing). The market is screwed as shown by the multiple
dealer collapses. Manufacturers need a sharp range with on point pricing and top line quality and support. Without that, pack up and go home.
( Last ducati I bought was a pani '15 R. I had a year of shit with it spending more time in the dealers than with me. After one year of fault tracing
Ducati gave up and gave me a '16. That experience and the advent of the V4 focused range finished new Dukes for me)
I think the old KTM died around 2015. Before that the Ready To Race tag actually meant something, in that before then you could feel the competition heritage in everything they made. They were about raw performance from raw bikes that were built around solid engineering but which required a degree of owner input. You could feel their products were built by race engineers, not accountants in a board room. They expected you to know how to ride them and how to maintain them, and if you didn't that was your fault.
That ethos was most evident with the old 990's. There were some down sides: 4500 miles service intervals, designed-in high levels of oil evaporation, and frequent fettling to keep them on song. The give-away was the most comprehensive under-seat tool kit in motorcycling (you even got a bottle opener...) and the ready availability of every single spare part down to the last nut, bolt and washer in dealers.
They dipped their toe into corporate waters in 2013/14 when they brought out the 1190 Adv and the gen 1 1290 SDR. Enough fancy tech to make them competitive with the other big name road bike brands but with the old batshit, buzz saw KTM spirit still intact. Thereafter they went full automotive giant, loaded their bikes with price-inflating tech and started playing the Ducati and BMW game of charging vast sums for "extras" which basically meant spending an extra £700 to have some electronic gadget that was already in the bike activated by plugging it into a computer at a dealer. After that they went tech-mad, prices went skyward and bikes became harder and harder for owners to maintain at home. Basically they went from selling keepers built by engineers to boardroom-designed throwaway bikes to be traded in every three years under PCP and marketed at riders who didn't know how to ride them or which end of a spanner to hold.
The warning signs were there with the gen 1 SDR where they cut a lot of corners on R&D and with the gen 1 TFT 1290 Adv's which were plagued by electronic clitches. They even abandoned their orange livery. Their bikes got uglier, more expensive and over-complex. IMO their corporatisation has meant they've lost the one thing that set them apart.
Agree that they've deffo moved away from user maintainable, but to be fair most new bikes need some level of plug in interaction
to keep on top of them.
As I said, unlike some I have had no issues with the newer bikes, but I have had a couple of Friday afternoon KTMs which I traded
out of. Gen 1 RC8 and the carbed 950 SMR. Both of them had long running problems that took the enjoyment out of riding.
This was long before the corporate tranformation. I think the difference then was that KTM/dealer network would happily give the bikes
parts and workshop time to solve issues. This doesnt seem to be the case as often now, unfortunately, and with premium pricing
people rightly expect premium support.
to keep on top of them.
As I said, unlike some I have had no issues with the newer bikes, but I have had a couple of Friday afternoon KTMs which I traded
out of. Gen 1 RC8 and the carbed 950 SMR. Both of them had long running problems that took the enjoyment out of riding.
This was long before the corporate tranformation. I think the difference then was that KTM/dealer network would happily give the bikes
parts and workshop time to solve issues. This doesnt seem to be the case as often now, unfortunately, and with premium pricing
people rightly expect premium support.
With the more corporate structure, there will no doubt have been a bunch of managers brought in, with all the expenses that they bring.
I wonder how many of them are getting laid off.
When I was at the Ducati factory in 2019 there were rows and rows of high end Audis in the car park - management cars.
I wonder how many of them are getting laid off.
When I was at the Ducati factory in 2019 there were rows and rows of high end Audis in the car park - management cars.
Another similar take on the bike industry ;
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