Everything KTM thread

Austrian sportsbikes are back! KTM let us loose for a quick spin on their prototype 990RCR​

KTM 990 RCR exclusive road ride


 
They should never have discontinued the RC8R. It was the best and most usable road-going sports bike of its generation. If they're going to reintroduce a sports bike, why not a 200 bhp 1390 using the Superduke engine?
I don't get the trend for all these half-pint sports bikes.

And talking of bikes that never were, why oh why did Ducati not build a full power 1299 V-twin Streetfighter?
 
Dox said:
But other manufacturers do it with more power?
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Fair comment Rich, don't know what HP the 1390 can put out when played with, I'd imagine more than the current crop.
Who knows maybe they will at a later date, there are still rumours of a V4 engined road bike!
 
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There's no need to go mad with the horsepower. It's the 1390 mid range torque that would make it a very fast sports bike. 200 bhp and 110 ft/lb could be achieved with ease. That would be perfectly rideable on the road. Not much different to a 1299 Pani.
 
Gimlet said:
They should never have discontinued the RC8R. It was the best and most usable road-going sports bike of its generation. If they're going to reintroduce a sports bike, why not a 200 bhp 1390 using the Superduke engine?
I don't get the trend for all these half-pint sports bikes.

And talking of bikes that never were, why oh why did Ducati not build a full power 1299 V-twin Streetfighter?
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A man’s bike, not for silly puddings like Noobs….
Hasn’t moved for nigh on 2 years…..
My 1290SDR is how I imagine a 1299 SF would be like.
IMG_5171.webp
 
I guess VW Audi wanted to clear the decks for the V4 who's development they bank-rolled and didn't want any competition for it. Hence bye bye 1299.

A 1299 SF would have been my perfect Ducati. Similar performance but the power delivery and engine characteristics quite different from the big KTM. If money was no object I'd have had one of each.
 
As a stalwart KTM fan I'm rapidly going off the brand. Their bikes are getting uglier by the day, far too much tacky black plastic, far too much electronic interference (and price-hiking) and far too much Chinese manufacturing input.

They also seem intent on making their V-twins feels as un-V-twin-like as possible. There has never been anything wrong with the low-speed rideability of their big V's and the urgent power delivery that came form the brand's competition DNA was why people bought them.
I feel the brand is losing its identity and the ongoing ructions in the company boardroom seem to confirm that.
 
That was what I liked about my old 990. The basic engineering was rock-solid and designed purely with performance in mind. It was just assumed by the company that owners of road bikes, like the competition racers who were KTM's founding clientele, would know how to take them apart and put them back together again, knew how to ride them without an electronic nanny, and would see no problem if oil jets were deployed to cool the piston skirts causing the engine to evaporate oil at the rate of 1 litre every 1500 miles, if it meant the bike went like holy stink and could be thrashed without self destructing, as that, as far as they were concerned, was why you bought a KTM.

If you didn't want to change your own oil every 4500 miles, fit new piston kits to your master cylinders every twelve months, or strip your water pump down, or re-grease your headstock bearings (or even just grease them in the first place), KTM thought there was something the matter with you. We supply all the parts off the shelf at any dealership, they're inexpensive, the tools are under the seat, the owner's manual even tells you how to rebuild your gearbox for heaven's sake (I joke of course, but it wasn't far off that)- whats the problem, just get on with it was their attitude.
It was daft but I kind of liked that. And if you did put the effort in you got an absolute ripper of a bike, as my old 990 SMT was.
The idea that road riders just wanted to ride their bike and put it back in the garage again and leave it to a dealer to do all that mysterious spanner-work once a year just didn't compute with the old KTM.
 
Gimlet said:
That was what I liked about my old 990. The basic engineering was rock-solid and designed purely with performance in mind. It was just assumed by the company that owners of road bikes, like the competition racers who were KTM's founding clientele, would know how to take them apart and put them back together again, knew how to ride them without an electronic nanny, and would see no problem if oil jets were deployed to cool the piston skirts causing the engine to evaporate oil at the rate of 1 litre every 1500 miles, if it meant the bike went like holy stink and could be thrashed without self destructing, as that, as far as they were concerned, was why you bought a KTM.

If you didn't want to change your own oil every 4500 miles, fit new piston kits to your master cylinders every twelve months, or strip your water pump down, or re-grease your headstock bearings (or even just grease them in the first place), KTM thought there was something the matter with you. We supply all the parts off the shelf at any dealership, they're inexpensive, the tools are under the seat, the owner's manual even tells you how to rebuild your gearbox for heaven's sake (I joke of course, but it wasn't far off that)- whats the problem, just get on with it was their attitude.
It was daft but I kind of liked that. And if you did put the effort in you got an absolute ripper of a bike, as my old 990 SMT was.
The idea that road riders just wanted to ride their bike and put it back in the garage again and leave it to a dealer to do all that mysterious spanner-work once a year just didn't compute with the old KTM.
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How bikes should be IMHO :)
 
Barry Hell said:
How bikes should be IMHO :)
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I agree. Once I'd got my SMT properly set up I knew that bike inside out. As a result it felt a part of me like a favourite pair of slippers and I had absolute faith in it. There was nothing I didn't know about it and virtually nothing I couldn't do to it myself, pretty much anywhere.

I'd served the apprenticeship and there was no mystique about that bike. It felt like it was my property in a way that the complex latest generation of untouchable, throwaway bikes don't. PCP may have something to do with this. now, a bike feels like it's leased or borrowed under subscription from the manufacturer and you're not supposed to lay hands on it except to ride it - and then only now and then and in an approved manner. When it goes wrong you give it back and get another one.
With the old raucous, rough-diamond Katoomers you bought them, owned them, learned to fix them, modified them to your needs and kept them forever.
For decades, the same, it must be said was true of Harleys. They were forever bikes which explains a lot about their cult following in a way that Harley haters don't who don't get the point of the bikes and haven't had the ownership experience don't understand.
But in their own way, Harley have drifted in the same corporate direction as KTM.
 
Gimlet said:
I agree. Once I'd got my SMT properly set up I knew that bike inside out. As a result it felt a part of me like a favourite pair of slippers and I had absolute faith in it. There was nothing I didn't know about it and virtually nothing I couldn't do to it myself, pretty much anywhere.

I'd served the apprenticeship and there was no mystique about that bike. It felt like it was my property in a way that the complex latest generation of untouchable, throwaway bikes don't. PCP may have something to do with this. now, a bike feels like it's leased or borrowed under subscription from the manufacturer and you're not supposed to lay hands on it except to ride it - and then only now and then and in an approved manner. When it goes wrong you give it back and get another one.
With the old raucous, rough-diamond Katoomers you bought them, owned them, learned to fix them, modified them to your needs and kept them forever.
For decades, the same, it must be said was true of Harleys. They were forever bikes which explains a lot about their cult following in a way that Harley haters don't who don't get the point of the bikes and haven't had the ownership experience don't understand.
But in their own way, Harley have drifted in the same corporate direction as KTM.
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And in my opinion the pre-Audi Ducatis are there too, more tools in the kit than a Honda, more instruction in the handbook but now you must return to dealer for chain tensioning :rolleyes:

I have a dislike of modern German Engineering so I'm probably biased :) give me Japanese reliability for the cars and Italian bikes :LOL:
 
As a diehard fan of the V2, Ducati and KTM have been my go to brands for the majority of my riding life.
Coming through 3x 990 adv, gen 1 990 sdr, 950 smr, rc8 and 1090 advR, I now have a '21SDR and a '24 SAR
alongside a 1098R and a '16 pani R. The most un V2 is the pani, and tbh I have very little interest in it these days
purely because of that.

Ducati's drift away towards V4 has meant that as far as new bikes go, KTM are now my manufacturer of choice though
I could really do without all of the canbus shite that has made its way into all modern machinery as it kills home maint
in many aspects.

While technology marches on and will be favourably received by many, I watch these unveilings with dread, realising that
what I want from a bike is being phased out in the mass market. No new model SDRs or adventures in my future plans when viewing
KTM's advancing catalogue.

Hopefully there's a few years left of the angry single cylinder SMRs before I hang up the leathers.
 
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990Glen said:
As a diehard fan of the V2, Ducati and KTM have been my go to brands for the majority of my riding life.
Coming through 3x 990 adv, gen 1 990 sdr, 950 smr, rc8 and 1090 advR, I now have a '21SDR and a '24 SAR
alongside a 1098R and a '16 pani R. The most un V2 is the pani, and tbh I have very little interest in it these days
purely because of that.

Ducati's drift away towards V4 has meant that as far as new bikes go, KTM are now my manufacturer of choice though
I could really do without all of the canbus shite that has made its way into all modern machinery as it kills home maint
in many aspects.

While technology marches on and will be favourably received by many, I watch these unveilings with dread, realising that
what want from a bike is being phased out in the mass market. No new model SDRs or adventures in my future plans when viewing
KTM's advancing catalogue.

Hopefully there's a few years left of the angry single cylinder SMRs before I hang up the leathers.
Click to expand...
My experience is the same, my pani 1299 just doesn't feel like a big vtwin like the older bikes, a super machine no doubt but it was definitely a big push away from the long stroke torquey engine of the older bikes and that's why I love my 2020 SDR.. I have never kept my day to day bike 4 years but I just don't see anything pulling at my heart strings as all the tech geekery genuinely puts me to sleep 👍
 
The skitz said:
My experience is the same, my pani 1299 just doesn't feel like a big vtwin like the older bikes, a super machine no doubt but it was definitely a big push away from the long stroke torquey engine of the older bikes and that's why I love my 2020 SDR.. I have never kept my day to day bike 4 years but I just don't see anything pulling at my heart strings as all the tech geekery genuinely puts me to sleep 👍
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You could always buy my Streetfighter. Same power and torque as your SDR but no electronics at all and a 1:1 cable throttle. Hours of harmless fun spannering on the bike ramp fixing things in between the occasional ride full of unplanned wheelies. Ducati-ing like it used to be.
 
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