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An Analysis of KTM’s MotoGP Entry for 2017

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The news that KTM would be building a MotoGP machine has been public since the beginning of August. In an interview with the German website Speedweek, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer confirmed that the Austrian manufacturer would be building a V4 MotoGP machine ready for the 2017 season.

KTM’s MotoGP plans were confirmed again last weekend at Misano. KTM’s head of motorsport Pit Beirer told the MotoGP.com website that they would indeed be building a MotoGP bike, and that work on the machine had already started.

The bike, Beirer told MotoGP.com, would be a V4, would use a steel trellis frame, just as their Moto3 machines do, and would be kitted with WP suspension. Design work on the bike was already underway, with the bike scheduled to make its debut on track “at the end of next summer,” Beirer said.

There would be no prospect of an early entry, however. The bike is to be prepared for the 2017 season, with testing going on from late 2015 onwards. The bike would be designed around the Michelin tires, which will be replacing Bridgestone as the spec tire from 2016 onwards.

The bike would also be designed with the spec electronics and unified software package in mind, which is also to be compulsory from the 2016 season.

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Bikes

Electric: The KTM Freeride E is Finally Ready for Primetime

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KTM is finally ready to bring its electric dirt bike, the KTM Freeride E, to the general public, after pump-faking the machine at EICMA three years ago. During that rather large time gap, KTM has realized the errors of its initial design, and has since opted for a liquid-cooled PMAC electric motor, which puts out 21.5hp and 31 lbs•ft of torque.

The Lithium-ion battery pack has also been refined, and is now easily swapable (lift-up the seat, and unscrew four screws). With about an hour’s worth of riding time, according to the KTM wristwatches, the integrated battery and BMS unit has 2.6 kWh on-board, and fully charges in 80 minutes (80% in 50 minutes) when hooked up to the KTM quick charging system.

The Austrians are making two electric models available: the enduro KTM Freeride E-XC and the supercross KTM Freeride E-SX. So far, it looks like the machines are only available in Europe, where KTM has its electric E-Park riding parks. A supermoto is expected as well for the 2015 model year. Pricing for the Freeride E-SX is set at €10,995 in Germany (VAT included), while the Freeride E-XC will cost €11,295.

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News

KTM Sets Sales Record During First-Half of 2014

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KTM continues to challenge BMW Motorrad as the top European motorcycle manufacturer (by sales volume), and has set a company record for sales in the first half of this year.

Selling 70,469 units in total, KTM is just shy of the 70,978 mark left by BMW Motorrad during the same sales period, so it will be interesting to see if the Austrian brand can close the gap in the final six months, as it has done the previous two years.

Friendly competition aside, the news is quite positive for KTM. The six-month sales figure represents a nearly 28% increase in unit volume, while top-line revenue is up 17.6% (€410.3 million, a record as well) and bottom-line income (EBIT) is up whopping 82.6% (€33.6 million). KTM has also increased its ranks by 204 people during the first half of 2014.

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MotoGP

Q&A: Alex Rins — On the Changes of Moto3

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Alex Rins is one of the rising stars of Moto3. Rins is part of the generation which, along with Alex Marquez and Jack Miller, the factory bosses in MotoGP are looking to shake up the premier class in the future.

After a strong season last year aboard the KTM in 2013, when he won six races, Rins has had a tougher season in 2014, now riding a Honda. On the podium just four times until Silverstone, a win had so far eluded him when we spoke to him on Thursday at Silverstone. That all changed on Sunday, when he finally won his first race of the season.

We covered quite a lot of ground with Rins, despite his protestations that he did not speak very good English. Rins spoke simply, but clearly of his year so far with the Honda, comparing it with the KTM he rode for the Estrella Galicia team last year.

He talked of the difficulty of winning in Moto3, because of how close the field is at the front, and how that caused him to cheer a lap too early at Brno. And we touched briefly on his future, and the interest Yamaha showed in him to go straight to MotoGP.

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2015 Husqvarna FS 450 – Husky Returns to Supermoto

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We don’t cover a lot of dirt biking here at A&R…maybe it has something to do with the name, I dunno. What helps change that though is when a manufacturer puts some 17″ racing slicks on their dirt models, and makes a proper supermoto out of it — as Husqvarna has just done.

Announcing the 2015 Husqvarna FS 450, the Swedish brand is making a return to the supermoto segment, thanks to its new Austrian owners. Based on the Husqvarna FC 450 motocross bike, the new supermoto model is of course a reworked KTM in disguise, though we doubt anyone will be too bothered by that fact.

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Bikes

This Isn’t the 2015 KTM 390 Adventure, But It Is Coming

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The autumn trade shows, INTERMOT and EICMA, are nearly upon us, and that means a plethora of new bikes are just weeks away from being unveiled to the public.

Some of the bikes we have seen coming for some time now, like the Ducati Scrambler and BMW S1000F (or whatever BMW plans on calling it); other bikes we have only just learned about, like the Yamaha TDM-09 (as the press is calling it) and the Suzuki GSX-S1000; and then there are the motorcycles we can only speculate about.

However, no machine has been more leaked, rumored, and anticipated than the KTM 390 Adventure. Like its sport bike counterpart, the KTM RC390, the smaller adventure bike is built around the KTM 390 Duke platform.

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Report: UK Confirms KTM 1290 Super Adventure Model

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British website Visordown is reporting that KTM UK has confirmed the recently spied KTM 1290 Super Adventure as a 2015 model, saying that adventure-tourer will sit alongside the company’s current 1190 Adventure models, as a more premium offering of the ADV bike.

Fitted with what we presume will be a variant of the KTM 1290 Super Duke R’s engine, the 2015 KTM 1290 Super Adventure boasts a larger engine displacement, as the name suggests, which accounts for the larger air vents on the bike’s bodywork as well.

KTM UK says that the machine will have more luxury than the current Adventure bikes, likely similar to how the Ducati Multistarda 1200 Granturismo sits in Ducati’s lineup.

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Bikes

KTM 1290 Super Adventure — A New Beast from Austria?

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It wasn’t too long ago that we showed you what appeared to be an updated KTM 1190 Adventure for the 2015 model year. The bike had all the bits that we’ve seen on the KTM 1190 Adventure R, though the Austrian brand had noticeably reworked the fairing to allow for more air to flow through the machine.

Getting a spy shot today though, we can understand the reason why, as the model is seen wearing a “KTM 1290 Super Adventure” livery, giving a nod to the likelihood that KTM has upgraded the Adventure with the Super Duke’s “beast” of a 1,301cc v-twin engine.

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News

US Motorcycle Sales Up 4.0% in Q2 2014

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The US economy has been slow to recover, and so too has the US motorcycle market. With first-quarter sales down 0.3% this year though, it looked like the US motorcycle market was about to flatline.

Thankfully, that has not been the case in Q2 of 2014, as the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) is proud to report that US motorcycle sales are up 4.0% in the second quarter of this year.

Selling 169,111 units in Q2 2014 (6,585 more than in 2013), motorcycles sales in the US so far this year are now up 2.6%, with 263,833 units sold so far in 2014.

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KTM Announces Plans to Enter MotoGP in 2017 with a V4-Powered KTM RC16 Race Bike

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Speaking to Speedweek, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer announced that the Austrian company will be entering the MotoGP World Championship in 2017. KTM will race with a brand new machine that features a V4 engine and will be called the KTM RC16.

Pierer said that KTM will debut the V4 engine in May of 2015, and begin testing and developing the RC16 later that year — KTM may even wild-card the race bike during the 2016 season. Perhaps the biggest news though is that KTM plans to produce up to 100 units of the KTM RC16 race bike, which will be available to the public for a cool €150,000 to €200,000 (likely in the same way privateers can purchase a lower-spec machine than KTM’s Moto3 racer).

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