Agreed. I find it hard to believe you can sell over 100,000 bikes, and build them all to a crappy level of content. I do not own a KTM, so am unable to offer any further insight.
With all due respect you certainly are entitled to your opinion and I respect it and listen. While all the bikes that are made today must certainly be ok. You may need your head examined if you think in a true torture test a KTM engine is as bullet proof as a Husqvarna. Sorry dude Iv'e seen to much. While I certainly rode that 13 150 KTM and can not say anything real bad about it, the fact remains the Husky smallbore felt throatier and better and If I held the two bikes wide open till one would blowup I can assure you 29 out of 30 times it in fact would be the KTM. Case closed. I also understand from a business perspective to share the same componets etc.... However what really is the point? REBIRTH? What a bloody joke. Rebirth of a pumpkin. The more I think about it the more irritated I get. Yea sure from a purist point at least the name lives on. Yea, on a restamped engine sidecase bolted on a KTM engine. Sorry I don't think so. While I will certainly help any man who is down or hurt or needs water or tools. I of course will run one of those bikes over without hesitation as I would the other. Sorry. Just me. I have friends of course who ride KTM and we have learned to tolerate one another. They are brainwashed in their own way as I am in mine. Who is really right. Who knows. If my funds permit I will keep my 13 WR 144 and grab a 14 CR and won't have to worry about things for awhile. And since I'am approaching 50 fast I can probably sandbag super senior A and end my racing on a ITALIAN HUSQVARNA and start my boy off on to his on a PW 50........ It's all good and no hard feelings but please don't make me laugh in the fact you really may think a KTM engine can hold up like a Husky. Very funny and have a nice day..............................
No offense, but people that want a lighter than current 650s Adventure bike just don't GET what an Adventure bike IS. It's NOT a dirt bike. You will NEVER see a 240lb, 12" suspension travel, pannier sporting, 500lb load capacity (including rider) ADV bike. NEVER.
I ride with gobs of KTM guys and have seen it all too. The KTM 200, 250 and 300 hold up very well. The 125 and 150 are semi fragile. The very old husky motor is a robust design and holds up better than any 125 I know of. All bikes have pluses and minuses and IMHO the KTM is a very well built machine. Raced and winning at the highest levels. I'd venture to say the KTM350 motor might outlast and be better built than the 310. The old KTM RFS was a super solid motor and the new ones are not bad ether. Agree to disagree.
Bzzzzzt! neither of those support ADV bike payloads. You're just proving my point. You people keep trying to make a dirt bike an ADV bike - the two can never meet. A dirt bike is light and by being so, it sacrifices frame strenght and sub frame strength to save weight. That strength is required by an ADV bike to handle carrying all the stuff you need for true ADV riding. Not only that, a 600 mile service interval doesn't cut it for ADV use.
Disagree. I think people just have different ideas on what a adventure bike is and what you want to do with it. The ones I posted are at one extreme. The 600 pound land yacht's are the other. Those guys on the KTM 500 are for sure on an adventure.
Well, that counts me out from what some believe is ADV riding. I don't want a fat pig of a bike, that I can carry a wardrobe on. In the late 70s, through into the 80s, I travelled up and down much of the east coast of Australia and interior of that, on a DT175, and then an XL185S, and then various XRs. I didn't need a 'big' bike then, neither would I now. Lets see if Honda gazump KTM / KTvarna et al, and get a mainstream (as in $10,000 / $12,000, not 30,000 Euro) , production 450 ADV bike out. The CCM looks good too, but it's not going to get the 450 ADV market 'shaking'. Go look at 'Lois on the Loose", and from there, her husbands sites / videos, to see ADV on bikes that are far from 'supertankers'.
It's funny how often I see that "you're just proving my point" line when the posting / video has done precisely the opposite. Seems to be a fair few people out there, that don't look / can't understand what is shown, and done. Blokes can ride their land yachts, others can ride a scooter great distances. An ADVenture, on a motorcycle of your choice, is what You make of it.
You can label these bikes anyway you want to, but the term 'adventure bike' is a big selling term in the biking world today. It will continue to be applied as seen fit by sellers till something else is better. Myself, I usually ride my dirt bike as far as I can in a single day and return home each day on it before dark ... What bike is better for that than a TC250 Husky?
Just need a "DS" type super moto, around 4 - 500cc, plated, E3 (WITH p/u potential), preferably NOT in orange to make me happy.
I don't care about labels. I'm just gonna ride my plated enduro race dual sport te310 with replica stickers on an adventure to the dealer to tell them it's not a dual sport, and the gears are too close and the tyres are dangerous on the road. Then tell them to remap it to open pipe and chuck on an Akra before I call the police to complain about the over oiled air filter that I can't get to with out moving the overweight battery.
That's right Ray. Its a marketing phrase. All of a sudden guys NEED aluminum panniers for their work shoes and umbrella and laptop.
Amen to that - The WR300 is a very competitive bike. Really the only thing it needed was a 6 speed tranny. Don't need that in the eastern part of the country. I can live with or without an E-start.
Not really.... Friend raced a '10 WR300 in the ECEA Enduro Series and ended up putting a WR360 6 speed in it. A stock geared KX250 2T could out run it on a South Jersey sand road.
I'm afraid I'll have to call you on that. I have two buddies that have KX250 (one is a 2003 Model the other is a 2005) Both run the B-open class. I can SMOKE both of them (with just 5 gears) There is nothing slow about my WR300. I kept the stock gearing and added a flywheel weight - that solved the the stalling in tights woods. If I was out west - I would put the 6th gear. I sorry - but something is wrong with your friends bike.
Nothing wrong with the guys bike, top of his class A rider. The WR isn't slow, but the KX had more top end legs plain and simple. Call me on it if you want... I don't ride in Arkansas and you don't ride in South Jersey.
I'm sorry that I don't believe you - it's just that I've only have had about five KX250s - none had more top end than the two WR300 I have owned. Don't seem to have any problem "out-dragging" any around here either. I must be living right or something. Must be the atmospheric conditions on this side of the Mississippi. P.s. I have rode in New Jersey - just like the terrain in Southern Arkansas / Louisiana /Red river Area. Thick brush and sandy ground.
