IT’S EVOLUTION BABY
KTM gave us all brand-new bikes just three years ago. That model line-up still stands up well against the competition, which, let’s face it, on a bike-to-bike ratio is basically just Husqvarna, Sherco and a couple of Yamahas. Beta will get in there too if it keeps on the development path its travelling now, but three of the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturers aren’t in the enduro picture, which is devoid of red, green and yellow.
It’s certainly not unusual for a manufacturer to make big changes after three years of a model run, but I have to admit I was surprised to the amount of changes for the 2020 Katos. The engines are around 60 per cent different from the brand-new displacement-specific engines we got in 2017, which is a big step. The suspension, which we think was better in 2017 than it had been for some time, has also been reworked along with the chassis. From there, a whole host of smaller details have been refined and all come together to make the 2020 range quite a bit different from the class of 2017.
MEET THE MAKERS
One of the great things about a KTM launch is meeting the people that make the bikes. You can talk to the guy that’s been making the engines for years, the guy that makes the chassis and the guy from WP. Then there are the people that have been there for years in development roles and each and every one of them is more than happy to talk about the bikes and how they got them to where they are today. No question is taboo and there are times when you’ll get more info than you really need. For example, I spent a fair while talking to Michael Viertlmayr and reminiscing on how great the 2009 Husaberg FE390 engine was. He designed it and that is still one of my all-time favourite bikes, one which he and I agree would still do well if it were released in 2019.
In all my years in this job, I’ve never had an experience like this when attending the launch of a Japanese bike.
To explain where the bikes are at for 2020, I figured it would be best to let the Austrians explain it in their own words so that you got the picture in the truly unique way that is having it come from the guys that actually design parts of the bike. In particular, we have Michael Viertlmayr (engine) and Rupert Walkner (chassis/suspension) here to take you through what to expect for 2020. Of special interest is the explanation of what’s involved in producing the complex software that runs a modern enduro bike. I asked this question in 2017 but it wasn’t something they were keen on addressing, while this year they decided to give a decent amount of detail on what’s involved. So sit back and enjoy a private session with the engineers.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ‘POWERPACK’
Head of Engine Offroad & Motocross R&D, Michael Viertlmayr
“For 2020 we were targeting an evolutionary approach. We didn’t want to make radical changes
