July 18, 201511 yr According to CEO Stephan Pierrer, KTM is looking into developing a trial bike in the next two years. I for one, am very curious what they come up with.
July 18, 201511 yr If they really do so I hope they will again "collect" some good riders and trials bike "engineers" as they did for their first bike they made in the 70's. With Felix Krahnstöver and Walter Luft they had back then a good rider and a good bike "engineer" that developed a very good bike that was sadly never sold to public. Walter Luft is btw still riding trials. I'am very curious if they do and then might really by a modern bike again. My thumps up if they try and will come up with something new in trials. The 250 freeride is already a good trails bike, (tested it !!!) and KTM is on the right path I think. Edited July 18, 201511 yr by pschrauber
July 18, 201511 yr Buying a brand would be more logical, and is in lign with stephans acquisitions so far, but we will see. I think developing a total bike will need a full time ''todays'' trialist and a lot of R&D investment. I think it does suit the company, however I dont know if its enough of a potential money machine for KTM. Edited July 18, 201511 yr by crazybond700
July 18, 201511 yr Time will tell there are as usual many option to develop a bike IF they will do a production run. I haven't read the comment from KTM's CEO. I think when they will build one it will be a real KTM and the bike will use components from the engine to the suspension as with all bikes from them. (still a guessing just from history their bike development) Edited July 18, 201511 yr by pschrauber
July 18, 201511 yr KTM & Beta have ties, was told at 1 stage that Beta was given a hand with the design of their 4t trials bike as at the time the enduros still ran KTM motors. I could see KTM making a decent trials bike, they don't miss the mark very often & seem to have more free thinkers in the company than others as shown by the freerides
July 18, 201511 yr KTM doesn't need to buy the GasGas name for brand recognition. They will probably sell more bikes to KTM enduro and MX riders as cross trainers than GasGas sold to pure trials riders. This has the potential to be great for the sport. Edited July 20, 201511 yr by dan williams
July 19, 201511 yr ktm buys gg rights. They produce nothing trials for a year. They then copy the frame geometry and throw a 4t ktm motor stealing Beta design and add expensive parts. In the market, but not a really good machine. Price? 9 thousand plus. Business model same as Husqvarna buyout.
July 19, 201511 yr Why would they want GG ? They have good engineers who could easily develop a trials bike and lets face it, it isn't too hard is it.. Forks/ suspension/ wheels/ brakes/clutch/electrics are all bought-in items with the only bespoke items to design being the chassis and the engine. They would take some work to design and develop but that's really the extent of it and KTM could do that without too many problems. I would think punters would get excited if KTM say they are going to build a bike of their own from scratch but not if they bought GG and dished out the same machine we already know, that wouldn't excite any punter IMHO Edited July 19, 201511 yr by atomant
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