KTM

[grog]

What a mess. A years worth of unsold bikes, hundreds of MV similar story. Workers not getting paid. Moto 2&3 teams, Husquvarna & GasGas disbanded. Motors no good on certain street bikes,inferior metal🤷. Guess they are made by CF Moto. Not sure how this will end up.

[seth]

It's all quite sad really
I know a few folk with ktm adventure bikes and when they work they are great but have poor reliability and even worse the customer service is worse than that.
Unfortunately they seam to have expanded way beyond their income and stretched them selves to far .
I do hope they can turn things around and keep going as the GP bikes were competitive.
The ones I feel most sorry for are their employees as none of this is their fault .

[Globalrider]

Brother has a few KTMs and confirms their service royally sucks!

[Daaef]

I had a 1290 Super Duke and it was awesome until it wasn't. Gearbox grenaded itself at 13k kms and was up for about $10k in parts alone to fix it. After a couple of months KTM eventually came to the party on covering part costs but I traded the bike in when it was going to be another 4m lead time.

[Tony Nitrous]

I've know a few guys who have owned them, but unlike folk I know with Japanese bikes none were brand loyal. Most have moved back the Japanese bikes.

Suzuki, Kawasaki etc have had quite a few recalls, but it's almost all just preventative and safeguarding owners for the future.

KTM seems to be more about waiting for stuff to let go.

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2024/july/ktm-camshaft-defects/

[lurch]

It's an interesting one for sure. I've had a few KTM's through my hands over the years and still own several.

It's amazing that I've managed to dodge all these reliability issues I keep hearing about actually. Must be something to do with me maintaining them at a level somewhere between a Jap bike and Ducati. My KTM adventure bikes cover big distances and get ridden in properly remote locations (e.g. Simpson Desert) without hesitation.

[Andre]

Been a few years. Test rode a KTM Adventure (900 or 950). It was lots of fun as soon as I got off the paved roads. Very impressive. On the road was no fun due mostly to the off-road tires.

I am sorry for the employees, many of whom put their hearts into the products.

Not sorry for the top level management who decided to go to bed with a chinese company. And I hate when management goes for short-term profits and mainly think of their personal benefits. I hate it when companies go on the stock market. That makes it very difficult to make wise decisions. Combine chinese and stock market and it is only a matter of time when things go to trash.

[Andre]

I've know a few guys who have owned them, but unlike folk I know with Japanese bikes none were brand loyal. Most have moved back the Japanese bikes.

Suzuki, Kawasaki etc have had quite a few recalls, but it's almost all just preventative and safeguarding owners for the future.

KTM seems to be more about waiting for stuff to let go.

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2024/july/ktm-camshaft-defects/

I'd go to the dealer and insist to hear noises and that they inspect the camshaft. After that I'd get rid of the chinese junk.

I find it very interesting that there is no mention of cf moto in the wikipedia entry for KTM. Well-known bike journal (existed when I was a teenager) reports that KTM has been working with cf moto since 2011 and that the medium bikes (790 and 890) are build in China from September 2020 onward.

From a CF Moto dealer (translated):

CFMOTO was founded in 1989 and has been working with KTM since 2011, among other things, since 2017 as a joint venture that enables the production and distribution of KTM motorcycles in China under the name "KTMR2R". CFMOTO also assembles the small-displacement models in its Chinese factories on behalf of KTM and also produces the larger displacement KTM engines. Other important partners for which the listed company produces are HONDA, BMW, ZERO, TRIUMPH and KYMCO. � The parent company, which specializes in the construction of engines, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, four-wheelers, quads and yachts, produces about 800,000 engines and more than 600,000 vehicles annually, which are sold in over 100 countries by more than 2,000 partners. The attractive design is thanks to the CFMOTO Studio in Italy, while the technical know-how of the motorcycles comes partly from their own development but also from KTM, HONDA, BMW, and TRIUMPH.

[GSXKING]

Keep
The
Money

Coming

was a well known synonym as they did tend to be hand-grenades as were first of Yamahas first four stroke dirt bikes.

I feel sorry for the employees who love the product so much they've been blinded towards the management failures. 🤞🤞🤞

[grog]

Dont hear much about what CF Moto make for Honda, Triumph, BMW ?Secret Squirrel stuff i guess🤷