Trail Rider Magazine

36 Trail Rider At that me KTM was a small company like TM or Sherco is today. The sales figures weren't huge. According to Gertjan Brouwer, whose father was the KTM importer from 1972 to 2005 for Holland and Bel- gium, the 540/550 was a bike with too much power for the riding areas that were available in Holland at the me. Consequently, most, if not all ended up be- ing exported. He did, however, sell many engines for side-car cross teams that used the 550 powerplant in custom frames. He said that a er the mid-80s, KTM's molding and aluminium cas ng process improved greatly (they s ll improve from year to year, lightening and strengthening when needed). The liquid-cooled engines were a lot lighter than the previous air-cooled engines. According to Brower, the Japanese bikes had a be er fit and finish back in the 1980's and 1990's. The KTM quality control has improved tremendously over the years. The plas cs were fi ng be er, the frame a achment parts did not need tweaking or modifica ons to fit, for instance the rear fenders and subframes. Back then, Brower was driving weekly to Austria to gather new parts for customers. For in- stance, he had to maintain a stock of 25 units of each gear for every bike to maintain sufficient stock be- cause they were flying off the shelves. Nowadays, he keeps one in stock and it sits there. According to Shane Pudsey, KTM off-road motorcy- cles were to be sold to selected mechanically inclined customers who knew how to turn a wrench to keep their bikes running and demanded the very best that money could buy. Those customers would likely acquire the necessary skills by working on their own bikes and or racing them compe vely off road. KTMs were the tools to have if you wanted to dominate the off-road races, if you could afford them. According to Hugh Litchfield, KTM motorcycles at the me were domina ng the off-road racing scene. They supported a lot of riders too. Bikes were all pre- ordered and would fly off the shelves. They had good quality materials. Of course, like all bikes, they had issues here and there, but KTM stood by their com- mitment to quality and a er-service bulle ns. KTM would offer superseded parts for free to customers with faulty parts, whereas the Japanese manufactur- ers were o en too proud to admit that their engines and chassis had poten ally a few issues. They would o en discretely come out with a ''new and improved model'' for the following year with the known issues and warranty claims fixed. KTM saw more worth in offering replacement parts to dealers and customers, free of charge. Basically, KTM acknowledged that there was an issue to begin with. Different perspec ve for different folks. New ideas were tried over me by commi ees of engineers, racers and mechan- ics, who all formed an integral part of the R&D team. Bikes were hand-built to specific importers' specifica ons. The consequence is that there were local varia ons amongst the same model and year, depending who was the importer and what he considered good quality equipment at the me. Diversity at its best. Now, a bit of history lesson to learn about the KTM 500 will make you understand where the 550 came from. According to the informa on I gath- ered from a few contacts made over the years of owning and overhauling those bikes, Josef Hat- nger started working with KTM in 1972. He was the man in charge of designing the engine that was to be used for the new water-cooled open- class bike to replace the aging, air-cooled KTM 495. The ves ges of the 495 were regarded at the me by KTM dealers and enthusiasts to as close as possible to a factory bike that money could buy. For the 1985 model year, the engine was all new. The engineers were given a li le more freedom than they would today to produce things that were considered exo c for what would be consid- ered today a niche market, high quality bikes with top-shelf components and materials. Up un l 1989, the engine and chassis saw only subtle changes. Back then, people who owned KTM motorcycles were few and far apart in North America and pret- ty much everywhere else around the world due to the low produc on volume that the company could sustain. In 1989, the very powerful and important Amer- ican market demanded to their local dealers a want for bigger displacement engines for the west coast market. KTM supplied them a 548cc variant of the 498cc fire-breathing monster in late fall of 1989 as a 1990 model year and called it the 540 up un l the 1991 model year. The bigger displace- ment engine was not the biggest seller of the lineup. It was not a bike meant for anyone else but the power-hungry enthusiasts. That same year, Josef le the company with enough knowledge to start his own company named MTH. The company specialized in side-car cross engines.

• Cover