Buchanan, Michigan (10/13/2008) -A
little less than a year ago the Austrian based
company KTM threw themselves headfirst into the
high performance ATV market. KTM brought to the
table the KTM 450XC and 525XC ATV models. As their
namesake might suggest, these quads were designed
to dodge trees, and fly through the woods like
no production quad has done before. Being a smaller
company, KTM has been successful in providing
niche models in the two wheeled world that appeal
to a narrowly targeted group of riders that the
larger OEMs may not deem a profitable venture.
Now they have taken this concept to the world
of ATV racing.
KTM had no intention of taking things slowly
aboard their newly crafted race ready ATVs.
The XCs proving grounds would be the 2008 GNCC
series with Tim Farr as FRE Team Manager, and
Pro ATV Racers #5 Adam McGill along with #7
Taylor Kiser racing the 525XC models in the
woods. In what is known as the hardest off road
series in the world McGill impressively took
home three consecutive wins at rounds two, three
and four. Between Team KTM riders Adam McGill,
and Taylor Kiser KTM has finished on the podium
an impressive eight times thus far this season
before heading into the final couple rounds
of the season.
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KTM's
Tim Farr along with Adam Mcgill &
Taylor Kiser have secured numerous Podium
finishes for the KTM 525XC & 450XC
in only its first year of production.
Adam McGill has secured 4 Wins in the
GNCC Series & the FRE Race Team recently
finished 2nd Overall at the famous 12
Hours of Pont de Vaux race in France (Tim
Farr Interview)
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Fast forward to July 2009, and KTM has hit
the drawing board once again to tackle yet another
discipline of ATV racing, motocross. Enter the
2009 KTM 450SX and 505SX. With a bold styling,
and a claimed dry weight of 363 lbs, this quad
was sure to turn some heads.
I have to admit that I was accustomed to the
Japanese business model of slightly revising
existing products, and releasing them under
new names as an “all new model”.
So naturally, I was visualizing last year’s
XC model with wider longer A-arms, and some
smaller tires. Maybe, if we were lucky some
“bold new graphics.” What I would
come to find out is that this quad is comprised
of nearly all new components designed to do
one specific task very well, and that task is
to win motocross races.
In conjunction with round 10 of the ATV Motocross
Nationals, KTM would hold a press introduction,
test session and an industry race specifically
for the 2009 KTM 450SX & 505SX Models. The
test sessions and races were held at the world
famous Red Bud motocross facility in Buchanan,
Michigan.
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KTM
invited the ATV Media out to Red Bud MX
Park to ride & race their new 450SX
& 505SX ATV Models, and they reserved
a small motocross track for test riding
on Saturday, but on Sunday, the test riders
would race on the National track in a
special one moto Industry class race
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Seven A.M. Saturday morning would find us pulling
up to the KTM factory racing rig conveniently
parked along the Red Bud starting gate. It was
your usual mid summer morning, with a heavy
dew on the ground, and a thick fog that blanketed
the rolling hills of Redbud MX Park. As we geared
up and picked out which quads we would be riding
for the weekend I couldn’t help feeling
like a kid in a candy store, filled with anticipation
of getting to ride one of most unique quads
ever to hit the market.
