RUST magazine: Rust#11
RUST magazine: KTM 2017 EXCs – world launch! EnduroGP – change is good, right? Roczen’s demolition job. There can only be the one lead story this issue – the 2017 KTM EXCs. They’re all new, or 90% new as KTM are keen to correct us. Nonetheless, new frames, new engines (both four-stroke and two-stroke) means there’s so much to investigate. So much we sent two riders to the launch and had a third man supporting them in the office chasing the tech. Big stuff – and a must read. With round three of the EnduroGP kicking off in Greece this weekend we’ve had our world championship correspondent Georgia Wells apply a thorough analysis to the changes in the series, seeing what’s working what isn’t. If you’re British it’s all-good, with four young blokes all kicking around the podiums, even taking outright wins… And finally, after such seriousness, Gary Freeman remembers a time when Ken Roczen was a humble German kid, not a brash Floridian dude… For us enduro-nuts it’s a heavyweight issue, for sure. Enjoy!
RUST magazine: KTM 2017 EXCs – world launch! EnduroGP – change is good, right? Roczen’s demolition job. There can only be the one lead story this issue – the 2017 KTM EXCs. They’re all new, or 90% new as KTM are keen to correct us. Nonetheless, new frames, new engines (both four-stroke and two-stroke) means there’s so much to investigate. So much we sent two riders to the launch and had a third man supporting them in the office chasing the tech. Big stuff – and a must read. With round three of the EnduroGP kicking off in Greece this weekend we’ve had our world championship correspondent Georgia Wells apply a thorough analysis to the changes in the series, seeing what’s working what isn’t. If you’re British it’s all-good, with four young blokes all kicking around the podiums, even taking outright wins… And finally, after such seriousness, Gary Freeman remembers a time when Ken Roczen was a humble German kid, not a brash Floridian dude…
For us enduro-nuts it’s a heavyweight issue, for sure. Enjoy!
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World Launch<br />
temerity to turn up for a KTM world launch. So the<br />
afternoon session saw Jochi open a new section<br />
of the loop at the end the original lap, labeled<br />
‘Difficult!’ I’m not sure about the exclamation mark<br />
behind the word, but when there’s a choice to<br />
head back to the paddock or into the unknown<br />
4.5km “Difficult!” section I choose the unknown.<br />
The loop offers an ascent, or more aptly a<br />
number a winding ascents across rocks and more<br />
rocks as you wind your way to the summit. Part of<br />
this section reminds me of the wooden banked<br />
turns often seen at the Romaniacs prolog – except<br />
that they are cobbled rocks banked in looping<br />
turns left and right, so I’m slaloming from one rock<br />
face to another when abruptly I encounter a gully<br />
with a 90º face on the left and around 35-45% rock<br />
wall on the right with loads of boulders wedged<br />
into the gully.<br />
This would have been ideal testing terrain for a<br />
2017 trials bike but alas I’m on the 250EXC and<br />
I’m pretending I’m Graham Jarvis – or rather<br />
Johnny Walker, this being KTM. I wind up and<br />
down the banked rock wall, zigzagging in and out<br />
of the rocky gully – all in a low gear and feathering<br />
the clutch; this is where I decide that this is the<br />
best bike on test. The 250’s low end torque is so<br />
impressive that where normally the clutch would<br />
be pretty busy its just not needed and the bike<br />
handles the slow climb in second and third gears<br />
without feeling like I’d prefer the 300 – the motor is<br />
sublime. The new Mikuni carb I think makes a
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