I ask all the serious bikers out there, when was the last time you were really excited for an upcoming bike? If you are a 70’s or 80’s kid, like yours truly, then you have more options to remember. So was it the legendary Yamaha RD350 or any of those delicious two stroke machines from the era gone by? Or are you from the times when the CBZ (and later the Karizma and Pulsar 180) were among the ‘must have’ machines?
There’s not a shade of doubt that why these bikes were bought in large numbers by the performance hungry crowd in India. The kind of performance they provided at those times was as good as it could have got. And although India was quick to get a lot many more bikes towards the advent of the new millennium, none of them were able to create the same fan following as these aforementioned bikes did.
Around 2007, Indian Motorcycle industry showed phenomenal growth, with bike aficionados growing in number. People started getting involved in track racing or stunting. TV shows like MTV Stunt Mania were being created to provide a proper platform for the daredevils on bikes. Things were good but we were still missing on some counts. While we did have bikes like the Karizma and the Pulsar 220, which were designed to an extent for comfortable touring, what everyone sorely missed was the availability of bikes dedicated to track racing.
Come Auto Expo 2008, and Yamaha brought a fire cracker of sorts in the guise of the R15. For a lot of time, the R15 was the ultimate track tool one could have bought, that is, without having to sell of a kidney or rob the local bank. Yamaha also introduced One make race series in 150cc class, where anyone interested in racing can come and race.
Time hardly stops for anyone and this holds true for motorcycles too. A brand should always act swiftly if they want to stay ahead of their competition. Yamaha did not do that and meanwhile, Bajaj brought the KTM Duke models to us.
Ktm bikes r nt good in quality n safety..The fibre body is jus a shit.. Dnt compare these ktm bikes with yamaha,honda n kawa..Coz this is class 🙂
Remember,U are getting a 45HP bike at 2.2 lks nearly half the price of the same spec twin cylinder rivals.
Please take note that this is not a review article where we are mentioning problems faced by few unlucky customers. The point behind the story is the create a revolution in the market a manufacturer will have to act fast and not lazy like ‘RELIABLE’ Japanese brands. If you have not forgotten the past completely then try to remember the days when Bajaj Pulsar was launched. A lot of people are still complaining about its quality but they do not bother that how much Bajaj has progressed over the years. As for KTM’s issues My suggestion is sit back and relax because not every customer faces these problems and second its high time that people should stop expecting KTM to be a Honda or Yamaha. Every bike has its own problems. No bike is perfect.
Sadly,its a single cylinder bike….KTM take back the rc series to Austria,enuf of fooling us Indians…
Do mention about shitty quality of Bajaj/KTM bikes. RC no doubt is ahead of the game now, but with bikes like R25 in the pipeline it could get little messy for Bajaj. People are slowly waking up to not so good quality on KTM/Bajaj and may be ready to shell out more for that more rounded product. Gone are the days of honest reviews/journalism.