Looks Like KTM USA Gave Up

I just went to the KTM USA site to check on the 2012 offerings. There are four "street" offerings, RC8R, RC8R - Track, 990 Adventure and 990 Adventure R. Oh, and a 690 enduro. Other than that, nada. Maybe I should have bought a Buell.

Maybe waiting for new SD to arrive? Coming sooner than expected?

Gave up on what exactly? Any other manufacturer offering a club-race special? Or anything as radically styled as an RC8R? How many all new sport models are Suzuki or Honda offering this year? Kawasaki? Yamaha - same R1(only with TC) and R6. I see Ducati really breaking ground with the 848 Streetfighter (facetious - yawn). Blame the "economy". Blame people. Blame whatever. These are luxury goods, and demand remains down. Who you should blame is your government, for creating so many inane barriers to entry. Oh wait - we are responsible for our government - never mind.

Whining aside for the moment, were you going there to buy something you expected them to have?

Sure, they could bring us the 2012 SDR - but what would be the point? Not like finding a really nice, low mileage used one is difficult - for a lot less scratch. Even some bargain-basement priced NOS ones around at stealers. If you could buy the same bike as the euro 2012 SDR, would you - knowing that there is likely to be new model? If I were running KTM, I wouldn't have bothered to ship any SDRs over either.

As for anyone else who is just dying to have a brand new SD or SDR, who cares - we got ours!

I can see your point and argument, but it is always nice to see support in your products all around. I am sure the EPA is not making it easy either. But without a more global product, you don't have a product. I was talking to the dealer and he was telling me they dont hardly ever sale naked bikes. The market is just too small in the states unfortunately. People are just missing out and need to try a different form of riding instead of a rocket and maybe ktm will bring it back.

You cant cast stones at Ducati as their 848SF is just the cherry on the fabulous 1199 pie. KTM must build a bike for other manufacturers to emulate (i.e. S1000rr or Panigale) or die a slow death, cant play catch up forever. I cant blame them for the slow or never release of a new SD since i can still buy a brand new '08 (low demand for nakeds!) It would be more profitable to design 'THE' superbike? I'll keep my SD.

I agree with you crotchrockety, i hate to see it happen. Just not enough market share in KTM's wallet in street form.

SDNerd:

As an old boss I once had used to say, "you're comparing apples to horse shit." It doesn't matter what the local dealer has. KTM USA isn't importing MOST of its street line into the US for 2012. Compare this http://www.ktm.com/us/ready-to-race.html to this http://www.ktm.com/gb/ready-to-race.html. The other manufacturers aren't taking that tact. They may be scaling down. They may not be making radical improvements, but they certainly aren't offering only three street bikes out of a line of nine bikes (not counting different versions of the same model) like KTM is. No whining, just fact.

PS. I don't even like the look of the Panigale (looked hideous in person) let alone believe the hype about the 195 HP. But, it is certainly NOT a minor upgrade to an existing model.

Every KTM dealer that I've been to in norcal has an 990SD and 690 Duke in stock (mpcktm, scuderia west, norcalktm). RC8R are hard to find, but I'm sure if you talk to your local dealer they can have one shipped over from another dealer within a couple weeks. The SMT as a far as I know sold out almost instantly in sacramento area. A lot of touring bike fans here. KTM's main webpage should show what models are available, not just what models they are shipping to the states for that year. It gives the impression that they are dropping support for these models, but I don't think that is true. What I do find ironic is that the dealers are pushing the 690 Supermoto as the city street bike for beginners instead of the 690 Duke. Maybe the 690 Duke's styling is too aggressive for beginners, which is why the new version is more supermoto looking. I don't know retail tax laws, but my guess is that the dealer makes more money on selling bikes that were delivered new for the year, rather than bikes that have been sitting around in inventory for a couple years.

I think it's just a matter of time for the hipster biker gangs to get sick of their Thruxton Steve McQueen vintage look and upgrade to a more modern street fighter. More and more kids are learning to ride now because of gas prices. 3 friends of mine got their M license this year to save on gas. What I notice is the typical upgrade path. Hipster starts with some kind of over priced beater 1980's "custom" CB750 cafe racer or invests in a new Thruxton/Bonneville to look cool (good price on those bikes). Get's sick of it, then goes Ducati Monster/Street fighter or Speed Triple to have the big muscle bike at the cafe. Many are skipping the cafe racer beaters and going straight for the BMW F800r because they think it's the best quality and it has ABS, but the price is too high for most. None of them have any sort of motocross background or experience so they have no idea what is KTM or KTM quality. When I tell them that KTM won Dakar for the past 10 years, they are in shock because the Long Way Around uses BMW which must mean it is the best. Plus, the bright orange motif is so anti-hipster. When they look at the Super Duke, it just barks hooligan at them and they run in fear.

Just checked the Aussie website and we are having... Wait for it... No new street bikes by the look of it.

T.O powersports sold several RC8"s They had the RC8RR the special editions and the R's .I was at the rock store last Sunday I was the only RC8 there and it had quite a crowd around it.One guy wanted to buy it.I just put a fmf pipe on it and a remap.It's not an R and it is so fast and has so much power it's amazing.I am going to drop a tooth on the counter shaft.I don't need the high top end.I want it quicker on the bottom.I was just taking it easy never got it out of 2nd gear and was doing 80-90 with out high reving.If they put that motor in the duke It will be so crazy fun I think they will sell less RC8's the riding position of the duke with a 1200cc motor If they don't screw it up like aprilia did with the 1200DD It will be a must have bike IMO I know I would love one and I don't need it.I love my 990 but who would not want a 1200 duke.KTM is on the gas they own alot of the dirtbike market they make a pure track bike RC8 which is a bad mofo All the new RC8's are all R's now The problem is like Nerd said sales are down with all mfg's So KTM is not going to ship a ton of bikes that are not going to sell because nobody is buying 20k bikes like they were.They sell a few all mfg's sell units but the numbers are nothing like they were.Nothing going to change until people stop losing their homes and jobs.I think we have not seen the end of the housing problems.When people start feeling that their jobs are safe and houses start selling again people will start buying 20k toys again.I bought both my RC8 and my Duke at very low prices for what I paid for both was less than a new RC8R.I hope we can get this country back to work and people can afford to buy the bikes that all of us want to see KTM make.I don't know what the answer is.Well I could say we need to get the crooks out of our goverment Good luck with that.So for now I will do what I can to ride as much as I can before our gov says it's too unsafe.Soon in calif they will have db levels that are so low that no pipes can be installed if a cop thinks your bike is too loud they will be able to cite you.and it will not be legal to make any changes to your bikes exhausts period.Glad I live in AZ.But it's most likey a matter of time for us all. I just hope that closed tracks are excluded.

I guess it could be safe to say everything boils down to the almighty dollar. No manufacture is going to risk making something people can't afford anymore. They will stick to their money makers in every market. Unfornutely for us it's not in street bikes in the US but rather off road bikes. Even then they are not the cheapest for people to buy when you have the other manufactures making similar bikes for less. Until the world starts to spin more normal and peoples wallets are full again we probably won't see anything new this side of the pond for awhile.

There is simply not enough north american demand for naked bikes, the sv650 was one lone exception, but that was mainly due to low cost and heavy aftermarket support. Being a middleweight twin, it was also a good beginner bike (the superduke is most certainly not in that category) which further helped sales. Even then, the naked sv650 was phased out.

KTM is going to stick to its base, that is, dirtbikes and adventure bikes.

Will the US see the 2013 1190 superduke? I highly doubt it. It would suffer the same fate, to much money for a naked bike that has little demand. All the kids want an R6 afterall, or a gixxer

KTM won't drop the superduke, but probably will be limited to smaller displacement naked bikes and mostly in APAC and EMEA.

Out here in NorCal, its rare to see the SMC, SMT, SMR, and Dukes. Sad really, but thats reality and KTM is doing the right thing business-wise.

In fact, even Ducati has a hard time moving the streetfighter, and that bike is the devil himself.

Just on this - I recently read an article about Akrapovic and their history - the most powerful engine they've ever had on their dyno was apparently a KTM V4 that made close to 250hp.. Where the hell is this this engine and why isn't KTM using it?

That engine was for KR's Moto GP effort. Got to be too expensive so KTM shelved it at Kenny's dismay.

Goddamn phone. POS!

Lowance said it right.I wish it was not true but it is.KTM is highpriced everything they sell is worse than Harley.If tomorrow KTM brought in a superduke 1200 with all the bells and whistles the retail cost would be like 18g's plus tax and license so your looking at 20k when you get done.That is a lot of cash for a naked.I myself love naked bikes but for 20k you can buy a lot of bikes that will do the same thing for less.Really do you think KTM would sell very many at that price? The reason dukes are selling so well right know is the price.If KTM could offer a duke 1200 for 12k They would sell like pop corn at a circus.That price is unreal and could never happen.KTM bikes cost more than any other mfg's When you can make large quanty of a model the price can go down.When you production run is small the price of each unit will be high.The RC8 is a amazing bike it can hang with the best of them.The track model is a bike I can only dream of.My RC8 is a standard with a pipe and all kinds of goodies and it is very fast,I could only imagine the closed course model.From what I hear from people that have ridden them on a track they are the shit you can win out of the box with this bike.
Bottom line we all want KTM bikes just wish they were half the price and all our problems wouls be solved.If I only had one bike I could afford a over priced 1200 duke.But many of of us have several bikes.It's tough to have 3 20k+ bikes even worse if your married.woman never understand.So if the economy recovers and we all start making money and our homes are not upside down.and people start buying again maybe KTM will take a chance and ship us a naked 20k bike a few of us will buy.I myself will wait till I can find one for a super deal.I hate spending full retail.Unless I can sell both my KTM's and buy the one bike I really want a 1200 duke.As much as I love my RC8 it does hurt my back after a while.The duke I can ride all day with no pain,

You may never get the chance. If this purported 1200 superduke makes it to north america, and retails for 18K, then KTM is dumb, as someone mentioned already.

Only a handful will buy it. More than likely, north america will not see this bike.

Sweet.

KTM USA really has no one to blame but themselves for creating little or no demand for new SD/R models in the states, having effectively cut the value of all existing US SD's by a considerable percentage by offering up all their unsold 2008 SD's at close to half price through the back door of their SoCal warehouse (many of which came from dealerships KTM USA forced to buy SD's in spite of the total lack of demand for them in their region). Anyone who wants one can still find deals that make a new SD at full retail look kind of extravagant.

My local dealer had an unsold 2008 demo on the floor when I was looking for one early in 2010 but told me his cost from KTM was about $3K more than I could snag an identical bike from KTM's warehouse inventory. Believe me he was not happy with KTM when he learned about them undercutting their own dealers like that. I'll admit, that amount of money was enough for me to overcome my distaste in taking a bike sale elsewhere, but he still gets my service business.

So don't blame your dealer for not wanting another round of bikes they can't move taking up floor space. This recession/long slump/depression we're in isn't going to get better anytime soon and they are still stinging from the previous debacle. Sure it would be nice to get to throw a leg over all the newest machines but unless you can spring for airfare to the Milan show you are probably just out of luck.

http://www.eicma.it/en/

I want to win the lottery

If I hadnt been waiting three months for a $3 part from KTM, i'd actually give a shit that they are failing. KTM has failed the customer first.