KTM Factory Dakar Bike 2017 | Test | Motorcyclenews.com

We check out KTM Factory Racing's 2017 Dakar Rally Contender in the North Of Spain and find out what makes this bike so special!
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[@defylifeadventure]

Good to see MCN giving off road more attention. For too long it was sports bikes and road-rider presenters trying to review adventure bikes. The production and sound is much better too. Thumbs up.

[@eliasmora715]

Amazing bike....the competition its getting faster & faster on this 450s... the best thing about the new year is DAKAR

[@TheSpanishmuscle]

great insight into the rally bike. thanks guys.

[@021mr5]

Just the whole look of a dakar bike is just awesone to me. It looks intimidating like a tank.

[@Cowboy4737]

Love the shit out of my 06 KTM 450xc,I've beat the snot out of it and it just wants more,KTM for life mate...

[@martinfisker7438]

I noticed ktm has the motor mounted on the lower roll on the notebook, scrolling the paper reverse to a normal reading direction. If i recall correctly, Lyndon Poskitt had the motor on the top - they are given the same notes for the dakar... how does that work?

[@maxgermasi3302]

Very nice review! Technical and simple, thanks a lot So, how do you use those instruments and devices for the navigation? Cheers

[@ronanrogers4127]

I love how it’s still called the Dakar, which of course is in Senegal, Africa, but the race has been in South America for around a decade now. It’s tradition.

[@fireblade8905]

For once good sound quality

[@rosstinelli]

That scroll systeme is great

[@beerbeer8703]

Beautiful bike KTM and thanks for the video.

[@mhgregor]

Can you name the location you're at and the location you mentioned the KTM team had been training at please? I live in Barcelona and have just taken my Husqvarna FE350 out there and am looking for places to train, both enduro riding and to get some road book training. Thanks! P.S. I recognise the Monserrat Mountain in the background of the images so I reckon you must be somewhere near Terrassa or Sabadell which is a stones-throw from me. On second thoughts...are you in Manresa?

[@synergysynergy]

Marcus Gregory I'm glad you asked this question as I'm also very interested in the location, it seems mcn don't respond to questions so hopefully someone else can chime in on this location, at 19 seconds he states this place this place is a we'll know off road site called les comez (typo), any idea where this place is or the proper name, thanks

[@mhgregor]

No need for MCN, I've worked it out, although I'm sure Jonathan Pearson would answer if he'd seen the question anyway. I originally thought the first parts were filmed at KTM Spain's HQ in Terrassa. The address is Cinca 8-10, Pol.Ind. Sta. Margarida 08223 Terrassa (Barcelona) if you want to look it up. It seems like a lot of KTM's rally efforts are run out of here. It's all actually filmed at a facility called Les Comes in a place called Súria, north of Manresa. It's a pretty impressive place and has some 150 hectares of land plus corporate facilities. They run 4x4 events there as well as enduro events and similar events. Website is www.lescomes.com/ The Land Rover Experience is run out of there and there is a well known enduro people have suggested to me called EnduRoc, www.enduroc.com/ I wouldn't mind getting an entry in for 2017! I'm not too sure how how I got to the Les Comes page but I worked out the rough location from the images of the Monserrat Mountain in the video which indicated it had to be north and near Manresa ;)

[@synergysynergy]

Thank you that's a great help, the Les Comes estate looks outstanding but unfortunately for me it's a private estate dedicated to corporate events, so unluckily not somewhere I can add to my list of places to explore when in the Pyrenees. Do you have any recommendations or suggestions of similar places worth checking out, my friends and I all ride Atv's an travel over from the Uk to spend a few weeks exploring the wonders of the Pyrenees

[@mhgregor]

The area in the video isn't really the Pyrenees but the Vallés of Catalunya. You need to get up to Puigcerdà and around there. There are endless trails up there to ride and local knowledge helps...I'll ask some of the guys I ride with if they can suggest any resources. Try the WikiLoc site for routes, there are quite a few up there. I do have a British mate that keeps a "spare" CRF450 at a house in Fígols but we haven't arranged to meet up yet. Sorry I can't help more.

[@synergysynergy]

Marcus Gregory I appreciate it, still very helpful, I'll do some research on Puigcerda area, normally we float around the trails in El Pont de Suerte, I found there is so much to explore around there and we only really touched a small fraction of the trails available for the month that we spent there. Funnily enough I signed up for Wikiloc last year but we never needed to use it, I'll delve back into the app again as I know it's meant to be very useful. Thanks again for the advice

[@bh02422]

I like this presenter

[@deadeyenic6833]

Toby price ftw!!!

[@robertkacala]

what u can fix and what not ?

[@garthlundquist8316]

I wonder what measures KTM takes to minimize the punishing vibration the rider is exposed to during such a long race?

[@Cowboy4737]

The suspension is custom made for the riders weight but it all comes down to training and conditioning the body for these punishing races.

[@greenrolaids]

how is this 4k video?

[@StefanoPelinga]

why is it a single cylinder engine ? is that for simplicity ?

[@mhgregor]

Those are what the Rallye Raid and Dakar Series regulations allow, all FIM governed. The capacity of the bikes has been coming down over the years and that class is now limited to 450cc. It used to be limited to 650cc and back in the 80's the Yamaha Ténérés, Africa Twins, Cagiva and BMW's were all 750cc plus / multi-cylinder bikes.

[@eliasmora715]

google glass technology can be perfect for navigation to display the road book.. on your goggles.. that way the rider always haves hes eyes on the road

[@liamj2363]

BMW are working on in helmet digital HUDs.

[@eliasmora715]

nice.... cant wait.. even in F1 that can be great

[@ALIENdrifter66]

that would take part of the emotion out. This sport is made to be hard and it has to be hard

[@eliasmora715]

your rigth i agree

[@yopstender2942]

Better make dakar for the computer

[@repp181]

this is my dream bike!

[@angelocardoc]

They should sell a Dakar kitted bike.

[@LorenzoTuratti]

Review Guru It already exists...it costs around 25.000 pounds

[@C_R_O_M________]

Dakar kitted bike would cost much more that 25000. Only the suspension of a Dakar bike costs about as much.

[@Morannar]

Until a few years ago, Ktm made the Rally Replica 690. As the name suggests, it was a rally bike, similar to those from the races, obviously it's not one of those form the races. It was 100% street legal, meant to be sold to customers and used as an adventure bike, not for racing (well, you can race on it if you want, but it would be extremely stupid). Nowadays, you technically could buy a Rally bike, but it would be extremely expensive and it's not something you could get from your local dealer. And, btw, even though it has a plate, it's not road legal at all.

[@kato695]

ktm450rr is there custom ordered bike,$25000 euro "2014 price tag" its a replica tho! or you make a replica for the fraction of the cost, check link below kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZXOlaCilKl6mZo

[@MOSSFEEN]

longer trailing arm as well

[@OldManRik]

I never understood them road book things. They are huge why cant it just be a small computer something like a tom tom?

[@lolbruah]

Because it needs to be a durable nav solution, since desert races wear out equipment as fast as it possibly goes. And you would need a large display, since you are not able to read the information on it when it's too small. Yeah it's a race, no time to zoom your eyes in while you ride some on some heavy terrain with 130 km/h and more.

[@OldManRik]

Ahh ok makes sense. Cheers.

[@lolbruah]

OldManRik cheers mate.

[@kingsqueak2221]

A big part of the skill of winning is the navigation element itself. It's a lot tougher to follow a road book under the pressure of offroad speed than it would be to just listen to nav prompts. Make a mistake on the trip meter reset, you could reach the wrong fork in the track and take the wrong direction. If you watch Dakar you'll see pretty much every year even the leaders will wind up running in circles at points to sort out navigation. It's harder than it seems. Winning is about many factors, the riding fast part is just one of many. Navigation is a key factor.

[@stef25ify]

They don't use a roadbook out of necessity. It would be perfectly possible to use GPS units for the navigation, which would be much easier to use. The roadbook, I think, is used because that was the way rally raid was always organised and because it's part of the challenge.

[@beyazidmustafa5097]

Chili or Morocco what ever in South America :)

[@KristofSX]

Beast!

[@wildone2163]

I want one!

[@matteo.bassini5819]

Nice BF400 :P In real life, this thing is huge, but in GTA 5 its like a Grom..

[@FPSdaybreaK]

Matteo bf400 is an africa twin not a ktm

[@wildone2163]

I want one.

[@kudosjeg]

Why cant he just call it a Trellis frame? That's what it is.

[@damytzeus]

too much talking. want to see more riding about the bike. more action. do rally bikes use left hand rear brake?

[@andreppc21]

that is nice!, tranks !

[@krajpathak]

the recently spied 390 adventure looks very much similar to this!!

[@scottdesmaretz5045]

BADASSSS !!!!WOW !!!!👍😎👊

[@MikSane]

That drinking water would be BOILING!

[@jollibeetilao3604]

The enemy of this dakar rally bike is of course his opponents,the 2nd is the Dessert.

[@arcsolomon6360]

They all good dakar bikes the difference is ktm has better riders.

[@marcotrilha]

dream

[@Famousbaldpeople]

Thanks voice of Jason Statham : ))

[@Grumpycat95]

You're telling me there's notting better than this old tech ?

[@hawaiianflavor69]

amateur. are u going 10mph?

[@bettehorras5022]

N

[@muddysoles]

[@marcmoloney9310]

Man he is painful to watch

[@voxellab4339]

holy shit, you know they make tablets now right? What a wast of space, weight and efficient.

[@RideRedRacer]

lol noob

[@salvatoregiovanni8967]

Gay.

[@Max-vq9xd]

This guy is really awkward

[@romteb]

No

[@ksawiprod9140]

no, hes great