When I was a kid there was a publication called “Motocatalogo”: it came out once a year and included all the bikes for sale in Italy and some of those that could only be obtained through parallel importation. How much water under the bridge… KTM was at the top of a twelve-year-old’s dreams, with its GS that over the years were white, blue, red, 125, 250, 350, 400 and so on. A strictly, exclusively off-road range. One year, perhaps it was 1981, a street KTM appears among the “stickers”, I think it was a 125. I jumped: “Do you want to see that…”. But no, not for the moment at least. It was towards the mid-nineties that KTM definitively entered the world of asphalt, and the reference color became only one: orange. From that moment the growth is constant and powerful, it seems unstoppable, until it becomes the first European motorcycle manufacturer. Also a winner in the world championship, and with a product characterization oriented towards competition: when not in fact, in spirit. The character is the same, from the RC 125 to the EXC to the Adventure up to the newborn 890 SMT.
The claim is already there for MV Agusta as well: “Piece of art”. MV Agustas are beauty made into motorcycles, objects to ride but also, if you wish, to display for the lust of having them at home. Furnishing elements in exclusive homes.
