KTM unveils radical factory stunt bike

What is it about KTM motorcycles; does the factory fill the front tyre with helium? Many KTM riders treat their front wheels like ornaments, waving them at the sky at every opportunity. KTM must have realized this – and the factory’s clearly decided “why fight it?” Along with a very tasty range of bikes based on the tasty LC4 engine for 2008, they’ve released teaser pics of a dedicated stunt-riding model with some very stunt-specific gear integrated as standard.

Urban and competition stunt riding is becoming a more and more specialized sport – dedicated riders modify their bikes with “12 o’clock bars” to stop their tail-lights dragging on the ground, crash cages to protect bodywork and frame from frequent topples, and hand-actuated secondary rear brakes for controlling wheelies where the rider’s feet are away from the brake pedal.

To get to a point where a bike’s ready to seriously stunt can take hours of backyard work and thousands of dollars’ worth of parts from specialized Internet suppliers – which is why KTM’s dedicated factory stunter, including all these parts and more - is such an exciting prospect.

We got a great close-up look at the 690 Stunt at the Paris Bike Show - check the gallery for loads of detail photos.

Stunter Nam Tran from team Front Up Freestyle summed up the stunt scene’s reaction to the bike: “It’s a massive leap in the right direction. Hopefully other companies follow. KTM, BMW and Kawasaki already have sponsored riders in Europe – this new bike is only going to help the sport further.”

We asked Tran to rate the pros and cons of the concept from a stunter’s perspective:

“Downsides IMO: