Trouble at KTM

RDnuTZ · May 23, 2025, 11:02:23 AM

Bajaj taking over KTM completely with buyout...

https://www.motorcycle.com/bikes/news/bajaj-to-acquire-ktm-44622745

m in sc · May 23, 2025, 11:05:06 AM

there it is.

oh well.

RDnuTZ · May 23, 2025, 12:06:14 PM

you win the prize for closest guess

m in sc · May 23, 2025, 12:50:41 PM

just easy to see coming. too bad. Hopefully some of the ktm engineers jump ship to kawasaki or yamaha and get cranking on some fi 2t stuff. Bajaj is good at producing decent cheap commodity bikes KTM as we know it is fucking dead.

IR8D8R · May 23, 2025, 04:23:39 PM

I'm wondering about Husqvarna too.

RDryan · May 24, 2025, 12:04:53 PM

Quote from: IR8D8R on May 23, 2025, 04:23:39 PMI'm wondering about Husqvarna too.

Don't forget about GasGas.

RDryan · July 11, 2025, 05:31:29 PM

Stopped by my LBS that happens to be a KTM dealer and got a inspection sticker for me 16' Superduke 1290GT and that's a long story as I should've done it last May and didn't even bother for the 24' riding year. We'll see if I can tell a bit of story quickly...I went to a job interview and decided to ride my KTM to it as I haven't ridden it in a couple of weeks. All was good and enjoying the ride. Left the job site and barely a couple minutes down the road around a bend a cop clocked accelerating from 2nd to 3rd up to 50mph in a 30mph zone. Pretty much as soon as I saw him I let off the gas and slowed down to about 35ish. Well he still pulled me over

Luckily he gave me a break but reminded me to get the inspection sticker which I acknowledged being lax about doing and just said I rarely ride the bike and have contemplated selling it which is true.

So and hour or so later I just got the inspection sticker and an idea came to me since I was there I may as well kick tires with the sales folks about selling my bike. Well again they are a KTM dealer...so they say that a couple of rep were in the shop yesterday reminding them that the KTM brand is not dead and everything is OK. All the same the shop says that the KTM's are not selling too well these days. At first I was thrown an offer based off of KBB of $6k-7,400. That being said without looking. After firing the bike up and acknowledging it passed safety inspection and taking some pics I was offered $3,800. The story behind the last lowest offer was explained as they really would have a hard time selling the bike locally so basically a third party that I presume is a much bigger nationwide outfit that wholesales bikes would buy the bike thru my LBS.

Kinda interesting but not too surprising. KBB trade in value is $ 5,780 and their typical listing price is 8,355 which as I recall isn't too far off the mark for what one sold on BAT several months ago that was very similar to mine but with less miles. Mine had 27,135 at the LBS earlier today. I tell you what on FB Marketplace locally to where I live in Gloucester, Ma. there are several of them and they just don't seem to move, same old ads I see for months. Cheapest one is a week old ad for a 17' with over 67k on the Odometer and asking 7k. One that's been listed for over 41 weeks had it's price slashed from $9750 to 8500 and still for sale.

I dunno probably could get more money parting it out,lol although I don't think that funny. Probably ought take the low-ball deal just to move it along but for 3,800... that is so cheap, maybe I'd be better off keeping it and using it as some kinda horrible stunt bike. Teaching myself the wrong way to do rolling burnouts and stoppies. I dunno just saying the bike shops are thieves, the market much like the economy kinda sux and dido for KTM. Great bike though if you like, I did like riding it today.

m in sc · July 11, 2025, 08:17:23 PM

can you replace it with something you like as much or more for 3800 bucks? if not then prob not worth it. whatever you were willing to pay 'up' for a 'new' bike, if that amount is in line to make your ktm do what you want it to do (whatever its lacking to YOU) again, thats your answer. IF you are just 'done' with it then move it along.

RDryan · July 11, 2025, 11:29:40 PM

Quote from: m in sc on July 11, 2025, 08:17:23 PMcan you replace it with something you like as much or more for 3800 bucks? if not then prob not worth it. whatever you were willing to pay 'up' for a 'new' bike, if that amount is in line to make your ktm do what you want it to do (whatever its lacking to YOU) again, thats your answer. IF you are just 'done' with it then move it along.

Good point. I really don't think I could replace it for 3800, just can't get very far with that kinda money. At best I could put the 3800 towards something else. But this is an interesting dilemma and I am living it. I just don't use that bike that much and it would be so convenient to just do the deal and be done with it. No taking pics to create an ad, dealing with people. I like to think the sales guy that pitched the offer was genuine. His final suggestion was to put it on Marketplace for 7500.

I tell you what if I was feeling rich I would probably go for it just to move it along but I just feel like it's a low-ball offer. I didn't try to counter offer and maybe that was a problem for me. I just thought it weird that at first I'm offered 6000 to 7400 and then after looking at the bike the sales guy pitches the sale to a third party and possibly to whomever he answers to on the other side of the sales dept, he did drift away from me and his desk to do that. So he comes back with 3,800?...I mean C'mon just seems like that's their deal. Acknowledge a trade value that's published and then give a sales pitch to justify less than a quarter of what the bike retailed for nine years ago.

I paid 12k for that bike five years ago and despite having two other bikes I managed to rack up over 18k miles but shit it pretty much looks the same being garaged and runs just as good as the day I got it. I have no doubt that with minimal periodic maintenance and respectful pride in ownership this is a potential 100k mile running good bike.

To me the bike as well as the KTM brand in general is somewhat of an anomaly. Kinda reminds me of Apple computers. Cool design and when new state of the art performance but boy do they lose value quick. Like could the bike be worth any less than 3800 even if I put another couple years and 10k miles on it?

busa1300 · July 12, 2025, 11:54:09 PM

You'll never find a bike that can do what a 1290 SDGT can do, for $3800...
Keep it under a cover, until you want to do some serious hauling again someday. I doubt I'll ever sell my SDGT, it's the only bike I have that my wife will ride with me on.

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Trouble at KTM