Let's think back to happier, simpler times. EICMA of last year comes to mind.
No, that's not political in nature, but it was before we knew that KTM was well and truly screwed. It was before the company had announced that it was entering insolvency. Before we knew it had over a year's worth of motorcycles just laying around. Before we knew of the layoffs and board axes and closings of companies it had just purchased. It was before we knew that it was probably exiting MotoGP.
It was the good times, where the only issue KTM had was its disastrous camshaft saga being—supposedly—put behind it. Except, KTM had one small issue when it came to its EICMA debuts, and that was introducing its new 390s. Or rather, bringing them, hyping them up, and then failing to debut them.
Maybe it wasn't happier times? Maybe it spelled the brand's doom, as despite bringing the new 390s to EICMA, putting them on the brand's stage, and hyping their release in press releases prior to the show, it failed to say anything about them, only later telling me that the specs weren't yet finalized for the public. Yet, that excuse was weird at the time, and now with hindsight and all of KTM's woes in full view, make more sense.
Yet, now in 2025, a full three months after their supposed EICMA debut, KTM is finally taking the covers off its new 390s, including the all-new 390 Enduro R, and it looks great. But will it save the company? Well...
