The Quickshift
- KTM has always been synonymous with high-performance supermotos, and the 2025 450 SMR takes this to the next level.
- The 2025 450 SMR is sprinkled with a bunch of refinements that make it lighter and sharper than ever.
- KTM's not sitting on its laurels, as developments from Ducati seem to suggest that it wants to challenge KTM in the motard space.
Everybody loves a good supermoto, and out of all the manufacturers that sell supermotos, it goes without saying that KTM sits at the very top. For decades, KTM’s ethos has always been about off-road performance and on-road hooliganism, and its supermotos have always been proof of this.
To that end, it’s in KTM’s best interest to keep pushing the boundaries when it comes to performance. And the 2025 450 SMR is proof of this. Based on the recently updated 450 SX-F platform, the SMR ditches the off-road wheels and knobby tires for a set of 17-inch wheels and sport tires, transforming the capable off-roader into a motard that’s eager to pop wheelies, pull drifts, and make any skilled rider feel like a superhero.
Beneath the surface, the 2025 KTM 450 SMR is rocking quite a few tweaks. The first of which just has to be the frame. As is the case with all of the Pierer group’s machines, the 2025 SMR’s frame has been lightened where it matters and stiffened where it needs it most. The result is some extra flex that provides more control when exciting corners aggressively. Plus, the updated frame helped the bike lose 300 grams of extra weight.
The suspension has also been given a few updates, with the bike receiving WP’s top-tier XACT Closed Cartridge spring fork, a first for the KTM SMR, as it now provides riders with even more adjustability and on-track performance.
Indeed, we can go on and on about how KTM has improved the 450 SMR for the 2025 model year, but the real story here is how KTM manages to even make an excellent bike even better. To do this, KTM doesn’t just rely on its engineers, but it also seeks the help of professional riders to make sure that the bikes they’re building meet the standards of the world’s most demanding riders.
In the case of the 450 SMR, KTM sought out Supermoto World Champion Lukas Höllbacher to test out the bike. And judging from the way the bike was flogged around in the test video, it’s clear that Höllbacher by no means took it easy on this orange machine. We get to see the bike undergo testing in hot summer weather, and not long after, the scenery changes to a winter landscape in the middle of winter in Sweden.
So yes, KTM seems pretty confident in the new bike’s ability to withstand pretty much anything you throw at it.
With all that being said, it’s clear that now’s the time for KTM to really flex its muscles, as the competition is by no means sitting still. You’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the goings on over in the Italian stable, with the House of Borgo Panigale unleashing its technological prowess in the single-cylinder segment.
The Hypermotard 698 Mono, a bike I’ve had the privilege of getting up close and personal with, certainly gives bikes like KTM’s 690 SMC-R a massive run for their money. And I’m almost certain that the same is true with Ducati’s 450 motocross machine—a bike that’s expected to spawn a whole range of models, perhaps even a direct rival to KTM’s 450 SMR.
