KTM. The orange madness. The orange monster. The orange beast. The enthusiast’s bike. “Ready to Race”, or so the company says. You might call it many names, but when you ride a KTM, you know, that this bike cares about one thing and ONE THING ONLY. And that is……..Performance! While I was with my friends one day, I was blabbering about how KTM is the go-to brand if you want the fastest, most powerful, best performing and best handling bike in its segment and the fact that KTM’s bikes are always the fastest and best performing and most powerful in their segment…….in India, at least. No other manufacturer can make a bike in their segment that can outrun the KTM. No matter what is the displacement of the KTM that you are riding, but when you ride it, you are always afraid to open the throttle completely. The moment you leave the clutch and open the throttle, the bike roars and pulls a wheelie because of the immense torque and power and the hard smack of power and torque pushes you back and gives you goosebumps. The bike just pushes you back and laughs, as you get scared and you hope that you haven’t given it too much throttle. Your hand is still on the throttle. The bike keeps pulling hard. In a few seconds flat, you realize that you are doing speeds of above 100 km/h. The intense wind blast at those high speeds is hitting you with brutal force. You get scared. You pull the brakes, and the bike stops quickly. Your eyes are watering with the intense acceleration and braking. You are so scared that you check if you have worn all the safety gear. You get surprised by the sharpness and the bite of the brakes. When you ride it more, you are not only surprised by the intense speed and the brakes, but also by the lightness of the bike, the amazing feedback and handling provided by the legendary Trellis frame, the 43 mm fat upside down forks from WP, and also the WP monoshock at the rear, which all help you do some crazy cornering. You are not sure about how much grip the road has. But you lean anyway when you approach the sharp corner. The fat and grippy tires (by the way, you get Metzeler tires on the 390 Duke so the surprises don’t stop!) also help you by providing more grip. You are also surprised by the smooth and precise gearbox, which shifts easily. You are also hypnotized by the amazing cutting-edge and shiny looks of the motorcycle. Everyone at the signal is looking at the motorcycle, as it is a real head-turner. The growl and rumble of the exhaust, just adds to the fun. You really enjoy the experience and think of buying this bike. When you go to the showroom, you are surprised by the price of the bike. It’s so well-priced and easy to buy, even though it charges a slight premium over other bikes in its segment, but that is okay, because this bike delivers the best-in-class performance the moment you open the throttle.
One I am done with my entire speech about why you should buy a KTM, one of my friends gets irritated and asks,” You mean that “chappri” bike? Dude go and buy a Royal Enfield! Have some class! Don’t buy that cheap plastic toy that chappris ride!” The other friend laughed mockingly and retorted,” Is it any good in the real world? It isn’t fuel efficient! It cannot carry a pilon sometimes, so good luck with your girlfriend! It is not comfortable! It heats up and stalls in traffic! The suspension is so stiff that it cannot absorb bumps and you feel every small bump! Are you out of your mind dude?” The other friend, who himself is lucky enough to own a KTM, said in a concerned tone,” Dude will you be able to handle the performance? Plus, it can break, it’ s not that reliable! Also dude, if something breaks, then will you be able to find the part at the service center?”
I was a bit disappointed. I went home, but I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to get to the root cause of this. I wanted to know why KTM’s brand image has become so bad. And this time, I will try to explain just that.
KTM is an amazing brand, and it is still in India, and it’s doing just fine. But in the Indian market, which is very competitive, there are a few reasons why KTM has lost its reputation, just because the Indian public doesn’t understand a few things. I admit that some mistakes have been made by KTM India, and I will come to that as well. So, I am gonna list the reasons for this unfortunate occurrence, without further ado.
1.High expectations of practicality by Indians-We Indians can expect too much from something. We can be really hard to convince. We want everything from our bikes-performance, practicality, comfort, fuel efficiency and we expect one bike to fulfill all our needs, which is practically impossible. Every bike has its pros and cons, even KTM. Think about it! It is meant only for performance. It might have an uncomfortable pillion seat, but that helps in making the bike more compact and light weight, which adds to the performance. It might not be fuel efficient, but it’ s engine has a very high compression ratio. To produce so much power, the engine has to work really hard compared to other bikes in its segment, so it heats up a lot in traffic and stalls on you sometimes, and is not that fuel efficient. For the same reason, the tank is generally small. It might have rough ride quality and potholes might hurt, but because of that stiff suspension, you get excellent handling and stability. It is designed to go fast and give you performance, so Indians should not be ridiculing the KTM for not being practical. It was never designed to be practical, or reliable, or fuel efficient. Duh! These sort of bikes are for nice people. This bike is for the true rider, who wants the best performance and handling, and can compromise on this so-called “practicality” that Indians use as an excuse to hate on KTM. So, my dear angered Indians, please understand, that you cannot ridicule a bike just because it is bad at something that it is not designed to do. It is designed to go fast, not to be your well-behaved bike which always satisfies you when you ask it “Kitna Deti Hai?”(In Hindi-How fuel efficient is the bike?).
2. Crazy Young People- You might have heard the term ‘squid’ or ‘chappri’ being used a lot. Well, these terms stand for inexperienced young people, generally boys, who don’t wear helmet or safety gear and ride recklessly on actual urban roads. Either these guys just want cheap thrills, or they just want to validate their fragile ego by showing off, or they want to impress a girl, reasons can vary, but they ride very recklessly. They think they are Valentino Rossi and that the road is a racetrack. They are not only putting themselves in danger but others on the road as well. They have caused dangerous and terrible accidents, many of which have been fatal. Since KTM came in India, these crazy young men, or should I say boys, got another bike whose performance they could take advantage of. They somehow get a very powerful machine in their hands, something whose power no other bike in the segment could match, and they forget that with great power, comes great responsibility. Soon, there came many cases of these young men, many of them under 18 and not having a license, riding their KTMs rashly and getting into fatal accidents. In some they were affected, and in some other innocent people were affected. Many of these crazy young men, as I mentioned, were underage. Soon, the Orange bike started becoming infamous for bringing death and destruction to unfortunate and innocent people, all because some crazy young men wanted some cheap thrills. It became so infamous, that people gave a new full-form to KTM-“Kabhi to Marega”(in Hindi it means that the rider of the bike will die soon). People, like my friends mentioned above, started calling it the “Chappri” bike. Instead of looking premium, it started looking cheap on Indian roads, in the hands of young squids. It became so bad, that someone in a social media post claimed that owning a KTM can cause death. Of course, KTM India and Bajaj took strict action against this. It became so bad, that despite having the best brakes and best stopping power, and dual channel ABS in almost their entire lineup, people started questioning the safety of the bike, whether it was actually safe or not. It became so bad that whenever a crash would take place, even though it was not the rider’s fault, and some idiot made a mistake, the owner of the orange bike will be blamed for everything. This belief has been drilled into the heads of the common people of India-If that guy owns a flashy orange bike, then he is guilty until proven innocent. What is this nonsense? Have people lost their minds? KTM India and the common Indians need to find a solution to this problem and everyone needs to cooperate with patience to improve KTM’s spoiled brand image, because come what may, true riders will always continue to appreciate this brand for its performance and handling. By the way, you know the Indian roads. Anything can happen, and any idiot can pop out from nowhere.
3.Poor reliability, quality and parts and service network-These are some mistakes made by KTM India so I will not blame my dear Indians for it. KTM bikes are race machines. They have high compression ratio engines, which are always under stress, so they are not that reliable, like Honda, or Yamaha or Suzuki. People have complaints that the engine heats up too much and stalls too much on the road. In the old Dukes, especially the 390 series, sometimes the bike would just not start even after trying to start it multiple times. But, this might not be really a complaint, this is just nitpicking in my opinion. I am just addressing everything, so no offence. The main problem is that in the process of making the bike as light as possible, the company relies on fiber. Because of that, the bike is fragile. Once it drops, the body parts can break and come out, and it becomes a nuisance to repair it every single time it crashes even if it is a minor crash. Not just the body parts, even the lights can break off sometimes. KTM also sometimes has some quality issues because the bikes sold in India are manufactured by Bajaj in India. Now, as much as I hate to say it, Indian manufacturing is not the best in terms of quality control, so sometimes there are a few niggles with the quality. But only sometimes, because KTM promises premium quality. Another issue is that sometimes maintenance and service and repair costs can be high, but not always, mind you. Another problem is that parts are not easily available. So once you have broken a part on your beloved orange baby, good luck looking for a new one! Many people have addressed and faced this issue. Even basic parts, like a wire are extremely difficult to find. KTM India really needs to address this issue.
So, these, according to me, are the 3 reasons why people don’t like KTM and KTM’s brand image in India is not that great. I know that this is a slightly controversial topic, so please try to understand that this is just my humble and honest opinion, and please, dear Indians, try to understand this and be a bit kind towards genuinely good and safe riders who love this bike. Though I would say, don’t spare those squids. If someone from KTM India is reading this, I really love KTM bikes and I request you to please address these issues so that KTM India can serve Indians in an even better way, and I am not hating on KTM, I love KTM, so please do not get offended, KTM India and KTM fanboys. Despite the problems with KTM, there are so many reasons why people love the bikes from KTM, because they always give you an engaging and memorable experience, which you will continue to remember and enjoy. KTM is meant for enjoying, not for showoff and so-called “chaprigiri” and please haters, it is NOT A DEATH MACHINE THAT WILL KILL YOU. Its just a special bike, a bike like no other. I request that KTM India tries to address the parts availability and servicing issues and the people collaborate with KTM India to understand these bikes better, so people get to know what KTM is meant for and respect it, and KTM India creates a better experience for Indians. Also, the brand image of KTM will improve and KTM will continue to make Indians happy. After all, Hondas are for nice people, aren’t they? KTM is meant for true riders who want the most engaging experience. Ready to race, isn’t it?
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