Racing

KTM Factory Race Shop Tour - Dirt Rider Magazine

December 16, 2009

Following with the traditional orange and black motif, the span of buildings that make up the KTM Austria Headquarters are like nothing else you've ever seen. Simply standing in the parking lot is enough to get any pumpkin rider's blood pumping. The main building sports 24-hour armed security, an all-weather glass bike display case and a seemingly endless lineup of garage doors, loading docks and office windows. You've truly got to see this place to believe it.

Panama Canal. Channel Tunnel. Golden Gate Bridge. The modern world is full of many wonders, most of which are known for their monumental engineering or unmatched beauty. But if you were to add a location to that list based solely on its cool factor, the KTM Factory Race Shop in Austria would be it. As home to the KTM Factory Rally, World Enduro, MX and Freestyle teams, the massive building that makes up the race shop is a maze of corridors, storage rooms, shelving, dynos and workspaces, all packed to the gills with cool (and, in some cases, extremely secret) stuff. While many of the areas are super off-limits, you can see and learn a lot about the place just by rushing the main bay door and cruising around the first room you hit. If you were to fly to Austria and do just that, here's a glimpse at what you'd likely see...

Yes, that is a sheep drawn on the headlight of New Zealander Chris Birch's race bike. Even the factory boys know how to have a little fun...

Moving inside the actual race shop, the first thing you see is the obligatory line of KTMs. These particular machines were a mix of rental units and race bikes that were on their way back from the Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro. The third bike on the right belongs to Romaniacs podium finisher Cyril Despres, who runs that extra piece of plastic atop his headlight to protect his navigation equipment.

One of the coolest things in the KTM Race Shop (that we were allowed to take pictures of, that is) would have to be the massive wall of hardware that runs through the middle of the shop. Need a 6 x 20 bundt? Can't find where you put that pesky Flanschmutter M 6 ? Drop your Bundshraube mit Ansatz? Just head over to the magic drawers and take your pick!

You better believe that pounding through rocks or railing across the desert is violently hard on wheels. As such, KTM has cages-stacks and stacks of cages-filled to the brim with complete wheels! With such high standards on performance, the team cuts no corners and will chuck out a wheel even if it's only slightly tweaked. If ever there was a perfect place to dumpster dive, the KTM shop is it!

KTM's big diesel service trucks look like something the Austrian military would use to take names with. These massive trucks are rolling service departments, and each of them contains enough parts to build a couple of complete bikes.

Parked in the corner of the race shop-alongside some bins of parts and a full-size poster of someone that we can't show you in Dirt Rider-sits Repsol KTM Rally Team hero Marc Coma's personal race bike. This single-cylinder beast boasts 654cc of raw power and has the proven durability to withstand weeks of long range, deep desert abuse. Carrying nearly 10 gallons of fuel and weighing in just less than 360 pounds, the Rally 690 is not a toy. Coincidentally, this is the same type of machine that Jimmy Lewis raced in the Paris-Dakar Rally before he became the ever-smiling DR magazine editor that you now know today!

Nobody works harder than KTM's race crew, and on any given day of the week you're likely to find one of these Austrians working well into the night to get the job done. Roland Bruckner (left) is Cyril Despres' mechanic, and could put together a 300 EXC with a blindfold on while eating schnitzel. Stefan Huber (right) is the Technical Director for the KTM Rally Team, and is one of the fastest foam insert tire changers in the world-this guy could swap the rubber on your motorcycle in as long as it takes you to locate the rim lock. When it comes to tuning, these two are among the factory elite.

Remember when I said that the KTM crew often works into the early hours of the morning? Well, they likely never do it without a little Red Bull, which is to the mechanics as race gas is to the KTMs they're working on. As a title sponsor of the team, the Red Bull logo is everywhere around the shop.

KTM's race team has a strong relationship with Motorex, and they go through fluids like crazy. I wonder how much a barrel of oil costs in Mattighofen?