KTM EXC MY18 2T launch “THE “THE MAIN REASON WE DID DID THE THE ROOF ROOFWAS WAS THE CANNOT TEST TESTAT AT3000 3000 THE ALTITUDE. WE CANNOT METRES METRES IN AUSTRIA…” What were the real problems along the way? “There are so many ways it can go wrong! I am not a technician, but how a two-stroke engine works is so unbelievably complex. There are so many ways and strategies to set up an engine. I think it is a little the same on a four-stroke but there is information out there to help. With this two-stroke there was no information.” What was the hardest part of the process to get right? “I don’t remember how many different strategies we tried but there were so many. You start with something which you think is good but when you arrive at this track or this conditions for riding you find mistakes so you try to solve this new problem and come again. Not a lot of people understand 100 per cent how a two-stroke works. It is a really difficult thing to understand fully. With the TPI it is not possible to make a strategy to go in a certain direction because no-one knows. We learned so much from the changes we didn’t want to do. It was a big learning curve because every aspect of riding conditions change with temperature and altitude.”
“TWO “TWO STROKES HAVE A SPECIAL SPECIAL CHARACTER… CHARACTER… II LOVE TWO-STROKE… THE THETPI TPIHAD HADTO TO LOVE RIDING A TWO-STROKE… BE LIKE FOUR-STROKE.” FOUR-STROKE.” BE LIKE THAT AND NOT LIKE From the start of the process was it important to make sure the bike behaved like a two-stroke? “Yes definitely. The goals and ambitions within KTM is that the two-stroke should be alive no matter what the emission laws or problems are. We work to keep the two-stroke alive. Two strokes have a special character. I love riding a two-stroke and many people are the same and so the TPI had to be like that and not like four-stroke. We tried everything to keep it like that.” E