Whereas the season 2013 is hardly started for some, KTM does not waste time and reveals as of now its motorcycles for ground 2014! This year, it is the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 which received the most attention. Honored with the small enduro 4-time for this first test of range KTM 2014.
Deeply re-examined in 2012, the Enduro range from KTM had known one year 2013 rather quiet in terms of evolution. It will be also the case in 2014, with an exception however: small the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014. There it is a question of only the enduro to receive significant updates compared to the previous year.
If the frame remains close to what one knows, it is on the level of the engine that moves enormously with a new mechanical base which takes as a starting point the mill of the KTM 350 EXC-F.
Specially dusty between the trees, a cross-country race copiously sprinkled test and a loop of 35 kilometers in the rocky and skimped paths of Sardinia: we find loans with all to tell you here are on this new motorcycle!
An enduro equipped for the Cross-country race
But let us start with the beginning, because before even mounting the EXC-F, there are some remarks to make in statics. Difficult to pass beside the new look of the Austrian one Receives All which was very new prepaid, like the whole of the Enduro Besides ranks.
Lastly, new… yes and no, because it will undoubtedly have noted it to you: it is identical so that one finds on the range Cross-country race since last year. No the particular concern in terms of esthetics, the unit is “connection”, but it is noted however that the KTM seems to take again little by little its massive aspect on the level as of hearing.
For the rest, the panoply of equipment remains of news: Excel rims and imposing hubs, footrests catchy, translucent tank, new more rigid protect-hands, braking and fluid clutch Brembo, guide chains semi-rigid, new ventilator of radiator… In short, it does not miss large thing with the KTM, even if one regrets the absence of driving shoe and t-pieces cut in the mass.
Sharper of frame
One remains known in ground when one takes seat behind the handlebar, with a cockpit always a hair high but not unpleasant and orders which fall perfectly in their place. Remain that hearing seem to widen a little more than on the former model, but nothing malicious good.
If the frame of the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 that receives “only” small evolutions compared to the engine, one must acknowledge well that adjustments Ci and there have good. As of the first meters, it is felt that the emphasis was placed on comfort, the suspensions are crushed amply just by taking seat on such a comfortable saddle.
The Orange swallow’s stones with effectiveness and gum, well in the asperities of the ways. That does not type in the wrists, normal in the back. The shock absorber /PDS unit always makes good job, traction proves very good. The motorcycle gains in promptness, becomes a hair plus player that before and perhaps even a little easier. The changes of supports are fast, the precise entries of turn; the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 puts in confidence its pilot.
If the comfort of Kate will charm the majority of the endurists, most fastidious would undoubtedly have preferred an end of compression a little firmer to avoid re-heeling when one enters extremely the holes or on the jumps. But overall, one will not find defect crippling with this motorcycle easy to take in hand and effective.
An engine inflated just as it is necessary
The engine is often one of the large strong points of the Austrian motorcycles. Well that of the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 does not derogate from the rule. Already elastic and easy, the year 2014 receives more in terms of performances, while remaining accessible to Mr. All-the-World.
The difference is not excessively marked, but it is felt well that the trunk is higher. In the individual slow ones strewn with travelling stones, a thread of gas is enough to advance peacefully with low mode. No the blow of piston, not need to be permanently on the clutch lever: one can roll up on the second report, without fearing to fix.
If not, in mode attacks on the cross-country race test, the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 leaves itself there better than before: it does not return the hand when one enters the mud supports, it does not explode either the support as one can do it with the 350, but it does not lose in output. But it is with high mode that the performance profit is felt: there is best side of the lengthening-piece; the motorcycle is blown less quickly.
Assessment: A reference better than the reference…
The KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 with often served as reference in the category of the enduro 250 4-times… and that is likely to continue with the year 2014. The Austrian one gains right performance what it is necessary where it is necessary to place a notch at the top of what one knows already, without to become a motorcycle elitist and difficult to take over.
No Doubts: the EXC-F can play on two tables. That of the easy hikers and other amateurs of classical Enduro, just like that of agitated trigger who wish to put gas and to drive out the stopwatch in competition. On this last point, however, suspensions a little firmer in the end of the road would not be a luxury, although the KTM 250 EXC-F 2014 drew with the honors from the test from the ground from Cross-country race.
Now remain to know the rate of this innovation 2014 but on this point, KTM does not wish to communicate for the moment. To be continued….
Coming: Technique, engine and part-cycle
