KTM in Administration

A chain of West Country dealers went pop yesterday as well so it’s not a good trading environment. Having said that Ktm are partly to blame as they consistently produced bike numbers that outstripped demand and every winter had to shed stock at huge discounts which undermined the resale value of their bikes.  If you paid say £18k for a nice adventure bike in June and in November they are being sold at £14k then your six month old bike is worth £12k so a 1/3 depreciation. You would be a bit pissed at that. Add to that the cam issues and lacklustre initial response to dealing with it and what is already a tough situation further erodes customer confidence.  

I can see some good deals to be had in the new year, I can't see them going under but certainly see them offloading Husky and Gas Gas. It wouldn't surprise me if they pull out of Moto GP, not so sure about Moto 2 and 3 as they are more relevant to there road bikes, small capacity bikes are on the rise. They didn't help themselves entering the bicycle market, massive overstretch !