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Stu wrote:Rick is waiting for the new KTM 350 FreeRide that should be at the dealer's showrooms in late March or April. It is the same motor as in the 350 EXC-F and it may well be street legal. Suspension is less but then so is weight. Reportedly 220 lbs. which is really light for a 4 stroke. It will have about 30 hp and will be tuned for torque so it will be easy to ride. The only drawback I see is the 1 gallon tank (on the Euro version anyway). That is still good for 60 miles of woods riding from reports I have read on it.

Is this the bike we former and non competitive riders are waiting for? Sort of a combination of trails and enduro characteristics?

Stu

That will be my wife's next bike if KTM does indeed bring it to North America. It amazes me how much the manufacturers ignore this demographic of rider. Our recent experience has been that so called "entry-level" bikes are in fact just overweight, underpowered compromises of what they should really be.

The only thing I've seen so far are Internet rumors on the bike coming here, but those have been fairly reliable in the past, especially when it comes to KTM, so we're crossing our fingers!

bonanzasteve wrote:Wow, that’s cool. I have been toying with the idea of replacing my DRZ with one or the other. My next question was going to be how you decided between the two, having ridden both, but Stu seems to have covered the differences pretty good. Since you were able to find a used one, that would factor into the equation as well. So what if you had found one of each on the market used, which one would you have chosen, all else being equal?
Steve

I would have chosen the 350, but this is based on very limited test riding of the 250, 350, and 500. The 350 without a doubt felt lighter than the 500, and I like that a lot. Put them both on a scale, and I think the weight is very close, but the 350 feels lighter--as Stu says.

Also, as I'm getting older (and wiser?), I'm becoming a less-is-more man....and more so all the time. (Is that a contradiction?) Anyway...it's the 350 for me...for now.

Regarding the FreeRide 350....I'm excited by that bike, but was not excited about the detuned motor compared to the 350 EXC-F. I'm also interested in street-legal and healthy after-market stuff...which the EXC line has. Not sure if the FreeRide will be street-legal in US.

That is one ugly bike.... Looks like a throw back to the 70's

http://www.stayontheblack.com/concept-m ... ic-gs-350/

Actually, I like the looks of it.

Just curious, why did KTM go from the 530 down to the 500 anyway? What are the actual cc's of them? Just wonderin'

Savage wrote:Actually, I like the looks of it.

Just curious, why did KTM go from the 530 down to the 500 anyway? What are the actual cc's of them? Just wonderin'

Don't quote me on it, but I think all of KTM's "big bore" 5xx's have all been 510 actual cc's whether they were 525's, 530's, etc. I think the misleading #'s were more model numbers as opposed to displacements.

That concept 350 is kind of cool, but I'm not sure what would make it a better choice than a more "normal" bike, unless you're just wanting cool looks.

It looks a lot like the bikes I grew up with, in the 70's. I would be interested in one . I like my DRZ but some times it is a little heavy. The bike reminds me of the Combat Wombat with modern features. It might be cool in person.

To clarify, because it's not apparent that this is clear to all, the KTM Freeride 350 looks like this:


This image below is just one designers artistic mock-up of a redesign for the bike.

Again we are missing the right colors!

16 time baja champ!

Okay it looks much better and what we have here is trials bike enduro style. Could be a real winner for racers and trail riders too. I hope they start to import them soon to the USA. The only draw back I see is the small gas tank, but I'm being picky.

Got my used, out-of-state KTM 350 inspected by the KS vehicle inspection station today. Was a close one as they could not read the official sticker because it was too worn (after only 20 hours?!). They had to "call it in", and lucky for me, I walked away with a clean inspection.

Note that they did not check any lights, horn, mirrors, or DOT tires, etc. She said "it's just a VIN inspection"...plus the sticker to prove it's US street-legal...and they wrote down the miles. That's it.