I have been pondering this for quite a while.

I've been an owner of KTM 'crossers, supermotos and my Superduke for over 12 years now. Except for an inexcusable detour onto a Honda VFR I haven't owned any other make of bike for this time. I am a die-hard KTM fan and my posts on this site will corroborate this fact. Been a big supporter of their brand and values and products that the've designed, manufactured and delivered.

As I have been honest in saying across a lot of our Superduke.net threads, I'm disappointed with the 1290, so much so that I'm not going to buy one. And as time goes on I'm less frustrated with the minor frustrations with the new bike, (and they are pretty minor really), but more with the attitude with KTM and their dealer response. Everything about the hype, the launch, the availability and the shoddy way the bikes are being prepared and delivered to new customers is below what I expect or believed possible from KTM.

But what I want to ask from this thread is why, after all this time, all these years, does KTM not feel it appropriate, or beneficial, to appropriate and delegate a person to our forum?

An official KTM representative, with authority to comment and respond to posts, would be hugely welcome on this site. Why have they not realised this and put forward people to do so? The guy, I think Sexparty, from Aus who works for a KTM dealer is the only person I've read on here who admits to his affiliations with the company.

Come on KTM, get involved, communicate with your long term customer base for Christ sake!!!

Solve the issues before they become damaging to your brand and loyal following. If you want to use modern channels of communication, ie. the internet and shit to aggressively hype and promote your products then fooking use them to them afterwards to nurture and bond with your loyal fans.

Or alienate and lose them.....

your choice...........

I agree!

I am so damn nervous of this bike and all the horror stories about the bike and dealer support. I have a BMW S1000rr now and the experience dealing with BMW was awesome. In fact, one of the best bikes and dealer that I have experienced over my 25 years of riding.

I want the bike bad, but scared shitless to buy it.

I'm glad to have read this Bic, not to hijack your thread but my trial is on Thursday & given that the single joint expert has confirmed the tank fitted does not appear to be the same one fitted to the bike at rejection & if proven, potentially the implications for Laguna, AMS & Black Horse could be considerable. KTM know I'm going not to quit pursuing class action so my point is that if all of the issues were responsibly addressed instead of being swept under the carpet, people like myself wouldn't have to take their criticisms to court and suffer massive financial losses because they haven't delivered what I've been expected to pay for.

Sadly they appear to rely too much on CAD proofing instead of real world testing. The 1290 paint chips are a good example - why was paint thickness not accounted for in CAD design? These issues may be minor but it's the 21st century, it shouldn't be happening. By comparison, if one company can get it right, the other has no excuse. Origin of assembly should make no difference either.

KTM's marketing budget is testament to this corner cutting and it's insane. Ducati have got their act together, no doubt in part to their newish owners - VAG group. KTM's profits are there to view for all so why not invest in the refinement of the brand?

Their attitude (and betrayal of my loyalty at least) is appalling & it doesn't have to be this way.

Ah heck, he's on his soapbox again

I think the reason the haven't is because as this is an open forum, anyone can say anything (to some degree, until the mods intervene) they want. Now if this site was linked to KTM themselves, those views of others could deemed as views of KTM, which could be damaging to them to the point of another company, eg Aprillia, filing a lawsuit.

Of the many forums I have been a member of, I can't think of there being many, if any, official representative on them. Sure there are people who are affiliated with them, like sexparty on here, but no-one as an offical representative.


Edit:
Hope you get a good out come on Thursday, Jim. It must work in your favour that it's a different tank now.

Please post the trial outcome, if you can. Very interested. Good luck.

From what I remember when I was racing supermoto, we're much better off without someone from KTM UK being involved.

There was a post many years back that stated that KTM did have it's ears and eyes connected to this site. I believe it was in the 1290 prototype thread. I would be hard pressed to believe that KTM has anything to gain from disclosing any involvement with this site. If they stated on their own site an acknowledgement of keeping apprized of the concerns and or quality issues expressed on this and other KTM based sites, the public would feel that someone was listening.
Even then it opens a pandora's box in possible litigation.

So KTM, you acknowledge that you have been following certain websites dedicated to your product and have possibly seen polls and threads that address certain malfunctioning equipment and did nothing to ileviate the situation?
I'd being running to the nearest rock big enough to bury my head under and stay there till the shrapnel cleared. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, monkey man knows which side his bread is buttered.

Go Jim

My happy posts to various KTM FB pages were removed within a day.

I think Uni Marketing 101 nowadays must be awarenesses of social media and addressing real customer feedback.

But even Porsche with their flambe new GT3s tried some lowdown selective customer remediation and it didnt go down very well with the very vocal Porsche owners forums. They as a group are no doubt were generally well off financially , but I understand they wrote a public letter to the CEO of Porsche them published it all over the place.

From a mods point of view I'm glad no one from KTM officially posts on here. It would be a fooking nightmare and would descend into madness in no time at all. We'd be deleting posts, locking threads and threatening bans. The KTM official would be inundated with posts and people would soon gang up on them even for issues they could do nothing about. If you think about the way it would go it's obvious this would be the case. I have no doubt KTM monitor this site and take notice of what people post. They would be foolish if they didn't as it offers great customer feedback. Dealers are our point of contact though.

From recent warranty and quality issues I think KTM believes they are above the gods and don't care about their customers, so I doubt they monitor any related site.

If I ran KTM UK or corporate KTM I would make it policy that any employee posting on any site that could possibly have a bearing on the products we made stated in their signature that they were expressing only a personal opinion and that their views in no way represented the views or policies of the company. Secretly I would be wishing I could confiscate all theirs computers to avoid cock ups!

Can you imagine the focal point that someone officially from KTM would become for every petty grievance real or imagined - Nightmare and utterly counter productive all round.

Bic - You are obviously a passionate guy in your area of branding and brand values but from my perspective that's not actually how the world works. Brand values are aggregate perceptual outcomes based around suggested themes with highly selective reinforcements conveyed to the largest possible audience at the lowest possible cost. Does anybody here think KTM really has any values beyond growth and return on investment for the owners? When you are a niche player making quirky product for a neglected sub set of a market one thing suits, when you are moving into a mass manufacturing established big player role something else is needed building on what marketing types are fond of describing as 'brand heritage'

It's all coblers really. The bike seems great, they are selling as many as they can make at a premium price, the halo effect on smaller and cheaper products will multiply the profits nicely and no doubt they are now working on a teaser campaign for the all new 1300 RC9 as I type. As long as the bulk supply isn't too delayed and these alleged engine failures turn out to be the exception instead of the rule then I cant see how it could be going much better for them.

Jim - Fingers crossed for you later this week. I had thought Lloyds might settle on the steps given the recent judgement in the laptop case. Perhaps they still will, would be great to see you reinstated and the loss made good.

well if they were linked it wouldnt be on a friday
tok the 1190 ADV for its MSC upgrade and aload of recalls on Friday , anyhow the dealer plugged it into the mother ship and it lost its mind , the dealer rang KTM mothership in Austria and it turned out they dont work on Fridays

Sometimes, (read often), I post things on here to get a reaction. Just to gauge what you all think about something or because I'm a bit bored and there isn't much traffic going on.

I'm not really that bothered by the KTM brand or what they are choosing to do with it. I don't care really, I just have a great bike that I own and it happens to be a KTM. But I am Interested in what forum members think about the brand and how that perceive the way KTM design, sell and service bikes and customers.

There's comments on here about, "the haters" and "A minority of vocal members". Well, I'm not a hater, never have been and I guess I am a minority because I post stuff up and then answer or defend my point of view. What the whole 1290 debate has clearly shown is that the vast majority of current Superduke owners don't care about KTM or the "brand" or just aren't interested in posting their view, it's just, not important enough. Which is fine

In the interest of balance I just got home and there's a letter from ktm arrived saying sorry for your adv recalls as a as a good will gesture you can have an additional years warranty for nowt
Happy days

Well i agree with bic about ktm efforts and image, they are very hit n miss and normally the client has to make an effort for the ball to get rolling for warranty issues or general faults that should not happen, i am not bad with my dealer, they treat me fine and do what the can with ktm but in 08 after my sd dropped a valve i had to email the president of ktm who i imagine did not read my email but instead was his assistant and the engine was repaired in seven days which i thought was a good service.

Having said this i would however imagine that if it had not been for the email it could have ben seven weeks or months as i did hear that ktm spain wanted to blame me for the failure by saying i did not know how to ride a vtwin!!!!!

Anway i at the moment still have the 1290 and my problem is what do i replace it with? The offers just keep arriving, this week i should decide, i am thinking v4 aprilia if i do change and do not know if touno or rsv, either would be a new one.