RUST magazine: Rust#7

Where It All Began
Okay, let’s turn the
clock back to 1997.
We’re only three-to-four
years after Stefan
Pierer’s acquisition of the
ailing Austrian marque.
There’s a new impetus,
new money, and KTM are
developing new machines.
In enduro the GS models
have now become EXCs,
there’s been a first dip of
the orange toe into the
road bike market with the
Duke, and now KTM are
adapting their water-cooled
four-stroke single, the LC4 -
formerly a big-bore enduro
engine - to trail and
adventure duties.
The LC4 motor was already ten years old in 1997. Having
first seen service as what was then termed a ‘Hard Enduro’
powerplant, its competition heritage was extended to rally-raid
use. Heinz Kinigadner had been campaigning a rally version
in the Paris-Dakar and while he’d taken the odd stage win -
he confessed his (world championship winning) motocross
background didn’t give him the ideal temperament to last the
full distance. In fact, from his seven Dakar starts he didn’t
finish a single one. Full Gasssss Kini!