RUST magazine: Rust#7

Adventure
There had been some successes
mind, victory in the 1993 Atlas Rally and
in the 1994 Pharaohs Rally.
By 1997 then the LC4 was well
developed. Certainly KTM had ridden it
hard into some of the toughest arenas,
and so when they chose to enter the
adventure market - still called ‘big
trailies’ at that time - they delivered a
machine that was way more rugged
than had previously been offered.
Bear in mind we’re at a time that is
over a decade after the height of the
first Paris-Dakar replica fad, when the
likes of Yamaha’s XT600 Ténéré and
Honda’s XL600M had brought long
travel suspension and super-size fuel
tanks to high streets all over Europe.
KTM followed in the spirit of those
machines, but brought its own unique
added-extra - the no-compromise
competition-based motor. ‘Only the
essentials’ was KTM’s claim at the time.
The Adventure wasn’t a toy, and wasn’t
a road bike in fancy look-at-me clothes,
this was - KTM said - a bike for the
hardcore enthusiast.
And that hardcore nature was evident
to even the most casual of observers.
With 280/330mm of suspension travel