Hey dudes, I'm new to the forum. Love it around here thanks!

I'm looking to pick up a new Sport ATV. Something that I will mostly be using in the goods/dirt, but starting to mess in a little racing in the future too perhaps.

I was wondering.. for some reason I'm a little partial to the KTMs. I've never owned one, but for some reason they just call to me. I've heard they are a little expensive, or so that seems to the consensus. Would it be worth the price tag considering what they come with stock if I could get a 09' 450xc new for $7000ish?

Should I be looking at something else? If so shoot me some ideas..

 

IF you can find a new 450xc for 7k, just buy it. There is little out there for that price plus those features. Can Am has been willing to deal on there models also, but the KTM motor is a beast, and pretty reliable to boot.

 

from what I've heard- KTM motors are some of the best out there. I personallly have no experience with'em though. I think MWQ has or had a couple KTM bikes...

 

All I hear about the KTM is how good of a woods and mx machine it is, never rode one or even seen one in real life for that matter, so I can't give a full opinion. But it is apparently one of the nicer 450s, and if it calls to you, then if you get something else you'll be wondering what it'd be like to own the KTM, so you better get it, you can't go wrong anyway.

 

One of the guys we ride with has a 525 Ktm and it's the only one in the group that will take my ds650 hill climbing and drag racing, he trail rides all the time and races it as well. This fall he traded it for a new DS450 because he'd been hearing good things about them. I haven't talked to him in awhile to know how well he likes the ds.

 

My goal is to test out all the 450s at some point, northern Canada isn't known for its sport quad market however. So I've never actually seen a Suzuki or KTM 450 up close and personal. I've ridden a lightly modified YFZ before, and that was the only 450 I'd ridden before I got my DS. I prefer everything on the DS over the YFZ, mainly because the YFZ was pretty cramped for me, and stock, the DS is much faster than it needs to be. And the previous owner had it geared really low; more teeth in the back, less on the front sprocket. I imagine the KTM is even more powerful, and the XC would be the way to go. Funny fact though, if you look at the specs for an '09 KTM 450SX, you'll notice they decided to build the same engine as the DS 450. Bore and stroke are exactly the same, they seem to like the huge bore idea that Rotax went with. Who's the better Austrian engine builder?

 

Note that the 450sx has the same bore/stroke as the Can Am. KTM used an 89mm bore in the xc model. The xc is just a jug and piston swap away from being a 525 though