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• Technical data – KTM 400/520 EXC Racing

Driving report KTM EXC 400/520 Racing

Raise your cups

Reason to celebrate? Why, surely. With the 400 and 520 Racing, KTM achieved the coup of this off-road season. Now the racers have been modeled.

Two words are enough. Only two: KTM Racing ?? and hundreds of colorfully dressed, sweaty enduro cracks fall on their knees with armor and bow down towards Mattighofen. Because it was precisely this racing that showed the youngsters of the four-stroke driven locomotion with studded tires at the beginning of this year the shining path to the modern age.
Sure, the Yamaha YZ 400 F had already kicked over the first blades of grass on the new path a year earlier? but only as a motocrosser. The enduro model did not come close to the qualities of the groundbreaking cross-racer. And so KTM followed suit. With a compact, short-stroke motor. Small enough to be implanted in a virtually unchanged chassis from the agile two-stroke model range, including an electric starter weighing just under 117 kilograms ?? the days when four-stroke enduros were synonymous with clunky second-choice off-road machines were finally over.
And they went like hotcakes, EXC Racing. The carefully calculated annual production of 4200 pieces ?? all sold off the assembly line. Total triumph in sport too. All Enduro World Championship titles of the 2000 season in the four-stroke classes and ?? the absolute sensation – the 500cc Motocross World Championship overall victory within reach.
Therefore, with 9200 machines for 2001, more than twice as many will be brought to the people. Even if the KTM engineers approached it moderately after last year’s act of violence in terms of model updates. Larger radiators and a new water pump, which offer the hot-blooded sportsman more thermal reserves in the narrow passages, and a clutch basket mounted on needles instead of the bronze bushing, which tends to seize, remain the most important changes in the engine.
Modified adjustments of the spring elements with the spring strut from White Power, which is hinged directly to the swingarm without deflection, and the upside-down fork from the same company are on the annual work schedule anyway. The only thing that is completely new in the chassis area is the rear brake caliper, which with new pads and smaller brake pistons is intended to make the hindquarters that tend to block more user-friendly, and the rocker arm in the chain tensioner area is stiffer. Not new, but still great: the included conversion kit (short number plate carrier with rear light, chain wheel, small speedometer bracket), which helps convert the street legal version into a competition speedster.
And how do the new ones drive? How nice ?? like the old ones. Which can be understood as a compliment. Even as very, very thick. Ultra-spontaneous on the gas, lively, handling in a class of its own. And this electric starter. INGENIOUS. The 400 and 520 are and will remain the measure of all things Enduro. The EXC 400 with its smooth, easily controllable power development is the ideal vehicle for the majority of all off-road freaks below semi-professional status, the 520 with the biting, almost brutal thrust of the off-road dragster for knowledgeable, but also muscular hands.
Criticism? Little. For example, in the series distribution at White Power, which is why it is a matter of luck to get a fork with a reasonable response. Or with the shock absorber, whose sag and negative spring travel must be meticulously adjusted in order to iron hard acceleration edges reasonably smooth. And whether the new brake cylinder from Brembo at the rear really worked? The pedal still has to be gently stroked so as not to overbrake the rear wheel on hard, low-traction surfaces.
S.no matter what. All lapalia compared to the epoch-making concept. As I said, two words ?? and we bow again towards Mattighofen.

Technical data – KTM 400/520 EXC Racing

Engine: water-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke engine, four valves, one overhead camshaft, bore x stroke 89 x 64 [95 x 72] mm, displacement 398 [510] cm³, flat slide carburetor, 0 39 mm, rated power 35 [42] kW (48 [57 ] PS) at 8800 / min [7800 / min], max. Torque 44 [58] Nm (4.5 [5.9] kpm) at 6800 / min [6200 / min], six-speed gearbox. Chassis: single-loop tubular frame with split beams; bolted rear frame made of aluminum rectangular tubes; Upside-down fork, 0 43 mm; Central spring strut hinged directly to the swing arm; Suspension travel front / rear 295/320 mm; Disc brake with floating double-piston brake caliper at the front, 0 260 mm, disc brake with floating single-piston brake caliper at the rear, 0 220 mm, spoked wheels 1.60 x 21 at the front, 2.50 x 18 at the rear, price includes VAT 13,880 marks (EXC 400), 14,280 marks (EXC 520)

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