Posts
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TN
US
Edited Date/Time
6/28/2024 8:33am
Josh from MXA commented on MXA's '25 450sxf intro that the 2025 KTM's, and I assume the GG and Husky also, are being assembled at the CF moto factory in China. As an avid KTM/Husky guy this is a little concerning to me and somewhat surprising they would risk their durability reputation by taking the assembly out of Austria and moving it to China. On the other hand, it seems they are consolidating a lot of things including the GG and Husky team riders. RacerX silly season said CC28 won't be replaced at Husky, neither will Pierce Brown at GG.
Allocating funds to the electric R&D I take it
I thought ktm had said there premiere bikes will still be made in Austria or India factory. I wonder how accurate the info is. Or maybe that was just the components/parts.
if true i’m going to get a 2024 KX450 for 5999 this weekend instead of a 25 350 SXF
Paying for premium and getting Chinese quality this could be the beginning of the end for KTM if true! My 22 will be the last Austrian bike I own and I'll get rid of it as soon as they start making replacement parts in China!
The Shop
I think most people would be surprised if they knew how many of the parts they buy come from China, OEM parts included.
Based on MSRP dirt bikes aren't their "premiere" bikes?
The GPX KTM's are all the proof I need of outsourcing to China.
I heard there were adv bikes that are or will be made there but not the mx bikes. Honda makes just about everything that isn’t a crf 250/450 r/x there.
Just check the vin. That will tell you where the bike was assembled.
I was thinking some of there junior bikes and adventure bike. I thought all the 250/350/450 were in Austria still. Hard thing to know for sure unless someone does the research or ktm tells us.
Funding for the Moto GP Austrian teams is probably in excess of 40-50 million Euro's. Including moto 1 and 2gp bikes for all 3 teams.
So a Chinese company ripping off KTM bikes is your proof that KTM is making bikes in China?
Yes, Mr Wang isn't going to build a factory to make knock off dirt bikes.
Mr Wang is going to get a contract to make dirt bikes and then build a factory. Later after the contract expires; Mr Wang still has a factory to make dirt bikes.
China can manufacture at whatever quality level companies want. It's all dollars and cents. If you want to be competitive and also make a reasonable margin, the dead nuts cost can be significantly lowered especially long term.
Their workforce is not entitled, low paid, and work incredibly long hours. There is a reason Asia overall produces probably more than 50% of what you use every day including high end products. Example would be most of the finest carbon fiber bicycles are made in Taiwan.
China can make very high quality stuff IF it's specified properly. If not specified properly, they will use the cheapest material and manufacturing to give you a shit part. But don't kid yourself, they have access to the same machining processes we do. Where you get in trouble is when you ask them to do many things. And this has been changing too. Not all 6061 alu is the same, your specs have to be more specific. Same with other materials.
Just signed up for the Vital forum to make my first comment! Haha... I want to chime in, I didn't say anything about the bikes being made at CF Moto in our video. Watch it here to see what I said! motocrossactionmag.com/mxa-video-2025-ktm-450sxf-tested/
Fake news strikes again.
https://motocrossactionmag.com/mxa-video-2025-ktm-450sxf-tested/
Pit Row
Welcome to the insanity Josh, I have really enjoyed all your videos and tests you have been putting out with MXA… keep it up!
Thank you sir! I really appreciate it!
This, and it’s necessary to have STRICT quality control for incoming parts. There is a lot of fake material in China with forged certifications, and even if your supplier is doing everything right it’s very possible that their material supplier could be giving them bad material with a fake cert. There’s some great machine shops and factories over there that do quality work and take care of their employees, but there are also a lot of extremely shady shops that will close down and reopen under a new name every other week after they’ve screwed enough people over with fake material and low quality parts.
Oh, ok.
Sounds like you got it figured out.
Thanks for clearing that up, thanks for racing the nationals, thanks for the great mag! Huge fan!
There are two KTMs being assembled in China by CF Moto. The 790 Duke and the 790 Adventure. The 390s are made in India. Everything else is still being produced in Austria.
Look at the VIN number.
First two letters: VB, made in Austria. LE, made in China. MD, made in India.
Of course! Thank you for watching and reading! Really appreciate it!
What is the Assembly of Austria?
The Austrian Parliament consists of two chambers: the National Assembly (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat). The National Assembly is the main legislative body. The preparation and implementation of legislation takes place in the Federal Government or in the Provincial Governments.
Contract extension for Gopher Dunes?
Haha sounds like fun, but no more Canadian races this year. I'm racing RedBud next weekend though!
I dont understand the fuss about them being assembled in China. There will be 20 KTM engineers overseeing the process. 90% of the stuff you guys use are made in China or elsewhere in Asia anyways.
Every country has their own regulations for Made In origin criteria. With bicycles it's a joke that as long as the container ship is in Italian water for 2 weeks, then your part it's Made in Italy.
I'm not very knowledgeable about Austrian import laws, but a quick internet search returned this:
The specification of the country of manufacture or the place of manufacture is not mandatory under law in Austria. The Austrian legal system does not contain any specific rules for the use of designations of origin such as “Made in Austria”.
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