A
s anticipation was building for the delivery of
the 2018 KTM range, I was tossing around the
idea of whether or not to step up to the 250
or stay on my 125 for another year. But when
I looked at the problem sideways and checked out
the idea of riding a 150, I honestly didn’t look any
further. My reasoning as the season approached
was that I wanted to race the NZ XC Nationals,
and I thought for the under 200cc class this bike
might just be the best possible race weapon,
and an additional bonus would be that I could
race it in MX events throughout NZ too.
Over the past 10 years KTM has arguably
lived up to its ‘Ready to Race’ slogan,
with amazing bikes straight out of the crate, and
I don’t think the 150 SX is any different. When I
first saw the 2018 150 I didn’t really see much of
a difference over last year’s bike in the way of
looks, as they all have the sleek white and orange
plastics which they have run for the last few years.
Just sitting on the bike, the first thing I noticed
about the 2018 model was how much lighter the
throttle is compared to last year’s model – this
is a huge improvement compared to the 125 SX
I raced last season, which was pretty heavy.
There had been a lot of rumours going around
the paddock about the new air forks on the SX,
and what they were like. Well, after riding the
KTM 150SX – WILL EYRE
54 KIWI RIDER