More Orange, Less Changes.
The SX and the XC line will see the majority of changes for 2019 with KTM but to get you ready for those, KTM realease the lightly revised EXC-F and expected XC-W information for 2019 model year. The big news is the inclusion of the 300 XC-W TPI (fuel-injected two-stroke) to the lineup meaning the days of carbs and two-strokes are over for KTM in the off-road world.
The 300 TPI will be nearly the same as the 2018 250 TPI in technical specifications related to the FI systems and then nearly identical to the 2018 300 XC-W in all other aspects. In fact the two changes (other than the colors of parts and the look) are a new seat cover and a slightly stiffer setting to the WP front fork. Those two changes are across the EXC-F and XC-W range. So in hard news there is not much. We expect that since most of the work has been done on the SX and XC lines (look at the 2018.5 Factory Edition bikes for clues here) that it was an off-year for new things on this segment which has been going through extensive changes in years previous.
The prices have not been announced and it will be a little while before they are set. Mid-June seems to be the target date for bikes on Dealer’s floors.
The 500 EXC-F stays the same if not a little bit more orange.
The 350 EXC-F is identical to the one we tested here save for a stiffer fork and ripples in the seat.
Hard to tell the 250 EXC-F from the 350 EXC-F until you ride them back-to-back like we did here: Link to 2017 EXC Riding impression and the bikes have not changed too much.
The two-stroke 250 and 300 XC-W are indistinguishable in looks but the market has been waiting for the 300 TPI here in the US. Here is our impression of those bikes from Erzburg last year and from riding the 250 XC-W TPI here in the states, KTM have made some big improvements in the ignition and fuel mapping since them. Can’t wait to see how those small but effective changes might have really livened up the 2019 300 XC-W.
