For 23 years Gerald Kiska has been responsible for the look and feel of KTM's motorcycles. PH2 caught up with the man who made orange acceptable and even persuaded KTM to build a car...
KTM's bikes always deliver on the style - here's why
You have been working with KTM for 23 years, has much changed in that time?
"The principle ingredients of KTM have not been moved since 1991. The slogan is 'ready to race' and this is not just a statement, it is the way a KTM guy thinks, acts and lives. Design is a method of showing the inners of a company to the outside world. Design should not put make-up on a face, it should work out what the face stands for."
Is there not a danger your design will become stale?
"The long-term relationship between KTM and us is good for consistency of design. If you look at Ducati it has had about four heads of design in 20 years, each one has come in and tried to put their own mark on the style. With Kiska and KTM there have been no big changes to the major styling ingredients, only evolution and refreshing. We have some new guys who see the brand differently and old freaks like me, it is a good combination... I make sure they don't step over the line!"
Kiska describes himself as 'old freak' of the team
"A KTM needs to be recognised as a KTM even from a distance. Over the last 20 years I would say at least 20 designers have styled a KTM bike but somehow we have managed to keep a certain 'look'."
So what separates KTM design from other motorcycle manufacturers?
"We put a lot of effort into ergonomics so that the motorcycle is a nice place for the pilot to be. The RC8 is a good example of this, no other sports bike gives the rider so many opportunities to change the bike to fit in with their own personal needs by altering the bars, pegs, seat, etcetera. The bike has to function as a workspace and not just a toy."
Do you work closely with KTM's engineers or is design separate to development?
"We have a very interactive way of working with KTM's engineers. The difficulty with motorcycle design versus car design for instance is that with bikes all the unnecessary stuff is already taken off before we start. Everything you see on the bike has a function, it is not just there for aesthetics. For instance the tank has to have a certain volume, needs to contain a fuel pump and that pump must be able to suck all of the fuel from the tank. This is the same for every single detail - mirrors, fairing, seat, it all has to be considered.
"A lot of designers who move from the car side to the motorcycle business have a hard time in the beginning as a bike is far more complicated to design than a car. With a car you do the outside, with a bike you need to discuss every single detail with the engineers. During the modelling phase of a project I would say we are in contact with KTM on a daily basis, there is a lot of back and forth discussion. You can question if the distance between our two companies is a good thing, we think that the current distance of 35 minutes is perfect - you can't just go there for no reason but also it is close enough to get problems sorted quickly. If we were any closer the engineers would always be here, something that would certainly delay the design!"
KTM's RC8 taking shape in the studio
How far ahead of production are you working?
"At the moment we work three to four years in advance, which is about the time it takes to complete a project. When we look around the design studio at the current model range and for us it looks like a museum, we are already thinking about the next generation. This can be very scary as predicting the future is very hard, however KTM is a forward thinking company. KTM is one of the few companies focusing on smaller capacity models, something we started in 2007, long before the market crashed."
So where is the market heading?
"The growth in the market is now between 125 and 500cc, not just in Europe but also the emerging markets whose sales are going up as Europe's are going down. I think the sales will eventually meet in the middle. People are now starting to realise that you don't need 180hp to have fun on a motorcycle, which is what I like about the Duke 390. You can squeeze it out like a lemon and this is a feeling I have not had since my youth riding RD350s. It is fun to ride, an easy going and flickable motorcycle. Corners are fun on a motorcycle, not late braking and accelerating to an extreme."
X-Bow put KTM on four wheels; timing bad though
What bikes have influenced you?
"I have been influenced by many bikes - the Ducati Monster and 916, MV Agusta F4 and even further back with models that started my addiction when I was just a boy, bikes like the Kawasaki Z900, Yamaha RD350, RD500, I have always been into bikes. I was always a two-stroke fan, and street bikes not off-roaders, but the contact with KTM forced me to try dirt riding. My first training course was with Heinz Kinigadner at his house in Ibiza - my god he took me to pieces... I was so happy when KTM decided to go more towards street bikes, when they made the decision to build the first Super Duke it was the greatest day of my life. With a dirt bike no one notices the style, but with a street bike the whole motorcycle community looks at your work."
You are obviously a fan of older machines, will KTM ever build a retro bike?
"No, KTM is a company that never looks back. This can be a little bit of a pain as there isn't even a book on the history of KTM, which is annoying, but that's the price you pay. Only really Mini has managed to develop and build on a retro brand, the rest have stalled in their tracks. Look at the Ducati Sport Classics, VW Beetle, they were briefly cool but then stalled. Retro bikes are a one-off hit, not a future product. Personally, if I want a vintage bike I will buy a vintage bike. However I won't as I am not good enough to work on older bikes! Vintage bikes are always disappointing, they never start and when they do they are never as good as you remember - they are better to look at than ride..."
Downsized bikes like 390 Duke the future
You are responsible for KTM's orange colour, how did this come about?
"Orange first arrived in 1993 with the new Duke but was used in 1995 and finally in 1996 it was chosen as the corporate colours. At the time there was not much else to consider - green is Kawasaki, red is Honda, Blue Yamaha, yellow Suzuki, there is not much left! For me it is also a symbol of the spirit of the company - fresh, aggressive and it stands out. The KTM orange colour is continually under development, it has actually changed several times over the years."
Does Kiska work for anyone else apart from KTM?
"KTM represents a good third of our turnover, but we also do stuff for other motorcycle companies as well as Audi, Opel and Renault. The Triumph Trophy was my idea for example. Triumph was a very different company to work with. We told both KTM and Triumph that we were working on projects for the other manufacturer as we wanted to be open and honest; neither company had a problem as they are not in competition with this model. It is good to work for other motorcycle manufacturers, the more projects you do the more you learn. Also I think the enemy is not within Europe, our motorcycle brands are very well differentiated. This is not the case with the Japanese, they have more of an overlap and a customer may struggle to choose between a Yamaha and a Honda. I think this philosophy and strength of brand is a major reason in the resurgence of European manufacturers. The Japanese simply do not have this."
How do you view the Japanese manufacturers?
"Look at the supersport category, they made better and better bikes, lost more and more money and now they are forced to make the decision to effectively stop the class. It is very strange behaviour to ruin a market and not gain market share - it's great for the consumer as you are getting amazing machines for very little money, but where is the sense for the manufacturer? I'm almost looking forward to seeing which segment they will ruin next!"
Venom concept under construction
Have you ever got it wrong?
"Yes, the first KTM 950 Adventure. We unveiled it at the Intermot Show and the reaction from the public was so horrible we had to do it all again! KTM said no to a 640 prototype street bike based on the old LC4 engine. The motor was so rough that it took the whole bike apart and made it horrible to ride. We had ideas for a project a little bit similar to the Ducati Diavel a few years ago but that didn't make it through the initial stages of development."
Speaking of concept bikes, what happened to the 2004 KTM RC8 Venom?
"At that time Aprilia came out with the Tuono and we thought that turning a superbike into a naked wasn't a bad idea. We made a prototype but that is when we realised the seating position would never have been good enough to give the bike the correct weight distribution. I liked the prototype, it rode well, but in terms of performance it certainly was not what it needed to be. The tank was too long and you sat a little bit too far away from the top yoke to make it agile. If you turn a superbike into a street fighter then you really have to create a super fast bike otherwise it doesn't make sense! After this first prototype the project stopped and we figured out that it would be better to make something like the new 1290 Duke, which we started working on in 2009. The plan was for the Super Duke to reach the market sooner than now but the financial crisis delayed production."
Have you ridden the new 1290 Super Duke R?
"Yes, I rode one Super Duke 1290 without electronics and it scared me to death!"
Venom concept leads a line-up of KTM machines
What do you ride day to day?
"I have just made a huge mistake. I owned a 950 Adventure but sold it recently and I now have an 1190 Adventure. The problem is that I was too quick selling my 950, a few days after I sold it I got a call from Stefan Pierer asking if I still had the bike. He said they needed one for the KTM museum, the only one they were missing was a 950 Adventure! I could have negotiated a good deal on the 1190..."
How did the X-Bow car come about?
"Basically it was the outcome of a discussion between Audi and KTM board members. They were talking about what else car and bike manufacturers could do in the future. They looked at quads and decided they were not safe, however if a quad was made bigger and more like a car it could be fun. This thinking led to the X-Bow but then Audi decided they didn't want to be involved in the project. The car was 80 per cent developed and after the positive reaction at the 2007 Geneva car show KTM decided to build it. After talking to some specialist car manufacturers, KTM worked out that it would be cheaper to build its own factory to produce the carbon monocoque chassis. This was before the financial crisis so money was not an object, however when the car went on sale in 2008 the world was on fire, the crisis had hit and sales were slower. If we could have predicted the future and seen the crisis I don't think we would have built the car - it was bad timing. Stefan Pierer looked at the investment in the product and as it was ready to go we launched it, it didn't make financial sense to stop the project, every car we now sell helps to recoup the development money."
Will KTM's street bike sales ever overtake its off-road sales?
"For sure the potential for growth in the street bike market is higher than the off-road world. I can't see off-road growing dramatically in the next few years and KTM already has a very high market share, so there is a certain end point. In the street bike market KTM has a very small share of a large market so the potential for growth is huge."
Finally, is KTM a perfect company?
"No, KTM is not a perfect company but it creates a lot of excitement. If you want the perfect world you have to leave it to the Germans..."