In a revealing interview with French Enduro Magazine at 2019 EICMA in Milan, KTM’s Joachim Sauer talked about future product and motorsport plans for Gas Gas.
Sauer explained that while the new products would be based on a KTM platform, the history of the Spanish manufacturer was important, as it is with Husqvarna.
What was arguably most interesting was the motorsport ambitions of the Gas Gas brand.
Sauer admitted that it was already more or less official that Laia Sanz would switch to Gas Gas. He said Taddy Blazusiak would also move to Gas Gas and that former Red Bull KTM Factory rider Glenn Coldenhoff would step over to the red machine for the Motocross World Championship. Although Sauer wasn’t clear on which year that would be for Taddy and The Hoff ā will we see either of them on the Spanish brand in 2020 or have to wait until 2021?
The Off-Road Product Manager refused to be drawn into details of the new bikes other than to say that the suspension would switch to WP and the bikes MAY be cheaper than their other brands.
Here’s what Sauer had to say:
As you know we [KTM] have taken over a share of [Gas Gas] of 60 per cent. We are going to make motorcycles in three segments: trials, enduro and also motocross ā a new project/segment for Gas Gas.
We will have products from MY21. They will all be based on KTM platform ā we [Gas Gas] will also be active in motorsport.
It’s pretty much official there will be Laia Sanz racing the Dakar on a red bike. There will be Taddy Blazusiak on an off-road bike and there will be Glenn Coldenhoff on a motocross bike. We will be pretty much present in all segments and of course, we will continue with trials. There will be [Albert] Cabestany on the electric model [e-trial] and [Jorge] Casales on TrialGP.
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