In the hands of an experienced or brave rider, this custom KTM 950 is probably one of the fastest A-to-B motorcycles we’ve ever featured. Especially over mixed terrain. It’s based on the short-run Super Enduro model, a bike described by Red Bull Romaniacs legend Chris Birch as “the best hooligan’s bike KTM ever made.”
In some countries, you’ll spend more than the original showroom price to get your hands on a mint condition 950 SE. So it’s not surprising we don’t see many custom versions.
This one comes from the Sport-Evolution garage in Koblenz, Germany. Former racer and engineer Dietmar Franzen normally works on cafe racers, scramblers and bobbers—with a particular leaning towards classic two-valve BMW engines. He even manufactures his own TÜV-approved custom parts.
“A customer came one day and said, ‘I have this KTM at home somewhere, just make something out of it’,” Dietmar recalls. “But to create a cafe racer from a 950 Super Enduro is a little bit too far-fetched…”
Dietmar decided to make the most of the compact tubular frame and engine, rather than hiding the engineering tour-de-force with meters of plastic.
“So we dismantled everything,” he says. “We cut off the rear frame and all the brackets, the air filter box, the exhaust and tank. Everything we actually didn’t need anymore.”
With the substantial plastics and long seat gone, the KTM immediately lost a ton of weight—both real and visual. The Sport-Evolution crew fabricated and bolted on a stubby new subframe and seat, and built a new box to suspend the battery under the seat base.
The scalloped fuel tank is an immaculate fit on the iconic orange frame. Sitting like a cap on the top tubes, it’s hardly a high capacity unit—but the Super Enduro itself was not renowned for its range, with only 14 liters in the original tank.
Hand-made fenders front and rear match the raw aluminum finish of the tank, and if that fairing looks familiar to you, you’ve got sharp eyes: it’s from a BMW R nineT Urban G/S. A Motogadget speedo hides right behind, hooked up to a stripped down wiring harness.
Dietmar has also cut down the hefty 48mm forks a little to level the stance. (With almost ten inches of travel on the stock WP items, there was plenty of room to play with.)
There are new, lightweight aluminum wheels: the rear stays at 18” but the front drops a couple of sizes to a more street-friendly 19”. The tires are Pirelli’s tough, Dakar-winning Scorpion Rally compound.
The punchy LC8 series engine delivers 98 hp at the crank in Super Enduro trim, so it was hardly in need of a power boost. But the twin 43mm Keihin carbs get a custom intake system with K&N filters, and Sport-Evolution have freed up the breathing with headers taken from a different LC8 model, hooked up to a modified GPR muffler.
The crew put the KTM on the dyno to check the difference made by the breathing mods: “We reached 98 hp at the rear wheel,” says Dietmar. “That means the engine itself is about 107 hp.”
Sport-Evolution weighed the KTM after they’d finished work, and found that dry weight had dropped from 190 kg (419 lbs) to 175. “This thing feels like a light supermoto and ‘pushes’ like a superbike,” says Dietmar. “It’s really spectacular.”
With the power boost and weight drop, we’re betting that top speed will be comfortably over 120 mph (193 kph). And even a Triumph Scrambler 1200 would probably struggle to keep up with the KTM on fire roads or dusty trails.
It’s an unusual mix of funktion and form, with classic custom techniques overlaid on a high-tech base. More of this, please.
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