A heads up to anybody aboard their Katoom of choice: It sounds like Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen will soon be playing around with composite leaf spring suspension on her motocross offerings.
Before we dig in to the particulars, let’s bring to the stage Yamaha’s 1992–93 MX’er: The YZM250 0WE4.
This beauty used leaf spring suspension to float to the All-Japan Championship, with Ben Purvis at CycleWorld detailing that the bike carried “a single composite leaf at the rear, its front end clamped under the engine and the rear bolted to a linkage below the swingarm, so as the rear wheel rose, the leaf flexed to provide springing.”
The change in hardware was purported to streamline the two-stroke, single-cylinder’s intake path, making room where the bike’s spring/damper would normally be installed.
With KTM’s new patents, we see a vertical unit hugging to the back part of the bike’s engine; connected to the bike’s chassis at the top and a bracket at the bottom, adjustability is made possible at the higher end of the unit, via a screw thread.
With the rest of the patent purportedly confirming a typical damper and new space freed up to optimize the airbox, intake tract, or muffler, we look forward to hearing updates from the Austrians.
Do you think leaf spring suspension is going to be a hit?
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