KTM sneaked a prototype adventure bike out at the 2024 Erzbergrodeo with former world enduro champion Johnny Aubert testing their new Automatic Manual Transmission (AMT) in the Iron Road Prologue – Enduro21 finds out more the new clutchless gearbox.

• “The bike is multiple different parts with the LC8 engine.”
• “We’re still looking at what it’s going to go into, on road or off-road.”
• “Not having a clutch on one of our bikes…it’s strange, it’s really strange!”

As a series of quotes from our interview at the 2024 erzbergrodeo with KTM's Diete Englebrecht, these are definitely ones to get your teeth into!

KTM has a long history and association with the Erzbergrodeo. Aside from winning the multiple times with riders like David Knight, Taddy Blazusiak, Jonny Walker and Mani Lettenbichler, the Austrian manufacturer has a history of pitching their racing stars from different disciplines at the speed run up the mountain, the Iron Road Prologue – MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa, or Rally riders like Matthias Walkner for example.

So to see Johnny Aubert on the starter list for the prologue on what looked like a KTM 890 Adventure was no surprise at all. He’s here to mix it with Antoine Meo and Pol Tarres in the twin cylinder class…or so we thought.

Then we spotted the prototype colours on Aubert’s bike, the different controls on the handlebars and started to look closer.

KTM Marketing Manager, Diete Englebrecht, seemed to be keeping a low-profile in the giant KTM Factory Racing truck but we found him in the end to ask: Err, what bike is Johnny riding?

Part of the team developing a new Automatic manual Transmission (AMT) system and ushering former World Enduro Champion and ISDE winner Aubert around the Iron Giant, Enduro21 caught five with Englebrecht to find out more…

So, Diete, tell us what’s going on here with this prototype adventure bike…

Diete Englebrecht: “Well I can’t say too much, we will come out with more later in the summer but as you’re here you can see we are competing at Erzberg with our new automatic manual transmission gearbox, AMT, which is something we’ve been developing for a few years.

“The main idea, why we came here with the prototype version, was to really test it in a really interesting environment. We are KTM and that means we believe in testing it in the most extreme conditions and what’s more extreme than Erzberg with an extremely experienced racer?”

We can see it is the middle weight adventure bike, is it the 890 or what bike is Johnny riding?

“The bike is multiple different parts with the LC8 engine but we’re using different components and new and old engine parts.

“We’re still looking at what it’s going to go into, on road or off-road, it’s not been decided yet so it’s still being tested for multiple models.

“That’s kind of the idea in being here. To understand how it will perform, how riding in an environment like this with the ATM and not having a clutch will work at an extreme level. But as an idea not having a clutch on one of our bikes…it’s strange, it’s really strange!”

How long has it been in development?

“When we, in marketing, found out they had been developing the AMT we were immediately blown away by the idea. Actually, it’s been a few years. I can’t remember the exact dates but it’s been a few years, roughly when the competitors started producing their bikes, we started looking at it.

“We really wanted to build it from scratch. We didn’t want to focus on what our competitors were doing and improve on what others were doing. We looked at it and asked, really, how can we build a system that’s better from scratch, that was the goal.”

Was it developed by Pankl, KTM or someone else?

“No, it’s KTM developed in Austria, it’s completely developed by the team in Austria and we didn’t use any of our partners.”

“We can’t give out much more, we need to keep some good news for end of year. We’re looking closer to September when we will give out more details about the gearbox and we’re going to be launching the gearbox on its own without a bike.

“We don’t want to launch the gearbox with a bike because there’s so much information with the gearbox, if we launch it with the bike, the bike will take away attention and confuse people.

“So we’re going to focus on the gearbox in September time and then at EICMA probably we will present which model will be receiving it with a plan for it to be a production by next year.”

KTM is well-known for its sport attitude, in developing almost every model, how does no clutch fit into that?

“It’s an idea to give customers more confidence and be comfortable while riding. Other manufacturers like Honda has the DCT system which is smooth and easy but we don’t use this approach. Our idea is to give customers a fun riding experience but it still needs to really feel like a manual gearbox.

“That’s one of the key elements for us, it’s still changing gears quite aggressively, ask Johnny how the gear changing feels, but it’s still got that a KTM spirit to it.”

How does it work while you ride?

“You can change gears with your fingers or your feet, or switch to automatic mode basically.” [Note the MTB-like gear change buttons on the left handlebar in the main image up top].

“You’ve got a choice of automatic mode or you can go to manual and then you can change with your finger or with the gear lever which is still one down and five up, six-speed transmission.”

And you can’t tell us anymore about how it works?

“I’d like to! We’re coming out with more information in September when we will really focus on the gearbox and explain exactly how it works, how the inner details work, everything like that. At this stage we’re still looking at possible application across different platforms so this is still a prototype.”

Apart from attracting attention, why come to Erzberg with Johnny?

“It was crucial for us to have a world champion here so he could offer feedback then we know if we are going in the right direction or not. With his limited experience on the bike, to perform that well and finish it means the gearbox is really performing well.

“Johnny rode it for two days before coming here, that’s it, that’s all the experience he had to get used to no clutch and the interesting part is how much he’s relying on the traction control.

Because he hasn’t got a clutch he is riding relying more on the electronics of the bike because he doesn’t have the usual controls for him to control the power, not in a bad way but it’s been really interesting for us to see how the electronics of the bike are coming into play to assist him. It’s really cool to see that.”

So Johnny, from a rider point of view, what’s it like?

Johnny Aubert: “Well really interesting to have just two days of testing last week and then to arrive here, we don’t know exactly how it would feel or perform but it was a nice surprise.

“Before I rode it I didn’t really know exactly how it would feel. When you think about an automatic clutch you think about a bike it’s really smooth and really easy but this is not the spirit of KTM so it was interesting to find that it’s not like that at all.

“When you ride the bike you find that you can shift really fast and play with the bike, power and use the gears.”

Did you use the automatic setting, the hand buttons or the foot control to change gears?

“Well, all of them but the finger control is really interesting. When you try both you realise the finger button is better and quickly you forget to use the gear shift with your foot. It’s better, easier, faster and you change your riding style a little but quickly it becomes normal.

“At the beginning it was really strange to not use the clutch for a start for example. Normally you use the clutch for a corner or a jump or this kind of thing, plus I always all my life ride with one finger on the lever.

“But after five or 10 minutes I forgot everything and just rode without the clutch and you forget the old way of riding, adapt and enjoy the new way of riding.

“Because you have no clutch at the beginning I had to change a little bit my style of riding, you adapt and you use the throttle more.

“Normally you use the clutch when you want to slide in a corner for example but after a few minutes testing and trying you realise you can just use the throttle and adapt your style.”

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi