ASK THE MXPERTS: HOW TO REEL IN YOUR KTM’S HORSEPOWER

The black throttle cam is the quick-turn version when used on a KTM 450SXF, but comes stock on the KTM 250SXF.

Dear MXA,
    I guy at the track last week told me that I should try changing the throttle reel on my KTM 450SXF to get a quick-turn throttle. He said it will make it come on quicker. True?

True. There is a black reel and a gray reel. On your 450SXF, the gray reel was installed in the bike at the factory, while the black reel comes with your KTM and should be  in the dealer package. The outer diameter of each reel determines how much throttle cable is pulled per rotation. The larger the diameter of the reel, the less the rider has to twist the grip to open the throttle body’s butterfly all the way. This is called a quick-turn throttle. Conversely, the smaller the diameter of the reel, the farther the rider has to turn the throttle to get full power. At the KTM factory, the preferred reel is the small 36.5mm gray reel so that the abundant low and midrange power can be metered better, while the 250SXF gets the larger 39.5mm black quick-turn reel so that the reduced power of the high-rpm 250 engine can be accessed quicker.

However, you can use the different reels to control the power delivery. Think you 450SXF doesn’t hit hard enough? Change reels. Want more meter power down low? Change reels. Most MXA test riders prefer to run the black quick-turn reel in place of the gray reel in the 450SXF.