Interesting article about the uber-secretive BMW 450 enduro here. BMW are really doing their homework on this one. They have significantly reduced the weight, and placed it all as low as possible, and have put an awful lot of thought into what it is that make KTM so successful in the off-road bike market.

If I were KTM right now, I'd be a bit worried - BMW are signalling that they are going to take them head-on. Given the might - both engineering and financial - of BMW, if it turns into a war of attrition then it will be difficult to compete.

I witnessed a similar war of attrition - from the inside - back in the heady days of dot-com mania. A cheeky young company called Netscape - full of bright ideas from even brighter people - was taking the market by storm. Their products were good, technically innovative and solid, and they were staffed by people who loved what they do.

KTM make excellent bikes, technically innovative and solid, and they are staffed by people who love what they do. Bikes are in KTM's blood.

Unfortunately for Netscape, they were doing a little too well. They caught the eye of a much larger corporate monolith called Microsoft, who enviously eyed the market share and revenue that Netscape was getting. Microsoft launched it's own buggy attempt at a web browser - Internet Explorer - and the browser wars had begun.

Both companies raced like mad to add new features. Javascript, cookies, new ways of positioning and presenting information in the browser. Both of them repeatedly broke - and advanced - the technical specifications of the world wide web. Microsoft took advantage of its financial and market muscle. It not only gave its products away, it tied them so closely to the Windows operating system that users didn't really have a choice about whether to have Internet Explorer or not.

Netscape battled bravely on and put up a hell of a fight but, eventually, an all-out war with a financial bruiser like Microsoft was only ever going to end one way. They, em, "merged" with a much larger computer company and that was effectively the end. Microsoft had beaten them.

The relative market presence, and financial clout, of BMW and KTM closely mirror that of Microsoft and Netscape. The only difference is that, unlike Microsoft at the time, BMW build things of great quality.

I will be watching this one with great interest. My natural sympathies lie with KTM - the underdog in this fight - but I do desperately want BMW to produce lightweight machines (such as a 250cc enduro) that I would have no problems throwing round a track.

This is one "big guy picking on little guy" scenario that part of me actually wants the big guy to win. Not to wipe out KTM in the same way that Microsoft wiped out Netscape, but at least to be producing stuff in the same lightweight bike market. A 100kg BMW enduro bike would truly be a thing of beauty.

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