Attention, Honda XR and Can-Am Sonic owners: There's a new King Thumper on the block. (And you motocrossers—relax. Two-strokes are still the ticket for racing.)

Expensive, exotic, and not for the novice.  That is how Trail and Track Magazine summed up the 1976 KTM GS250.  Read on to see why the $1,695 (AU) KTM was considered an expert's gold-plated ISDT mount.

Did you ever daydream about building the ultimate dirt bike?  Think of the possibilities: a custom-built chrome-moly steel frame, maybe painted bright Chinese red, forks with 12 in of travel and 40mm stanchion tubes, Fox Twin-Clicker single shock, aluminium swing arm, giant-killer 495 engine with eight-petal reed and five-speed transmission, Metzeler tyres, chrome-moly bars, maybe use white plastic tank and fenders to show off the red frame, folding shift lever and Magura hand levers - all the good stuff.  What a machine it would be.

Well, you don't have to dream any longer, and you don't have to spend four or five thousand dollars and six months of nights and weekends building one either.  This dream machine is a production KTM 495 motocrosser.

The mighty KTM 495 sits alongside the Maico 490 as one of the defining motocross bikes of the 1980's.  In 1982 the Australian Trail & Track Magazine reviewed the first of the single-shock 495.

The KTM is the biggest motocross bike you can buy: a massive 495cc.  A huge unpainted cylinder dwarfs the sidecases.  Very intimidating!