Moto News: KTM Takeover Complete, New Enfield 750s, Busa Update & More!

Welcome back everybody to another episode of our weekly Moto News Roundup, where this time we'll look at the news that Bajaj have completed their takeover at KTM, as well as a look at what that might mean moving forward. Plus a fresh new focus for Indian, Norton have a new warranty, and also a quick flick through some of the best Black Friday deals for motorcycle gear. Then we've got some custom shops who spent loads of time and money doing up some Gorilla 450s, news about Enfield's upcoming 750s, and a special edition of the Busa, along with some nice little updates for 2026. But before we get underway, a quick reminder that our giveaway with ASV is still open, and so if you want to get entered, do check out the link down in the description below. You can win a set of their brilliant levers with loads of adjustability, and also this mid-lever pivot which prevents them from breaking if you do drop your bike. We're also bundling in some ASV merch, there's a $150 quad lock voucher, and also a full set of gear from Bowtex who make these brilliant base layers that are AAA rated, so you can wear them under your normal clothes and still be protected when you go out and ride. So yeah, do check out the link, and also there is a discount code down there as well for ASV, which includes free shipping, and you can really save yourself a pretty penny if you're ordering from outside the US, so if you've ever fancied picking some up, now's probably the best time. But anyway, let's dive into this week's news, and I think it's fair to say that the biggest story is the completion of Bajaj's takeover of KTM by buying their parent company, Pira Mobility. The process began back in May 2025 off the back of KTM's severe financial struggles, but of course it's taken several months to go through, needing various approvals to make it a reality like the Austrian Takeover Commission and also the European Commission. So look, what's next for KTM and Pira and Bajaj? Well I guess it's already underway with the name change from Pira Mobility to Bajaj Mobility, and also they've started making changes to the board and the management structure and stuff like that. But on top of that, it's also emerged this week that has already been sold off, which was formerly part of the Pira empire, but I guess with Bajaj keen to focus on, you know, cutting costs, their focus on the core business as well as selling motorcycles, and also the fact I suppose that the bicycle industry itself has had its ups and downs over the past few years, well yeah it's one of the first big changes that Bajaj have enacted. What could be next after that? Well I guess we talked about last week CFMoto potentially being rumoured to buy the KTM racing program, so that could be another big cost offloaded. I'd expect more slimming down at KTM itself as well, and maybe other cost savings like moving more production to India I guess are on the cards. It'll all become clear in due course, but one thing's for sure, things are about to change significantly in the next few months. Meanwhile at Indian, there's a more defined focus for 2026 after recently being sold off by their owners Polaris to a US-based private equity group. MCN spoke to the director of product planning at EICMA, and he said that I think short term our direction is really to focus on cruiser and bagger and touring in the United States and around the world, and once we have that growth and once we've established ourselves enough there, then we can do anything. It's really how we feel. That's an interesting one, because you know effectively he's saying we'll focus on the traditional bikes that have sold well for Indian over the years, and then if they do well maybe that'll free them up to look at other types of bikes, but they recently just discontinued the FTRs which gave them a more modern, naked style of bike, and so it feels like potentially a long way to get to the same outcome. I'm not sure whether this strategy will be a success or not will depend on the root cause of their problems. Is it really that they were trying to do too much at once, or is it actually because they were a bit stuck in the past with these big American-style bikes? Again, time will tell. Personally, I love the FTR, but let me know what you think in the comments. Over at Norton now though, well of course they're going through some big changes as well with their big relaunch and a whole host of new bikes for 2026. The Manx R sports bike, the Manx naked version, the two adventure bikes as well, the atlases, but they've also just followed up with a big announcement that customers will get an unlimited mileage warranty and it's transferable between owners. If you sold the bike on, it would still apply. Not only that, but you'll get 24-7 breakdown cover thrown in, including onward travel if your bike can't be fixed there and then at the side of the road. Now either they're really keen on this very luxurious brand that they've been talking about a lot recently, I suppose good support and an unlimited mileage warranty kind of fits in with that level of customer care, or with them being new bikes that maybe have some bugs to work through and a few little niggles here and there, perhaps they're looking at keeping grumbles about any stuff like that to a minimum by really giving them the best possible customer service. Either way, I think it's a good deal for the customer, although I should point out that it is unlimited mileage, but it's also a three-year warranty or 36 months they call it. I'm not exactly sure how many miles in three years someone's realistically going to do on their brand new, probably quite expensive, Norton Manx R. I wouldn't imagine it's going to be hundreds of thousands, it's not realistically a year-round commuter, but like I say, all in all, not a bad deal for the new Norton customer. Speaking of good deals though, well I'm sure you're absolutely sick of Black Friday already by now, but there are some really good deals out there from our partners, and so I thought I'd keep it very, very brief and to the point and rattle through them as quickly as possible. Quad Lock have got 30% off everything on their site, and they do it once a year, so this is your chance if you want to pick up that level of discount. Insta360 have a range of discounts on their awesome 360 cameras, so 15% off the top of the range X5, 30% off their X4, 24% off the X3, and also there's a couple of free gifts that you can get with those cameras, specifically if you use our link. Cardo have got a big one too, 22% off nearly all of their comms units and some of their accessories as well, and that includes the top of the range Pactalk Pro and Pactalk Edges that we use here at Motobob. Calimoto, our favourite motorcycle-specific navigation app, they're giving you 40% off an annual subscription, so again, if you were thinking about buying that anyway, you probably won't get that level of discount again, and then also our partners at Lightlock who make those brilliant anti-angle grinder locks for motorcycles, well they've got a code for £15 off, but there's some other deals as well bundled in there where you can get a good discount on some accessories, and so you could save up to like £35 depending on what you buy. All of them are linked to down in the description below. So yeah, do check them out I think most of them finish after this coming weekend. Now Enfield's annual Motoverse event just happened this weekend and it does usually throw up a few interesting talking points, and this year it was no different. One of the things that really jumped out at me this time from the coverage was this run of custom Gorilla 450s, I think they maybe commissioned them, in order to show I guess what was possible on the Gorilla 450 platform if you did want to customise your own, and I've got to say the builds certainly do show the range of potential with this bike. Bike Deco put this brilliant roundup together and some of these bikes are nuts, like this one with the massive fork upgrade and the Brembo brakes, a stubby seat and futuristic LED headlight, well why not, a single-sided swingarm, I mean that's starting to push the boundaries of what's appropriate I think for a Gorilla 450, a fairing, basically an entirely new chassis, another single-sided swingarm, I mean that's getting pretty extreme, this one, it's got to be said it's impressive the amount of work that's gone into making that look like a sort of cyborg shark, but the one that's had the most work done I assume is this with the hubless kind of design, which is just madness, I mean who would spend that much money and time on a bike that comes in at under five grand brand new, personally I'm not sure, but I guess if Enfield paid them to make it maybe these were commissioned then absolutely why the heck not, perhaps more of broad interest though to the general biking public was another big deal from Motoverse which was the unveiling of their concept bikes for the upcoming 750 version of the Continental GT Cafe Racer, now we've had spy shots of this for months if not years but there was never really any hard proof that they were moving from a 650 twin to a 750 apart from all these rumours that were coming out of the motorcycle media in India, but I guess now this all but confirms it with a massive 750 slapped on the side of the tank so I think we can all guess what that alludes to, these concepts are of course in a bit more of a race spec, they're not production ready but it's got to be said they look really very nice and I'm sure as usual for Enfield if they get the price which they normally do then these will sell like cafe racer hot cakes, still no final specs I'd expect this one to be properly announced later in 2026 but here's hoping that 750 twin makes a bit more than the 47 horsepower of the current 650, more like 60 horses, 65 would be very nice indeed, also expected to be on the same platform as well we've got the upcoming 750 Himalayan again teased by Enfield plenty, we've seen lots of spy shots as well from the non-Enfield spy shot photographers and they even did a low-key display of the concept at EICMA in Milan and it was so low-key that we actually completely missed it, but anyway MCN report that they spoke to Enfield and Enfield say they need more development time for this one in order for it to be ready for the market, their CEO told MCN that I think we might have to wait till next EICMA, it's a concept and we have to test it, we have to see it from a consumer lens, the Himalayas is our spiritual world, we always take the motorcycle back there, the concept has come out very well, you'd have seen some of us riding and posting about it on social media because we love it and the love is still there but we may have to wait up until the next time at EICMA, it's a bit of a sporadic quote that but I think you get the general idea, we weren't expecting it this year but it looks almost nailed on now for EICMA 2026, there is however another new bike that we missed in the flurry of press releases over the past couple of weeks and that's the 2026 update to Suzuki's Hayabusa, not only is the base booster being tweaked but also there's a new special edition and most of the technical changes are with the electronics so there's new maps for each of the riding modes so it gets more torque in the low rpms, cruise control has also been improved so it stays active even if you make gear shifts, launch control is also said to be refined which I think is probably a good thing for the booster given that it's one of the bikes you're most likely to use launch control on and the battery has been replaced with a new lithium-ion battery, as for the paint you've got black and red or white and blue, I think they're the same as last year if my memory serves me correctly but like I say there's a new special edition in pearl vigour blue with some white accents and also the Suzuki logo embossed on the tank there and I've got to say that does look pretty sweet, on top of that they're doing a bit of a deal as well for the Akrapovic exhausts, normally they'd be just over three grand but they're down to £1,999 so you can save yourself over a thousand pounds although I must point out you do have to order those at the time you buy the bike you can't swan in months later and expect the same discount, still some nice little updates I think I'd take the black one still though because it looks like stealthy and mean and I think that's how a Hayabusa should look but let me know your favourite down in the comments, also let me know what you think of the rest of the stories this week and I'll put our playlist on the screen now from last week which includes all of our motorcycle live content so there was the new Kawasaki W230 that we did a walk around of, the new street triples the RX and the Moto2, we did a walk around of the 1390 Super Adventure R because it was the first time to see it in the UK in the flesh, the Langen Lightspeed which was I think my favourite bike from the entire show and also a bit of a general look at the Honda Stand, do hit subscribe for more of the latest motorcycle news and reviews like this right here on Motobob, a massive thanks for watching today and we'll see you in the next video.