Markus Krämer, 41, manufacturer of the KTM RC 8C, turned his hobby into a very successful business – and after visiting him 12 years ago in what was then the dirt floor workshop for his spare-time Supermono R&D project inside a converted cowshed not far from KTM's Mattighofen factory, I know better than most how far he's come.
“In 2010, we built the Krämer Evo 1 in the little shed 4km from the Mattighofen factory. During the day I'd be in the office designing parts and at night in the shed, building a Supermono race bike I rode myself in Germany in a private team with some friends from KTM.
“I did okay, too – but after two or three years of developing the Evo 1 and racing it, and always improving it, I reached the crunch moment. I had already designed what I thought was the ideal Supermono bike, and I knew as a hobby I cannot afford to invest so much into tooling, and build copies to sell. Do I start a company and try to build this bike as a business, or stick to the Evo 1 and have fun on the racetrack while continuing my career at KTM?
