#KramerMotorcycles

The approach to turn one at the Brno Circuit comes at the end of a long straight. A series of marker boards alert you to the start of the turn. First there’s a 300-meter marker, then 200. The throttle’s been pinned for a few seconds already by the 300m board, and you keep it there at 200m, too. The punchy 890cc parallel-Twin is screaming at the top of fifth gear, and it’s not until the moment you pass the 100m board that you let off and reach for the brakes. It’s scary at first, as the first apex is coming at you quickly, but you learn to trust the brakes.

The latest from Kramer Motorcycles is yet another evolution of the GP2 890, this time with more power, full electronics, and revised aerodynamics. MO's very own Road Test Editor, Troy Siahaan, who piloted the original GP2 prototype with the KTM 790 Duke engine, is currently in Brno at the bike's press intro and will give his full review in the days to come.

Motorcycling is a niche activity, with sportbikes comprising a small niche within it. Track-only sportbikes make up such a miniscule niche within a niche within a niche that they’re almost not worth talking about. Until one so cool comes along that we’re forced to pay attention. The Kramer HKR-EVO2R is such a machine. This is its story.

Markus Kramer said it so nonchalantly when I asked him. “Three months ago,” he said. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I asked in a different way. “You mean to tell me this motorcycle didn’t exist four months ago?” Again, the response was simple. “Yep.” Markus isn’t a man of many words, but that’s when I knew this ride aboard the GP2 Prototype from Kramer Motorcycles was going to be different. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Back when KTM’s 790 Duke was first announced, I knocked on Joe Karvonen’s social media door, asking the sole importer for Kramer Motorcycles USA whether the 790 Twin engine would make its way into a Kramer.