Actual news on the KTM purchase of Husqvarna

I LIKE THAT

I don't think that the actual weight of the bike is that important, but rather the way that the bike carries its weight.
I don't know about your XR600 being too heavy, but I can tell you that my XT600 is way too heavy, and it feels heavy whether being pushed around the garage or being ridden down my favorite single track. The 950 SE on the other hand, is physically heavier than the XT, but feels half the weight whether you are riding it or pushing it. Obviously the 950 is twice as fit as the XT but feels 5x as fit when riding it. To be honest the 950 SE does not feel any heavier than the 610 at any time.

As far as I know they stopped manufacturing bikes in the 950 SE class because each one cost more to build than they could sell them for, which makes no economic sense whatsoever to the manufacturers. That I am afraid is where the problem is; if they build the bike we all want, we will not be able to afford it.

You are bordering on kind of funny. The weight makes the wheels sink which makes it harder to push. I spectated a national enduro once and to me it seemed that the non local AA and up guys were able to sense what spots were hard and use that to their advantage where I would be digging a trench with the spectators cheering me on.

This is diverging from the title of this thread. As I understand it, at least the way sponsorships are sold in the AMA magazine is dual sport, dual purpose, adventure. Take something like the brake disc, a lot of them are so minimal. The vertical height of the four stroke piston, Note the cts equipped 450 came with a 3 year warranty dressed as a BMW but only gets 6 months as a Husqvarna in the United States and from other forums on the internet seems the mode is to sit on the bike for time and basically run out the warranty and start charging for future repairs even though a pre existing condition not fixed. It is just talk so who knows. I will agree the choice in the dual purpose is lacking. Something with more weight in the engine for reliability, more weight on the discs, a better seat (not one designed to look like a moto x or something along those lines), at least three gallons of gasoline.

I am happy to wait and see. Maybe they will do like the new Indian and make a look alike engine of the v twin of the thirties and package it similar to the Aprilla 450/550.

As far as cost to produce this stuff is confidential and how the racing expenses are distributed on a model by model basis. How many credit cards are out there charging against the adventure v twin, that kind of stuff even if one had stock and got an annual report probably couldn't figure it out.

That would be four bikes, two street, two dirt. In order, street long distance/touring; street sport/naked; dual sport largish; dirt bike small.

While a great bike for some, the 950 had it's own issues that led to it's demise. It's REALLY tall, even by dirt bike standards, and not amenable to lowering w/o sacrificing a lot of what is paid for, KTM had to know they could only sell it to tall men with significant $$'s, and that narrowed the market before they sold the first bike. Mileage and range are issues, as is service access to the engine.

With respect to what we would ask of the new Husky, a lot of the tooling is already paid for. It's a matter of putting the right engine in the right frame. For those of us don't race, good, durable power while keeping the weight light and low is more important than race like performance.

You get on Motorsport.com or RockyMountain and buy a different color set of plastics if it were any other brand. You don't need to stock different color bikes. Just get the aftermarket to support Husky products like they do any other brand. Husky goes to three plastics makers and gives the contract to the one that agrees to make aftermarket plastics in a variety of colors. Done.

Then why are people asking for Husky to build bikes in a variety of color choices like a car company ? Bottomline, it's an aftermarket issue not a Husky issue. If cars and trucks could have $150 plastic kit to change their color the auto makers would never have more than one color coming off the assembly line.

So many things go into the decisions surrounding what and how many models to bring to market and at what cost to us. This just isn't one they will ever consider.

But weren't those days before the age of 200 225 267 275 310 400 449 511 513 516 517 etc etc... and thats just the 2 stroke models !

There is some info in the 2013 Summer Edition of Ride More:
http://heroesridehuskys.com/journal/13HusqJournal-Summer_web.pdf

I haven't received this yet, but I saw it posted on the website.

Amen to that, and while you're at it, how about a homologated Husqvarna 450 motocrosser so you can sign RV and make Husky a Supercross contender?

We need the other Ryan....let's keep it in the family .

Racing, customer service, marketing all must be standalone ... Just a few words from the man on the inside setting all this up internally for Husqvarna and its customers ... He said more good words also ...
Thanks for that posting and its speaks volume for the Husqvarana Crowd ...

Amen and maybe not RV, but a SX Husqvarna contender will happen ... And a MX contender will be there also ... The Husky faithful has only gotta be patient on this one

I have heard some hot talk about the fate of our beloved bikes.

a. the WR 300 will not be sold in the US in the future

b. that the workers in the Husky plant located in Italy were laid off

c. that Husqvarna will replace Husaberg and the Bergs will be done away with i.e. it will be KTM and Husky without the Berg

Can anyone shed some light on these assertions?