I beleive that winning Mexico is great but not worth the money or time to do so I beleive for the money spent Husky could spread all that money around to grass root racers thru out the USA Do you really think honda sell more motocross bikes because they win in Baja My hope would be for Husky to really get back into local off road events Dont spend all your money in one place
Support and the perception (marketing of) of direct support to the local riders/racers. This is what breeds the team/family idea and solid die hard customers. I'm an ammie, I show up at a local race and get to rub elbows with the top tier Husky racers in a nice environment, makes one feel connected to the brand, makes one feel like part of an elite squad/special. Sounds corney?? Kind of but this kind of marketing/brand buliding works. Makes you feel cool to be part of a smaller group of core riders. 2014 will be a fun and good season, for me it starts in Dec at the Tecate HS on my 2014 TXC310R (OK its really a 2013 but all new modded rebuilt makes it a 2014 TXC310R).
We get to live through their stories . I've been doing that for years now lol. Sometimes I'm dual sporting WA and sometimes I'm racing alongside Cory at Last Dog Standing . Then again a lot of my imagination probably stems from the medication the VA gives me lol
I get the KTM news now having defected to the evil Orange. I didn't see this posted here yet... On the KTM site today: http://blog.ktm.com/riding/exclusive-stefan-pierer-interview-part-two/ Pierer interview What is the background to the Husqvarna deal and how did you feel about it? Husqvarna was always the benchmark at the beginning. It was a competitor but one that was getting better year-by-year. In the mid-90s we took over Husaberg, which was a spin-off from the former Husqvarna engineers when they left the company as it moved down to Castiglioni and Cagiva. We got some experience and in 2003 we closed down the facility in Sweden and brought the operation done to Austria and it worked out very well. We were very impressed. Maybe Husaberg was partly the killer of Husqvarna because last year they sold 6000 units, more than Husqvarna for off-road because you have to discount some of their on-road models. The experience with Husaberg as a second brand that was based on overlapping the main brand was useful and so was adapting the platform strategy from the car industry. In other words sharing engine and chassis components as much as possible. You don’t need addition R&D, purchasing and production. All is the same. After ten years I was 100% we could handle a second brand and then the possibility came up with Husqvarna. Husaberg has one weakness. In Europe it is a brand and it is strong, but outside of the continent nobody really knows it. In the States it is unknown but that is not the same for Husqvarna. That brand brought the sport over to America and is one of the pioneers of motocross. It has a long history in the States and everywhere around the globe it is recognised. It is the second oldest motorcycle brand. So the situation came at BMW where the company recognised they needed to focus with on-road through the crisis and they wanted rid of off-road. We always had a clear plan with what we would need to do and that would be to create a single brand so Husaberg will be merged and will disappear and Husqvarna will be the strong global brand for the future. With the platform we will redo some things on the Husaberg model and convert it to Husqvarna with the colours, graphics and technical improvements. For motocross we will use the KTM platform and you will see at the 2013 EICMA show that we will have a very strong competition line from Enduro and every displacement for motocross, meaning 250, 350 and 450, two-stroke 125 and 250 and all the models that Husaberg had for Enduro. Including a bike with the 690 single cylinder. It is a perfect model line, so the dealer can survive in the off-road segment. That gives us the chance to have a second distribution line against the Japanese. Husqvarna is strong on a global base to be able to attack the Japanese or to lift the Europeans against the Japanese; that is the concept. Can you understand why some people might think ‘well, how can KTM succeed where BMW couldn’t?’ We can because of twenty years experience in the off-road niche market and industry. It is a very specific one and you need experienced people: the former racer, the skilled and knowledgeable technicians. Every small detail with hard and consistent work creates the right product. Secondly you have to understand the off-road community. It is a closed community and if you are not part of it then you are making a mistake. Italy as an industrial base is one of the most difficult aside from France in Europe, because of the labour regulations. They are not competitive any more. First of all you need to pay a lot of money to have a nice Italian company and brand. Then you need to pay a lot of money to get rid of that company and that was the background with how I came to meet BMW. We have a close relationship because I appreciate BMW as a competitor and they are the closest in Europe. We have a big respect and different relationship. They were asking me if I was interested because they wanted to focus on on-road and I said ‘why not? Let’s sit together’. It was as simple as that. It sounds easy and it was easy. We are very excited now, especially when we think about the new model programme. For us in Mattighofen that means 15,000 additional bikes based on the same platforms. It is like the car industry with Volkswagen and Seat, Audi, Skoda. In the market the brands are separate but behind there are synergies and that is the only way to survive on a small scale and in that competitive industry. What about the two brands racing against each other? For sure! Competition keeps you alive. Sometimes you have success over so many years and it can become saturated and you start to lose ground. I think a nice, steered amount of internal competition is good. So if Husqvarna run the right technology what do you then do with the brand? Especially to differentiate it from the ‘Orange’? You have to have the brand content separate to KTM. KTM is perhaps a bit more ‘to the edge’ a bit more race-orientated. Husqvarna will come out as more historic, more Scandinavian, a little bit smoother. The design, as you will see in the future, will be a bit softer than the KTMs. They are focussing on the Supermoto type for on-road. There are a lot of niches that Husqvarna can occupy and become a serious player again.
Hmmm. Husqvarna frame with CTS and linkage rear suspension, KTM engine, and WP CS4 forks - I could see myself buying one of them. Thanks for the news vintageveloce
I hear ya and I just don't think enough publicity is generated from this type of racing (ESP in MEX) to build much for the company either ... Not that this racing is not a good idea ...Outside the racing world of these type events, there is not many ways you ever here about these races even taking place ... Just not enough to attract new customers... Those honds are sold probably because of name brand recognition and lower cost(?) ... Lots of people ride at a slow, reasonable pace and are not racers on any level ... They just wanna go from point A to point B and those fat heavy cheap hondos will do that. Thanks for the posting and no crying from me on his words again ... I'm down with this guy. What is the MX race schedule Husky will enter? ... Sorry guys, get used to seeing Huskies on the podiums at the big dances where the young customers are at and advertising \ racing sells products ... You'll see Huskies at local races more and more when the winning starts from the major exposure given at this level. PS -- Those xr 200 sale here because there is no competing product really ...
"With the platform we will redo some things on the Husaberg model and convert it to Husqvarna with the colours, graphics and technical improvements" So Husky's just gonna be a redone Husaberg? "KTM is perhaps a bit more ‘to the edge’ a bit more race-orientated". "Husqvarna will come out as more historic, more Scandinavian, a little bit smoother. The design, as you will see in the future, will be a bit softer than the KTMs". Softer? Less race oriented? Doesn't sound to me like he's looking to put Husky on a higher step of the podium than KTM...
Maybe ... but who is riding each bike might be an actual, much better, real life indicator as to which bike(s) the company wants to win at the races ... Something like trying to control the winning will take place somewhere outside this scope, if it does indeed happen ... -- I really do not think the company is concerned with winning against each other, other than maybe the employees building the bike that wins ... They are focused against the JAP branded bikes at the VP\Owner level and that will drive the product and its racing results...
What is the MX race schedule Husky will enter? ... Husqvarna will be running in the MXGP and MX2 class next year.
Correct me if I am wrong, but do we not expect the Husky to just be a KTM with different bodywork? Maybe they will use softer plastic The big attraction for me was the low price I sure hope they're not KTM expensive, but I'm sure they will be.
the current discussion perfectly shows the "husqvarna dilemma": people want cheap bikes, and people want top-level racing. top-level racing costs a lot of money, and - as always - somebody needs to pay for that. this "somebody" is the customers. so you can have "either-or", but you cannot have both. apart from buying the husqvarna brand name ("my treasure")., he also gained responsibility for the husqvarna company: a quite modern factory, and ~240 employees. employees with exactly those "twenty years [or more] experience in the off-road niche market and industry", "the former racers, and the skilled and knowledgeable technicians". considering that he is actually dumping those 240 people in a machiavellistic move, i am sceptical about his "laudatory speech for the experts". just a little journey through history: when volkswagen bought "auto union" (situated in ingolstadt) in the mid-1960's, they wanted to turn it into "just another volkswagen factory". auto union employees and labours fought hard to remain as a separate company. volkswagen finally gave in. a few years later, "auto union" and "nsu" (situated in neckarsulm) united into the "audi" company, making volkswagen's sub-company even bigger and stronger. when volkswagen bought seat in the mid-1980's, they obviously weren't going for technology, or a "brand". they bought a factory and experienced employees in a strategic place. nevertheless, they kept the brand and company name. when volkswagen bought skoda in the early 1990's, they bought an experienced car manufacturer with factories in the (new) eastern-european markets. skoda build cars since 100 years... around 40 years after the purchase, volkswagen and audi are both strong and distinctive leading-technology companies. in the last 20-25 years, seat rose from being a low-tech "dictator-initiated state company" to a popular and modern company, and skoda continued it's way through turbulent times (fall of the iron curtain) as one of the oldest car manufacturers in business. well done, volkswagen. even though pierer keeps talking about the volkswagen role model, he's actually always doing quite the opposite. husaberg is now to ktm what amg is to mercedes, and husqvarna is obviously intended to face the same fate (even when it's yet not obvious who'll be amg and who'll be mercedes). two "individual" brands from the same town, built in the same factory? and husqvarna is gonna be "scandinavian", made in austria? come on... r
