• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

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    Thanks for your patience and support!

KTM/Husqvarna... now how will this play out?

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i think i am going to be sick... imagine another wait while they figure out the parts distribution... among other things. Went and looked at some of the new Beta's george has on hand. Very nice. who knows....
 
My two cents. I really think if this goes thru it can be a positive thing. If they buy husky, they are not going to sit on the fence. We might see minis back in the states, more race teams, more exposure and maybe a husky in supercross.

Let's see what the press release says.

Alot of us remember the days of no parts and where did alot of guys go? Ktm. Alot of those guys never came back.

They are going to want a ROI and gonna push for that. In my travels I stop at alot of dealers that carry husky. Alot of these have been added to Ktm showrooms. Some dealers have said that with adding Husky as another price point brand, they are selling tons of them. If someone is digging at your heals, you buy there market share. Have to think global now a days. Who knows, rumor has it that Husky is breaking out a line of new DI two strokes? Is this another heal dig?

Hopefully, we can get minis, a 200 two stroke, starter buttons, etc........

This deal didn't happen over night and bet it has been in works over a year.

Ktm is stepping things up all over and has for years they have Roger and are main player in SX.

I just see alot of opportunities, consolidated warehouses, increased dealer networking, design/sharing technology/ greater manufacturing of parts to keep unit costs down and profits up. Won't bother me to have a set of WP on a Husky. Never had a set of forks or shocks that didn't need resprung or revalved.

I may be wrong but at least Dirt Rider will give Husky a good review now.

Be good to see a 450 team added to the GNCC's. Might just put Ty back in the saddle out west as well!
 
MotoMarc36 said:
I can't stand KTM's mainly because They don't have that "special something" in the handling department, but frankly KTM has a lot more to offer Husky than BMW ever did. They MUST keep it an Italian bike. I certainly have more faith in Ktm's input, KTM who has won at the elite level in all forms of offroad racing. Bmw, who has won at nothing offroad and has always offered overengineered, yet seriously flawed and bizzarre machines has NOTHING I want in a dirtbike.

So let's wait and see, I won't be getting too jumpy. Kneejerk reactions are usually wrong.
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Yeah, that Paris to Dakar was all paved :busted:

I just wish that BMW would have given the G450X and HSQ the same attention as the S1RR,....that has been a major success and still gaining ground.

And yes, purportedly Cross Industries is acquiring HSQ, which would help them gain more market share over Bajjaj Motors in one form or another.

My major concern is in how KTM treats their dealers from time to time, particularly when there is any overstock or poor sales times. BMW is much better in this regard and some of that principle trickled down into the HSQ distribution, albeit far from as refined. We passed on the opportunity to carry KTM a lil while back because of some practices I don't particularly agree with on the business side. Have owned and ridden my share of KTM's, but I love the TXC310R
 
ray_ray said:
Here is the business side of the house ... Who know what bajaj has in mind ...

I think it would be very much a Bajaj driven purchase. The sale might be restricted in some way to EU member nation companies, if only in terms of ease of purchase. Bajaj being the Real money source, Not KTM.


EDIT: I gotta hedge that money source ... I've seen nothing on who holds the most shares in the ktm company and only remember a few yrs back that bajaj was trying to get the controlling interest in ktm because ktm was hurting for $ and needed investors ....
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Bajaj are investors, the ones puting up the $$.
I don't see Bajaj buying a company just to kill it and hope that KTM by their efforts can benefit from the kill. (KTM have not exactly demonstrated these skills anywhere either )
It would be different if KTM were doing the buy on their own bat, but they are not.

I think Bajaj are investing in the Husqvarna brand here, in the same way that other Indian companies bought Jaguar, Landrover etc and strengthend those brands over quite a few years of ownership.

One thing an investor hates is loosing money.
So I think they will tuck Husqvarna into their portfolio and make sure it generates money for them.
Yes they will definitely try and get some synergies going between KTM and Husky.
Hell, if Bajaj have any sense, they may even get the two companies to compete againt one another, keep them all on their toes that way.
 
So maybe bajjaj/ cross industries buys Husqvarna and it is KTM that should be worried!

Maybe Husqvarna will be able to get serious about racing now?

Third possibility, Husaberg is being marketed as pure enduro, maybe they want HVA for dual sport or other market.
 
BMW has a long history of off road competition (John Penton rode enduros on a single cylinder BMW's in the early 1960's), but since the 1980's it's been Rally racing. BMW's decision to buy Husky is still not totally understood.... I thought it was mainly to add Husky's production numbers to their total, to stay ahead of KTM as the number one Euro bike producer. Then it seemed like a good place to use up contracted Kymco engine production and finish what they started with the G450X, but who really knows? Thats the problem... BMW doesn't know what it wants out of Husky anymore, as if they ever did.
 
pvduke said:
no good can come from this...cept maybe the "what bike should i buy" threads 'll be shorter.
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Well what if you could buy parts from bikebandit.com like you can for ktm?

Maybe the husky North america contact us portion of the website will at least give an automated response and perhaps a real follow up

Maybe they will import the te125. Husky, yamaha, and fantic all make a bike based around the same engine and none will import here

Fran
 
how frustrating for Husky owners, I feel like a foster child with a bad habit.... just got used to this home and the routine...

I cringe to go to my next club meeting and seeing the ktm guys.... wow

either Husky is doing everything right or wrong to end up under Ktm's wing...not sure- no logic in my mind only emotion at this point.
 
:cry: How long are we going to have to wait for official news? I've only been reading this thread one day and the anticipation is killing me.
 
K5PL5 said:
I dont see them buying the company just to destroy it.
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Remember BMW bought Husky because in 2007, for the first time, BMW was not the earopean brand that sold the most units. Quick fix was to buy Husy and add 9000 units to its sales and get the crown back from KTM. Could this be the same pschycology but now by KTM?

Remember the LC4 KTM. Good motor but a boat anchor. They claim to buy Berg to jump start their racing 4 stroke model line and then after picking though it to get a competitive 4 stroke line and keep up with Husky and the rest of the Joneses, they shitcan the swedish slant motors. They also stated the 2 stroke bergs were introduced so the berg only dealers could offer a 2 stroke option. C mon...how many berg only delaers in world....please. This thing may unravel faster than the Axis Pact.

Berg and Husky....designers from Sweden.....build in Italy.....just dont make a Husky hard parts pacifier, toaster, baby bottle, or any of that orange bling crap and it will be ok.

The swedish purists wer having coronaries in 88 until they saw the Cagiva quality and engineering.....it will all pan out unless they are buying it out to kill it.
 
Im still PO'd about this. I hope it is some sick joke, if not I will say to all of you...thanks for all the help and hospitality. When a new bike finds its way under my butt, it will be a TM, Beta or GG. Such BS.
 
Depressing.....simply depressing news (potentially).

I test rode a Husaberg FE 70 degree motor and bought it on the spot! Greatest feeling bike I've ever ridden (FE390)....and I've rode a lot of them. Still is. Then KTM terminates the 70 degree....heck, kills the whole bike in reality.

I test rode a Husky Terra and bought it on the spot! It's was shockingly good....I didn't really expect that. AND it's still good....very very good. KTM will kill it...I feel it....just my luck.

These are the only two bikes I ever bought on the spot after a test ride. FWIW

Well, at least I have them....and will still be riding them for a long time.....I hope.

HF

P.s. this sucks.....just SUCKS!
 
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