• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Actual news of KTM-Husqvarna

Motosportz said:
yes I just quoted myself. :D Unfortunately I am already getting ugly stories behind the scenes. I'm not going to feed the rumor wheel but I think some stuff will surface publicly, prepare yourself.
Click to expand...

Let them know what you think, make your next new bike a Beta or continue to ride Italian huskys.
 
Norman Foley said:
Deja vu all over again.... No internet then, but the battle cry was... "Let them know what you think, make your next new bike a KTM or continue to ride Swedish Huskys":oldman:
Click to expand...
Probably not the best example to get your point across, it seemed to have worked lol. KTM has climbed to the top and Husky has been sold twice more since then :).
 
I seriously don't know if I'll buy a new bike ever again. Hard to say. If I did it would most likely be a Sherco or Beta just cuz. I do not in any way dislike the new KTM based huskys, think they will be great bikes and win big everywhere. I'd be proud to own one. Just like different stuff. Also have really been enjoying building the older bikes. Cheap gratification. Also something strangely fun being the old guy on the old bike and doing fine against the young guys on the new fancy iron. I'd like a 84 WR400 next. :)
 
1987-husqvarna-250-vs-ktm-250-road-test-01.jpg
 
Norman Foley said:
Deja vu all over again.... No internet then, but the battle cry was... "Let them know what you think, make your next new bike a KTM or continue to ride Swedish Huskys":oldman:
Click to expand...

Its really hard to come up with anything original ... Its all been done before and some of us are old enough to remember it the 1st time around ...Or maybe I should say the previous time around ... Nobody is old enough to remember the 1st time for most thoughts or ideas that have seen the light of day.
 
Radbuster said:
For the KTM people who think it's nice to have a new color to choose from, everything is great in consumerland, but regrettably I think the Husaberg colors looked better, so that's a loss.

To all those at H that busted their a$$ coming up with good designs on a minimal budget drained by the street side for so many years and also doing quite well despite being forced to deal with the G450X, and CH Racing for scouting and grooming talent and producing championships and wanting to work with the new owners: to tell them all they want nothing to do with them and slamming the door in their face; that's insulting and disrespectful.

I bet SP has had a hard time during all those years trying to push a pretty weak brand from bankrupcy, and to finally get the big H for free that Steve McQueen and Bruce Brown made immortal, must be fulfilling.

Still, just putting an H on a KTM is a fraud, and I think that fact will be hard to get around. If I invest a lot of time and effort in something I want a strong foundation and will not invest in anything based on a fraud.
Click to expand...


Fraud indeed!!! And now it seems that parts are taking longer to get for my 12 wr 300.
 
Norman Foley said:
I know you do and I have 2 Swedish 250WR's and the '82 is my most cherished bike...
Click to expand...

Norn, I remember visiting the local husky dealer numerous times lusting after the 82 WR 250 DB replica. I was still in high school and there was no way to afford it but I wanted one BAD ****************************************
 
LandofMotards said:
Probably not the best example to get your point across, it seemed to have worked lol. KTM has climbed to the top and Husky has been sold twice more since then :).
Click to expand...
I personally know and ride with guys who have fully subscribed to that statement for 25+ years. Some went the ATK, Suzuki or Kawasaki route, but they all ended up on KTM's, not Italian Huskys. If I had a Nickel for
every time out trail riding or racing, a guy on a Suzuki RMX or whatever wearing a pair of old Husky Products pants would say to me on my Cagiva Husky..... That's not a "Real Husky", I could buy that new Husky FE501 retail!:oldman:
 
Motosportz said:
I just grabbed some pix of the internet to show the vast similarities. Race bikes are of course always evolving and I have no idea what generation each bike is. I have to assume they did not redesign the bike / frame just so they could slap husky colors and logo on it. Was for quick reference only showing the obvious bloodline not microscope evaluation. It was obvious to me the wheels are different, the brakes, the pipe, the fenders, the frame, etc, but was also obvious these bikes are the same family. Race bikes can vary from day to day let alone months and years of development.



Not sure why you are being so rude? here does this make you more happy? These KTM Moto3 bikes not only share the frame but the front brake and wheels. Looks almost identical to the "husky" IMHO even to this dullest bloke.

14.jpg
Click to expand...
Not being 'rude' to you, nor having a go at you.

Just commenting on the Moto 3 bikes. I emphasise that people Look closely at the pictures. You will get blokes that do a cursory look, see some tubes, and believe it's the same thing. Seriously, I had a bloke looking at the pictures, who said the frame was "exactly the same thing", even after I patiently pointed to, and had him counting the number of triangulation tubes, and noting their various angles, and placements. Hence, the "dullest bloke" line. You know, the sort that need the blatant difference between a tube / trellis frame, and an aluminium twin spar frame.

Relax, don't be such a 'delicate flower', and think you're being 'picked on'.:thumbsup:

To others, not just the bloke above:

As for we all seeing just a white XC, with a plastic subframe etc - Yes, we have "badge engineering" at best, so far.

Now, KTM got a hell of a 'vote' for that concept, with the introduction of the Husaberg 2ts. Sold quite a few extra bikes - and showed them a cheaper way to profits over the production of a significantly different bike - the 'sloper' 4ts, as against just a gussy up of an existing bike.

With the incredibly rapid decision by BMW to just hoick Husky - seriously, BMW are that big, that they could be just as instantaneous in deciding to stop motorcycle production entirely, if their GS line ever became less trendy - KTM had little option than to just make a white XC.

The best thing is to exercise healthy scepticism, and make noises ( make purchases / withold purchases ) that encourage KTM to continue to seperate the Husky line from the KTM, well as much as they can whilst keeping a favourable economy of scale etc.

By the time line given, pretty much from the word 'go', by SP - 2016 is to be the year model that we see that 'seperate identity'. We'll see. I'd not be surprised if a DFI / Whatever clean tech 2t they have, will come out a bit earlier on the "Huskies" than the date - 2017??????? - that it appears that it will be required by legislation in Europe. Along the lines of the EFI on the 'Berg 4ts, before it appeared on the KTMs, but more like just a year, instead of the 3 or 4(?).

Yup, bitch, moan and scream if you want to - better that than just accept a colour change and parts bin new / renewed brand. Because if that's what sells, that's all they'll be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top