• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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 on the KTM purchase of Husqvarna

rasputin said:
here's that interview... in german, sorry.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1692/img4584os.jpg

r
Click to expand...

i ocr'ed and translated it:

"What was one"

The head of the Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM, Stefan Pierer, through his company Pierer Industrie AG, took over the Swedish-Italian traditional brand Husqvarna from the BMW Group in January. Where go we go from here, Husqvarna?



How do you want to carry on with Husqvarna and Husaberg?

With Husaberg and Husqvarna, two manufacturers are getting back together, which were originally one. When the Castiglioni family bought the Husqvarna brand in 1987, former employees of Husqvarna have founded the Husaberg brand in Sweden. In 1995, KTM bought the company Husaberg, and since 2003, Husaberg bikes are produced in Austria at the KTM factory. In the future, the new Husqvarna motorcycle range will also be manufactured in this factory.

What happens to the location in Italy?

Sales, marketing, customer services and spare parts supply will remain in Biandronno, Italy. The production of Husqvarna motorcycles at this locationwill cease during the course of the year. The low production numbers of Husqvarna - even though this is tough - cannot be built profitable at this site. BMW has lost about 25 million Euro per year there. The competitive context in Italy is worrying. One could almost speak of a "de-industrialization". One reason is the rigid labor regulations and the inflexible position of the trade unions. No international company is currently motivated to invest in Italy.

How will the relationship between Husaberg and Husqvarna look like in the future?

The distribution networks of the two brands will be merged. The lead brand will be Husqvarna, which for decades has a high brand awareness also in the United States. Husaberg is very successful in Europe, but little-known outside Europe. And does not have the power to attack the Japanese manufacturers there successfully. That was also the reason for the acquisition of Husqvarna. This internationally renowned off-road brand will now distribute its products worldwide under the name of Husqvarna Sportmotorcycle.

Which models you want to build?

Husqvarna currently has an ancient produkt range. The coming Husky bikes are developed on a basis of the Husaberg Enduro bikess, which are state of the art. In the Motocross range, we will rely on a common construction kit of KTM and Husqvarna. Basically, it works like in the car industry. VW, Skoda, Seat and Audi draw from common resources for production and development. Nevertheless, the brands differ considerable and have different target groups.

What are your goals?

Within a relatively short time, we want to sell 20.000 Husqvarna per year. For 2014, we set out to 14.000 units. We also want to develop Supermoto and single-cylinder road models, but with Husqvarna brands core. Such motorcycles have to arise from the brand's history. Not like the Nuda, which surely is a lovely bike, but from the core is a BMW.

How is your cooperation with Bajaj at Husqvarna Sportmotorcycle? Does the Pierer Industrie AG own 100 percent of Husqvarna Sportmotorcycle?

Husqvarna Sportmotorcyle will be a 100 percent subsidiary of KTM AG, which is owned 51 percent by my business group, and 48 percent by Bajaj. This ensures that Husqvarna will equally benefit from the joint projects.
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Finally some direction. The only unknown quantity will be how Bajaj 48% well effect the marketing decisions.
The inside line is that the new 390 being produced by the India factory has high marks for QC.
Hopeful that the R&D departments work separately KTM and Hurqberg. Keep you fingers crossed.
 
Red Husaberg's. I'm ok with that. They are nice bikes. They will be even better with "Husqvarna" written on the side.
 
So.. the new Husqvarna FE501 will really rip, but it will over heat and break gears. Hey, that plastic sub-frame looks cool...
 
Mike-AK said:
Red Husaberg's. I'm ok with that. They are nice bikes. They will be even better with "Husqvarna" written on the side.
Click to expand...



red Husaberg>
read Red Ktm as was the original concern here
he is right about a lot of the ancient product line but not completely
a small manufacture line sure won a lot of titles
 
...and some plastics are much better strength to weight than aluminum and without the corrosion or stress cycle issues.
 
I am a big fan of the Berg's. if they handle the marketing well, then this change will go without a hitch.

Cafe Husky is kindof the husqvarna brand 'tribe'. We are all true fans and well connected to the brand. We have organized our own culture here, around a brand which we all feel we belong to, and it belongs to us. Unfortunately, the brand doesn't belong to us, it belongs to KTM.

I we did a poll right now asking who would buy a berg rebadged as a Husqvarna, I bet over 50% of us would say yes. And, even if none of us said we woud buy one, I bet half of us still will. It doesn't matter where it is made or who owns the company, we all identify with the brand and most of us will keep identifying with it.
 
chuckc4 said:
I am a big fan of the Berg's. if they handle the marketing well, then this change will go without a hitch.

Cafe Husky is kindof the husqvarna brand 'tribe'. We are all true fans and well connected to the brand. We have organized our own culture here, around a brand which we all feel we belong to, and it belongs to us. Unfortunately, the brand doesn't belong to us, it belongs to KTM.

I we did a poll right now asking who would buy a berg rebadged as a Husqvarna, I bet over 50% of us would say yes. And, even if none of us said we woud buy one, I bet half of us still will. It doesn't matter where it is made or who owns the company, we all identify with the brand and most of us will keep identifying with it.
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while it is true what you say, yes I had a KTM in the middle my brothers own one or both, so Ok with looking
but, back to the point, this is Café Husky and as such people come here to discuss them, there are other forums
still I look at other brands none of them are perfect including Husky, oops did I say that
now the reason I personally like them is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, where was I
oh yeah the trait I like is the stable handling, the shock is not perfect and neither are the forks
that said live with whatever you like,
back to the thread a KTM engine in a husky seems like sacrilege but mine has a Cagiva engine, yes it is a Cagive even though they have used it for years it is still a Cagiva engine, if you want to be impressed try a KTM/ Husaberg 300, case reed smooth power just prefer the Husky handling
if they leave the chassis similar and shove the 300 power plant in it (electric start too) you have a winner, 6 speed, smooth power, great handling, read world beater as is his hopes, not necessarily in motocross but certainly off road as in endure first

so the Husky brand tribe has seen one engine replacement on the 2 strokes and I hear they also sell 4 strokes not sure though never had one
on that note those are someone else's engine too
yes I like my bikes and no I personally am not brand stuck but these are my thoughts

I approve this message:busted:
 
Not being negative but I don't think the Husky 250/300 owners would want the KTM engines in their bikes. From what I've seen and read they sometimes overheat and e-starts aren't very good. I know I wouldn't buy a Husky 125/144 with a KTM 125/144 engine in it. I really think Husky owners, most anyway, feel it isn't just the Husky ergo's/ handling that better but the Husky engines too. Do KTM have good engines and bikes.....yep...but I for one feel as a package the Huskys suite me better.
 
Yes....well, the whole thing makes me sad. But I didn't like what BMW was doing to Husqvarna either. I realize that this is the only feasible way that the marquee would be saved. But taking Husaberg and rebadging it as a Husqvarna isn't what I had hoped for. I was (perhaps a bit unrealistically) hoping that some of the Italian "charm" of the engines and chassis components would follow the name to its new home, but I guess the "ancient" designed stuff is all chucked into that big black hole in the sky now.:(
 
The best Husky's ever were made 1979 through 1982. Painting them white in '83 killed the Swedish bikes, and they have never been the same since. A lot of Husky dealers went KTM after the refrigerator white bikes. They went from not being able to keep enough '82s in stock to having a showroom full of '83s they couldn't sell. The Italian bikes were nice, but the 2-strokes were getting a bit long in the tooth. You can only resist change for so long before the competition overwhelms you, and from what I have read, the old tooling was on its last legs. With regard to 4-strokes, the X-Lites are nice race motors, but marketing them as TE dual purpose bikes has put a bad taste in some buyers mouths and limited sales when folks realize the maintenance that comes along with them, along with a transmission that is useless on the street. That and they run like crap unless you remove all the junk that makes them street legal in the first place. Go ahead and grieve and be nostalgic if you want, but an infusion of technology and modern production is, in my opinion, exactly what Husky needs. BMW failed because that is not possible in the labor environment in Italy. The choice was either KTM or the death of Husqvarna. At least this way we get parts support.
 
I have yet to own one (hope I will someday) but the x-lites BMW brought to life...awesome as we all know. I have briefly rode a x-lite TE 310 and loved it. I bet 800 Alessi could have put the 310 on the podium in SX, as the KTM 350 couldn't/didn't do it. The x-lite TE 310 really is the only bike on the market that I would want to buy atm. If the platform goes away and gets replaced with a Kato 350 motor, I would have to say pass and go to MotoXotica for a plated RS 400 Beta. Has anyone else noticed the beautiful Up-Tite skid plates adorning the Beta's?
 
The TE310 may not be the best suited dual sport bike for serious road work but in California it allows you to take a great dirt bike and run it year round in our highly regulated trail system. It's a good compromise, at a great price, as long as you don't need to run it down the highway. If they can graft a wide ratio gear box from the Husaberg lineup into the TE310 you would have a winning combination. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
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