• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

...Fact>when all production in Italy is done wich could be 9-14 months pretty much most all bikes will be built in KTM factory in Austria for sure.And that means like KTMs prices will be higher than now.

...if this is the case...I don't know about anyone else but I sure in hell ain't buying any of these bikes considering that the workers "knowingly" will not have a job after this run ...I know Italians are very proud of their workmanship but they are human,and I have recently seen what happens to "disgruntled' employees...
 
guscycle said:
...Fact>when all production in Italy is done wich could be 9-14 months pretty much most all bikes will be built in KTM factory in Austria for sure.And that means like KTMs prices will be higher than now.

...if this is the case...I don't know about anyone else but I sure in hell ain't buying any of these bikes considering that the workers "knowingly" will not have a job after this run ...I know Italians are very proud of their workmanship but they are human,and I have recently seen what happens to "disgruntled' employees...
Click to expand...
I would think they have thought of this and quality control measures will be taken already.
 
..I really need to stay away from this...something from CycleNews...AND despite what they say at the end,MY HUSQVARNA'S NEVER LET ME DOWN AND I ALWAYS ENJOYED EACH AND EVERYONE ..and I don't care if they sold only 5000 or 50,000 a year...
HUSQVARNA HEADED TO AUSTRIANew KTM ownership forces departure from Italy.

May 2, 2013 By Bruno dePrato Leave a Comment
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Husqvarna-logo.jpg

Italy’s motorcycle industry is experiencing stormy times. First, Ducati CEO Gabriele Del Torchio left Borgo Panigale to rescue Alitalia airlines. Now, KTM-owned Husqvarna is packing its bags and moving to Austria.
Former Husqvarna PR man Martino Bianchi confirmed that the factory near Varese will be shut down this month and production transferred to one of the KTM factories in Austria. This is a below-the-waistline blow to the economy of the region. Local politicians have not stepped in to prevent the move that KTM’s parent company, Pierer Industrie AG, promised would never happen.
Despite its storied past, Husqvarna never lived a particularly productive life after moving from Sweden to Italy following its acquisition in 1987 by the Castiglioni brothers-owned Cagiva Group. Things really went down the drain after BMW acquired Husqvarna six years ago. In fact, during the past three years, Husqvarna accumulated losses of 200 million euros.
 
As I said the saga continues ;this news post was the reason I called Mr. Husqvarna.
 
"All these thing have to take place to make Husqvarna not only the great bike it has always been but a motorcycle with value and a profitable brand to build ,yet still unique to us that like that." Wow. I mean, at this point I'm super happy that the uncertain future of those 212 people who will be fired for NO reason, including my future and my fiance's (BTW we are getting married this month, what a LOVELY wedding gift) will contribute to this amazing Husqvarna new life or whatever. I'm so happy right now it hurts. Mr Husqvarna, I'm also happy for you. You clearly won the golden ticket to Mr Pierer's chocolate factory. Take care and send us some postcards from Mattighofen.
 
Honestly part of the reason i love husky is they are cheaper than everyone else yet they are just as good if not better than ktms. If they do in fact become ktm prices my next bike will be something else
 
firecrotch said:
Honestly part of the reason i love husky is they are cheaper than everyone else yet they are just as good if not better than ktms. If they do in fact become ktm prices my next bike will be something else
Click to expand...
Here lies the dilemma.... These lower prices we've enjoyed, especially in the US.... have led to the financial weakness that put Husky in the position it is now. Tough situation.
 
hammer said:
Sorry but I don't think that is true.
Click to expand...
a european dirtbike has about $4000 parts cost.
now add the cost for assembly (factory, salaries), cost for storage and shipping, cost for running a dealer and spare parts network, cost for r&d.
now add the money that the importers and dealers need to earn...
now add racing activities.

and now look at current bikes prices.

r
 
So sad to hear about the factory shut down. I'm surprised the Italian politicians haven't jumped on that seeing as the Euro crisis is hitting Italy hard. Doesn't seem to make sense to my small brain; Factory already set up, lower cost labor rates, closer proximity to ocean ports for parts supply...
 
Well, maybe someone will buy the Husky factory in Italy and start a new brand.

But, it seems Husqvarna and Husaberg will become one. Fitting, I guess, since they where born in the same place.
 
That would be what it seems.

I just don't understand why someone would buy a company just for a name. It appears all he wants is the Husqvarna name. He's throwing everything else out the door. The factory, the bikes, the employees, all being dumped just for the name.

Why doesn't he just take the name and sell the rest back to Cagiva real cheap.
 
...guess they can count on loosing 2 customers..my son and I ..I have had many great years 38+ and now I have owned 21 Husky's(includes my sons little 50's)...I have enough Husky's in my garage now that I won't need to buy any for awhile..of course,if Husky would stay the way they are w/out ktm parts thrown on it,I could be persuaded to buy something new down the road...ain't holding my breath,tho and I am sure is hell gonna enjoy "every" minute of the Husky's I have now:thumbsup: !
 
MOTORHEAD said:
That would be what it seems.

I just don't understand why someone would buy a company just for a name. It appears all he wants is the Husqvarna name. He's throwing everything else out the door. The factory, the bikes, the employees, all being dumped just for the name.

Why doesn't he just take the name and sell the rest back to Cagiva real cheap.
Click to expand...

Remeber, the existing Husky models, factory, and employees resulted in losses to BMW upwards of $200 million euro ($260 million USD). The only thing worth anything was the name!
 
adam6402 said:
Remeber, the existing Husky models, factory, and employees resulted in losses to BMW upwards of $200 million euro ($260 million USD). The only thing worth anything was the name!
Click to expand...

Put another way, SP would have to pay someone to take over the Husky business without the Husky name.
 
Yesterday I posted a thread on this forum (and later threads were posted in the 4stroke and tr650 sections) regarding the survey that Husky NA sent out. I don't know what the intent was/is, and some of the questions were hard to answer in the format provided, but with the bits of real info here and there seems to be an undercurrent indicating that SP is planning on moving Husky ahead as a brand that is different than KTM. The survey basically seems to be gathering information to reinforce the direction Husky should take (mx, enduro, street, etc) and to seek to define the difference between KTM and Husky. The racing programs seem to anticipate some new 'Husky' machines for the coming year (with a separate program from the KTM program at the World MX in Europe). And while no one wants to see factories in Italy shut down but .... SP wants to be able to make use of synergy with KTM to keep costs down and moving the manufacture of 10k bikes to Germany probably makes sense. Husky has changed its personality several times in the past - from Swedish to Italian to Bavarian to Austrian? Things change (unless you ride a Harley).
 
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