• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

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    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!

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

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The more this plays out the more it looks like the whole Pierer Ind acquiring Husqvarna is nothing more then to satisfy Anti-trust laws in EU because you have KTM actively trying to coordinate take over of distribution and some dude from India saying "we this" and "we that" in reference to KTM/HSQ union. They'd be really crazy to kill off the XLite platform, it's about 98% perfect for 2013 and just needs a few set-up tweaks to make it 100%,....I also am personally biased I I feel it's a better package then KTM 250/290 or even 350.

MNB,....BMW does still have a 2013 G650GS and Sertao model which uses the same 652cc engine as the Terra/Strada, along with the same grips, wheels, ABS option, etc.
 
Maybe KTM was not getting far ahead with the two stroke direct injection, and Husky was??
 
Phil Lamb said:
SP can be CEO of 2 companies. Google him. He is involved with more corporations as a chief officer than we have fingers.
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I don't think you could be CEO of two companies in the same industry or it's a bit unethical (isn't that what anti-trust laws are all about?)...that like having Bill Gates being CEO of both Microsoft and Apple. He can be on the boards of other companies in the same industry as this can be seen as strategic alliances but this is dependent on that company's board as it is a conflict of interest.

And this is the unanswered question...is SP going to control Husqvarna as his own company or as part of Cross AG/Bajaj board, again, anti trust laws will have something to say here.
 
dunc said:
Maybe KTM was not getting far ahead with the two stroke direct injection, and Husky was??
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I kind of doubt that. Despite all the rumors about both comapanies working so deligently on DI for the last couple of years the reality of it is that if they wanted to bring it to market they would just do it. The technology to make it happen has been around for some time now and all that it needs is the will to do it and a market that wants it bad enough. I would think that reason we dont see more DI 2Ts is simply the cost factor vs. the sales factor (bottom line profit).
 
rajobigguy said:
I kind of doubt that. Despite all the rumors about both comapanies working so deligently on DI for the last couple of years the reality of it is that if they wanted to bring it to market they would just do it. The technology to make it happen has been around for some time now and all that it needs is the will to do it and a market that wants it bad enough. I would think that reason we dont see more DI 2Ts is simply the cost factor vs. the sales factor (bottom line profit).
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They want it to be able to pass California clean air standards, so they can get street taggable and green sticker legal models. That would be enough to produce the kind of sales numbers they are looking for for a 50 states two stroke model.
 
Bobby said:
MNB,....BMW does still have a 2013 G650GS and Sertao model which uses the same 652cc engine as the Terra/Strada, along with the same grips, wheels, ABS option, etc.
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You're right. I keep trying to forget those models... heh Ok, they're gone, too....

But the 449/511 isn't used. I doubt KTM will keep it, though.
 
dcg141 said:
KTM engines in Husqvarna frames made in Italy. Would that satsify current Husqvarna owners? More importantly..speaking as a dealer..does that attract new customers to the brand? I sell Husaberg and its working there and the frames are the same. If Husqvarna is to grow it has go beyond the hardcore "Husky" owner. It just does. Will having a well know engine and parts distrubution and stable dealer network help that happen? Imo it certainly won't hurt. I am curious because I have been fence sitting for a couple of years as to taking on Husqvarna. I was leary of the direction that BMW was taking and my instincts proved to be right. I live is an area where Husqvarna has rotted on the vine for so long that it will take some drastic measures to get it going again. Having a KTM engine would do wonders to make that happen I do believe. I know for true believers there is a definate KTM bias. I have never really understood that but it is what it is. I am longtime KTM guy. I owned Pentons and KTM going back 30 years and became a dealer 13 years ago. I always liked Husqvarnas and thought they were cool bikes. I was never really anti anything so I have a hard time getting my head around that. I am now very interested in seeing where this goes. Look at it from my standpoint. If the bikes are as I describe all I need to stock would frame and plastic parts. You know for sure the bike will have Brembos and WP's so even there we have parts on ths shelf. I am very interested in the opinons expressed here.
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I will have to respectfully disagree with you analyses - I've own both KTMs and Huskys (a lot of them) and can compare with experience. There is absolutely no reason to up-grade any part of a Husky from the engineering and design of a KTM (Only exceptions would be maybe electric start on the 2t units and 6-speed tranny for the WRs) Which is no "biggy" and can be delt with.
I'll put my WR300 up against any 300 2t unit from KTM! The engine on the WR is a dated design - but it works so well and is bullet-proof. The suspension is damn-near perfect - "Out-of-Box" .
Hell, I can even get to my spark plug without taking off the tank.

Huskys problem was not design - it was sales/marketing and distribution.
Note - If you want something pretty (?) and want to spend a 1000.00 or more - buy a KTM.

P.s. - I personally think the WRs are pretty-er!
 
Dirtdame said:
They want it to be able to pass California clean air standards, so they can get street taggable and green sticker legal models. That would be enough to produce the kind of sales numbers they are looking for for a 50 states two stroke model.
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I dont think Ca. would certify a 2T engine even if it produced cleaner air out the exhaust then it took in through the intake and I'm not saying that to be funny, I've dealt pretty extensively with C.A.R.B. CALEPA and several other of the alphabet organizations and I can tellyou that for them it's all about being right in their infinite wisdom about what Ca. needs. Well that and the money.
 
mnb said:
So kill all the Husky engines and frames goodbye. They're gone.

While I doubt they'll simply rebadge, you're going to have a second Husaberg - essentially a KTM, but designed with KTM parts by a different team. Three companies, sharing the same few engines, transmissions and probably frames, too. As many parts as possible to reduce the cost.
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I have trouble believing "completely different characteristics" from the same engineering platform.
 
rajobigguy said:
I dont think Ca. would certify a 2T engine even if it produced cleaner air out the exhaust then it took in through the intake and I'm not saying that to be funny, I've dealt pretty extensively with C.A.R.B. CALEPA and several other of the alphabet organizations and I can tellyou that for them it's all about being right in their infinite wisdom about what Ca. needs. Well that and the money.
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They are pirates or princes, but not looking out for anyone's interests but their own. Vampires might be a better term
 
I am hoping at least we are able to keep Husky frames, suspension, and styling, that does make them different. KTM engines would not be so bad, they do run off the dealer floor. Husqvarnas handle, but usually have to tune the engine. KTM's run great, but we are still looking for the magician that makes the suspension work.
I think I will be hanging on to my 250 X- Light for awhile, maybe I need to get a spare.
 
water racer said:
I am hoping at least we are able to keep Husky frames, suspension, and styling, that does make them different. KTM engines would not be so bad, they do run off the dealer floor. Husqvarnas handle, but usually have to tune the engine. KTM's run great, but we are still looking for the magician that makes the suspension work.
I think I will be hanging on to my 250 X- Light for awhile, maybe I need to get a spare.
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Gary, The RedHead Keihin EFI'ed XLights are ready to run hard out of the box,....however little fit'n'finish things like water pump hose needs to be dealt with or it will chaffe a hole in about 10 hours can be a minor show stopper. Otherwise the BMW engine development gurus did help the Husky folks get it to be all it can be,.....unless you feel like installing the high compression piston and GET control module for all out race bred performance but less piston life I'm assuming.
 
Bobby said:
Gary, The RedHead Keihin EFI'ed XLights are ready to run hard out of the box,....however little fit'n'finish things like water pump hose needs to be dealt with or it will chaffe a hole in about 10 hours can be a minor show stopper. Otherwise the BMW engine development gurus did help the Husky folks get it to be all it can be,.....unless you feel like installing the high compression piston and GET control module for all out race bred performance but less piston life I'm assuming.
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Yeah, there has been a lot of BMW bashing on this thread, but it has helped to remind me that I switched from KTM to Husqvarna when BMW bought them because I felt they would take them too the top. And they have done a lot of good, just takes time.
 
Wow, just caught up reading the incredible number of posts since last nite**************************************** Great info as always, still read it as SP wants to do with Husky what he did with KTM when he rescued them from near death many years ago, not fold Husky into the pumpkin. Guess we will all see soon, & IMO, I've had 2 KTMs. they were both good bikes, but I know my Huskys are better bikes for me. So I do hope they keep em the way they are, just refine them. The bikes are good, need better marketing & promotion........
 
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