• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

WOW, GasGas employees hang KTM dude and say KTM is not welcome there...

Sherco are making great bikes that aren't owned by Stefan.
If/when I get a new bike, they will get my money.
I see no point to buying a KTM, putting a white plastics kit & a Husky sticker on it and calling it a Husky.
Just buy the KTM (cheaper) and get a Husky t-shirt to wear away from the bike to show your support for the brand....
 
Yep DM, Roger that. If you've gotta have a Husky, no matter what's behind the curtain then go forth and follow. Sure I loved the Swedes and always wanted one (still do) but I came into the fold because I finally bought my first new dirt bike ever and couldn't swallow the Orange-aid at those prices, plus our Huscagivabeemers are a very unique platform.

That said, I'm glad I found this forum. Made friends around the world without using Fbook, started racing, and even got me second Husky because of it.

However, I love motorcycles first and brands aren't that important. Would really like to get an opportunity here in the states to try those new Shercos like you did.

When I hit the lotto, the Beta looks pretty good too! It is nice to see some more white dashes in the Orange line at the start of a race, even if they're white Katooms for what it's worth.
 
Remember, this is not the first time Husky is wearing another brands clothes. It happened with the buyout of Husky to Cagiva. Where the bikes were the same (accept stickers). Dare I mention BMW G 450 and the TC 449,TE and TXC 511. So this problem is not new to Husky. With KTM it is a much bigger scale and way more noticeable. Quite frankly KTM can give to Husky what the previously two owners could only dream about. Will a separation happen between KTM and Husky? One can only hope. Until then it is what it is.
 
RickyDZero said:
Remember, this is not the first time Husky is wearing another brands clothes. It happened with the buyout of Husky to Cagiva. Where the bikes were the same (accept stickers).
Click to expand...

570/610 continued.

RickyDZero said:
Dare I mention BMW G 450 and the TC 449,TE and TXC 511.
Click to expand...

Sure, most of us that actually own one love them, myself included. Owned it longer than almost any other bike. Still rocks.

- But yeah, been a long of changes in 112 years of existence.
 
When the news that KTM was going to gobble up Husqvarna l didn't like it but looking back on it, it could have been the final death of Husqvarna had KTM HQ decided to keep Husaberg and merge Husky together instead of the other way around.

So really, we should be glad that the brand name survives even though it probably should have died that many times with misguided management but it also shows how powerful the Husqvarna brand name is.

Will KTM HQ grow tired of Husqvarna and sell it off? I don't think so as there are so many Husky's on the trail that it's both funny and sad that many had only turned to the brand due to KTM HQ's marketing strength - plus it bought out their only major competitor at the time.

Let's face, in the last 20 years, as far as pure enduro bikes there has only been two european manufacturer's to chose from in Husky and KTM/Husaberg. Sure Gas Gas had their time in the sun but they still struggled to be force and consigned to be a boutique bike like the TM and Beta. Honda and Yamaha made great 4t's but they don't last and they don't make a 2t.

End of the day, Swedish/Italian/German/Austrian, the brand has always made great bikes, at times quirky but always had a range to cater for the pure enduro/offroad world.
 
Motosportz said:
570/610 continued.



Sure, most of us that actually own one love them, myself included. Owned it longer than almost any other bike. Still rocks.

- But yeah, been a long of changes in 112 years of existence.
Click to expand...

Kelly, you forgot the 350/400/410 also Swede born motor design that lived a long time under the Italians.
 
Cagiva bought Husky for many reasons, one being the most advanced 4T technology at the time and continued to develope it. As I have said before...First 4T MXGP Championship of the Modern Era... Not Husaberg or Yamaha, a single cam Husqvarna. First ISDE Overall win by a 4T in the Modern Era... Not Husaberg, Honda or Yamaha, a single cam Husqvarna.

KTM bought Husaberg to jump start its 4T developement, in 1995 and we got the RFS in 2000. Husky couldn't really compete in the 4T competition with KTM. Husky actually had better products in the original twin cam and the X-Lite, but financial problems delayed production and others caught up, before the Huskys came to market. If the twin cam came to market in 2001 and X-Lite in 2007 as planned..... total game changers.


Husky in 2013 didn't have better 2T or 4T technology than KTM, so nothing to keep but a Brand Name.....
 
Bergs were not salable worldwide due to not enough name-recognition was what was said about them in the early days of the buyout ... Bergs never sat as high in the company as Husqvarna as enjoyed day 1. This was shown in the block diagrams of the KTM company setup.

Riders here in this distance place know a Husqvarna ... Bergs are china made or some unknown brand here.

--
Little interesting Norm on those delay words, but oh, well... water under the bridge flowing .... I gotta say someone should get the > 08 frames and release them in any form in these 3rd world places to rid them of honda and china frames of all ages ... Long-term stuff of 30 yrs or more of good fing frames ...
 
It is what it is. My dream list includes new huskys and a ton of other brands :) tons of choices and even with a new husky id still be able to tell them their ktms suck otherwise they wouldn't need a "premium brand" lol.

I still think bmw did a great job. There was a ton of bikes being designed, first time i remember seeing huskys was under bmw because of advertising, they forced 2 motors on husky but allowed creativity that really seperated the 449 and 650 from their origanal models, and they were successfully racing even if not to the extent of now.

Ktn wins marketing and racing but bmw did put in a honest effort. Like everyone said, just another chapter in history.
 
I'm content. I have always owned/raced both Husky and KTM. When I feel like riding my Husky, I will. When I don't want to ride either, I'll drive my Rhino. :)
 
Damn European moto culture clashes. All we have is one big country and no dirt bike industry.
 
I think it's doable. License a few engines and get to work welding the main frame. Then bolt up the same brakes and forks as everyone else. Look at where husky was... and BMW years ago. Pretty much shared platforms and different bores. So many race outfits with ability to dyno, weld and fabricate. Take the engine out of the equasion by sourcing and licensing and sell out limited runs of bikes. Don't build everything and get big. Just enough to sell out. Keep it simple and field a few racers to prove it. Polaris is the brand to take it forward.
 
Just a pipe dream and I don't know much about who has come and go in the dirt space but I look at a motorcycle and see parts... None which are different from bike to bike except the motor and choice of frame and materials. Beyond that it's workers, corporate, marketing, advertising, etc... Got to be a way for someone like Polaris to structure a brand that could work and bring pride back to the USA. They are building an AMA Pro Flat track racer for '17. They are fielding winning Razrs now in Baja and elsewhere. Indian and Victory with exciting new offerings. A dirt bike is the logical next step.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top