I will be voting with my wallet as I am from the second 'don't like the KTMs' catagory. I have ridden the newer bike, they don't appeal to me like my Husky does. I believe that the biggest issue is the reduction of available decent competition if you don't like how the orange bikes ride. The Japs have sat on their hands in the Enduro market for 4 or 5 years and in Aus, the only Euro dealers outside of the major cities have been Berg Husky & KTM...... Now they are all the same that leaves us with nothing. Sure I can by a Sherco, Beta, TM long distance, but if I want to slip down to a dealer for an oil filter or a spare air-filter one Sat morning it'll be a 2 1/2 round trip.
How quickly we forget.... When Cagiva bought Husqvarna, they became the biggest Euro motorcycle manufacturer. They were mainly a street bike company and they were very arrogant in the way they handled Husky and their dealers at first, especially in the US. They axed the Swedish 2T bikes and came up with a bunch of re-badged Cagivas (That were actually very good bikes). They kept the 4T bikes, because they were cutting edge, at the time. The ex Husky men who would start Husaberg, took the 4T concept even further though and KTM would buy them to jump start their RFS design. It would be almost 5 years after buying Husky, before you saw really new bikes in 1991. For all this and all the bitterness that many Husky riders felt, Husqvarna built great bikes and had many successes. The main problem was... The Castiglioni's were a little too passionate and squandered their resources. SP and KTM aren't all that different, just better business men.....
No, that's a done deal. Lots of good Huskys to come. The naysayers got it wrong 25+ years ago and they have it wrong again.
I just think it'd be fun to watch it play out again and get another option. Who knows, maybe BMW would be ready for round two and buy berg out
...sounds good an all but the Huskys are ktm's in diguise that are entering ...so to me it's just another katoom and I believe BMW/HUSQVARNA had many of the former racers showing and racing as well ...Heroes Ride Husky's - thank you Terry Cunningham for being one of those blast from the past riders I met a few years ago at the GNCC race in Florida!
They were very unimpressed with the changes. New fender and light, and a few very minor changes. Maybe next year we will see the differentiation they keep telling us about. Still very nice white KTMs.
I am very happy with my white KTM. Best out of the box bike I have ever purchased with lots of upside mod options if desired. Just need to find out how to keep from burning my right leg off !
I hope your cooling sorts out. My '03 TE610E ran very hot on break in, fan ran quite a bit. I can't remember how long it took, but ran fine after some serious miles. Enjoy that bike!
In response to edmoto's post.......I would buy a RM(X)300 over a KTM anytime....as long as the Japanese did a good job with them and didn't price it out of this world. I think they (the Japanese companies) could compete with KTM if they so chose to. I think all of the companies that produce off-road or dual sport bikes should be totally involved in land issues.....the tree huggers are!
Agree. BTW yamaha has provided a lot of money and support around here the last few years. Bought stuff for staging areas and trail building equipment. I totally respect them for that and agree there should be a lot more of this happening.
Different interview ... but here are some vague words on Husky sales ... Earlier in the week we spoke with KTM Sports manager Pit Beirer about the progress KTM are making in the sport and also the loss of Ken Roczen. Today we talk about the Husqvarna side of the story and also some motoGP and Beirer’s feeling about how the MXGP series is run. MXLarge: Pit, we all knew that Husqvarna would be in good hands when they were picked up by KTM. Can you explain how the first months have gone with the brand? Beirer: The first half of the year we sold more Husqvarna’s than they had sold in the last few years. The brand has taken off fantastic and we expected something good, we thought the brand is like a little diamond, but it’s gone crazy and way better than we expected. There is a head of motorsport in place at Husqvarna, so it isn’t up to me to speak about their strategy plan, but I can say it is growing like we expected in the racing side.
First, I'm sticking with my words from months ago... SP has a tiger by the tail ... If nothing else, he has to keep the Huskies priced jacked to stop the mass number of ktm owners from coming over to a Husky bike because it is really the same bike with a different price. Next, I don't think it is 100% up to the company to decide on shining.. It will be sales numbers \ butter (profit) from the bike sales that show who is the diamond. The company can slide things around between the bikes, maybe rebates (on sales?) and decide on the PRO racers who will be advertising the bikes for us, but I'm not sure they can do alot to control what is or is not sold after it hits the showrooms. If they get too heavy handed internally on bike options, well, the core of the company (employees) might develop some real problems. The employees, that will sit face-to-face in company meetings, are gonna be in direct competition internally on making the better bike. You start putting limits on what each bike does and you are stopping internal growth of your employees AND their paychecks to some degree. Many people are not gonna go for that, ESP the brilliant ones who can drive new components or even entire new bikes. They will leave the company or just stop putting forth their best efforts. -- Here are Pits words again. Beirer: The first half of the year we sold more Husqvarna’s than they had sold in the last few years. The brand has taken off fantastic and we expected something good, we thought the brand is like a little diamond, but it’s gone crazy and way better than we expected. There is a head of motorsport in place at Husqvarna, so it isn’t up to me to speak about their strategy plan, but I can say it is growing like we expected in the racing side. Lets put numbers to his words. We know Husky was selling ~9,000 bikes a yr.... A few yrs of sales would be 9,000 x 3 yr = ~27,000 bikes ... Pit is implying ktm has sold ~27,000 bikes in 1\2 a yr? 27,000 bikes x 2 (entire yr) = ~56,000 bikes sold already? EDIT: My numbers are too wack I'm thinking ... Here's the massage... I'll use 1 yr of Husky sales instead of 3 ... mis-communication is so easy! ~9000 bikes a yr for Husky ... ktm sold that many in 6 months .. ktm sales = ~2x~9000 = 18,000 bikes sold ... (Sound a little more believable)
There is talk about divergence of the husky brand. I dont see this happening because they would be spending development money to be in more competition with themselves. I think the motor and frames will stay largely the same between the brands with the packaging different like it is now. Remember they took Husaberg from a unique brand to basically a KTM. I am in no way saying this is a bad thing just responding to many comments I hear from friends expecting husky to be a all new bike one day soon. I could be very wrong but it just does not make business sense. The current bikes are refined and successful and I don't see a lot of up side to changing things up.
A lot depends on how the world economy plays out, in the next few years. KTM was riding high, with a good world economy, when they green lighted the Husaberg 70 Degree bikes. Then by the time they were introduced, in the Fall of '08, at ISDE in Greece.... The world economy was in the dumps and KTM had its worst year in ages. They kept the concept going for four model years, but the '11 2T bikes started testing the waters, for blue KTM's. They were accepted by consumers, but maybe not the diehard Husaberg fans. KTM looked at the numbers and started heading towards Husaberg/KTM model integration. Husky dropped in their laps and they just made minor adjustments to the plan. It may not be probable, but I think it's still possible, that some unique Huskys can be built, if economic conditions are right. What KTM did in letting Husaberg build the 70 Degree bikes, points to them doing this, as much as Blue and then White KTM's point to them not doing it......
SP has numbers now to look at ... Pit say he likes the numbers ...Are they gonna take a bike that is already selling and change it out, totally? Entering tiger country now ... So how ever this turns out, I'm sure ktm learned something from the Bergs that will bleed over into the Husky days ... Along with what you have already stated, I'll add SP saying no name brand recognition did\was gonna hinder Bergs sales number ... Notice now they keep playing a theme from the earlier days of Husky when the bikes were in the lime light ...Lots of us old guys remember those days ... And as you have stated, they seem to be doing Husky the opposite of the Berg saga so far ... Bergs also never got on the same level as the KTM bikes inside the company according to all the company profiles I've seen .. Not that I ever saw a ktm or Berg web site till after the buyout from bmw but I did find and post one out here somewhere with Bergs not on the top shelf. -- How does SP get his company sitting so nicely inside KTM_AG?
