Husqvarna appears to be dead

[AzOzRider]

So it would appear KTM is in fact doing all it can to bury the brand, bringing it's arrogance and complete lack of customer service to their new acquisition. My dealer, Full Throttle, informed me Husky Australia has pulled the rug out from under them. They were consistently among the highest volume Husky dealers in Australia. No more support, no more service for us. Further, after Husky screwed up my bikes with that recall mess, they are just not getting it handled. Lots of ignored messages until I contacted the ACCC AGAIN. My wife and I both now have gone down on our TR650's as a result of what they did to them. And they never even followed legal requirements to notify owners of the TR650 of the recall. They are thumbing their noses at all Husky owners here in Australia.

Now add this to the mix... I am launching a new global company in the world of motorcycles, so working with people all over the world in the industry. A video production pro (does a lot of the stuff you see for ads, etc) was approached by Husky to ride RTW again after doing it once, this time on a new 701 Enduro. He gladly accepted, but is now stranded half a globe away from his home, with Husqvarna quite uninterested in getting the bike fixed and back on the road.

THIS is how you promote a brand you acquired? Nah. It appears quite obvious, Husqvarna was purchased to be killed by Goliath KTM. It appears to only be trying to kill off all the competition (ditching Husaberg after purchase, now burying Husqvarna) because their bikes are now nothing more than over-priced, dealer-dependent piles of crap made in China, and don't live up to the reputation which built the company. Customer service is non-existent.

Even the unveiling of the new Svartpilen in Sydney at the expo... public not allowed. Arrogant jerkoffs. They clearly aren't interested in supporting or promoting the brand. Anything you see I am sure is just to throw everyone off. It woulda been too obvious to buy both brands and immediately shut them down. No, shut one, PRETEND you are carrying on with the other, but bury it. Point the finger at the market, whatever. All designed to bolster KTM sales of their crap.

It was a great run. Sorry to see you go, Husky. At least here in Australia.

 

[pvduke]

yikes! really sorry to hear this. support and the brand are super strong here in (Arizona) USA.

 

[AzOzRider]

Really? We moved here from Phoenix. We go back and forth. Maybe I ought to be looking at shipping our bikes back there. I keep a K1200GT there for long touring, but would love to have my Huskies there. What dealer do you use? I may have to have some conversation. If the bikes will continue to be supported there it might be a consideration.

 

[pvduke]

AEO Powersports, Mesa AZ. (there's 2 of them in the Valley)

https://www.facebook.com/AEO-POWERSPORTS-126151510736243/

 

[Big Timmy]

CSA "Cycle, Ski and ATV" in Tucson. Offers great Husqvarna Motorcycle support in AZ.

I live on the Border in Douglas, AZ.

As an example,
I just had CSA get me a BMW G450X/Husky 449/511 "Kymco" Engine, Factory tools- Stator Flywheel puller. It took them about 1 week and it was on my front porch. Not one aftermarket company in the world makes or lists a flywheel puller for these BMW designed Kymco 450 engines.

I even spoke directly to Flywheel puller manufacturer "Dennis Stubblefield Tools" on Jan, 24th about doing a custom run of these pullers as there is nowhere else to get them. And this same engine is used in the 3 different brands of motorcycles. The 09-10 BMW G450X, 2011-2013- Husky TC-TE-TXC 449/511s and the CCM GP450s from 2014-2015. Guess they will all have to do the same thing I did if they want to pull their own flywheels.

CSA has come through, no problem. Even on some of the most obscure items I have needed.

 

[ray_ray]

I'm not saying any of your words are wrong here or not true, I'm just saying I'll believe all this when it happens. And even then, losing a dirt bike brand is trivial to me really on the scope of the world today. My bet was on 5 Italian made Husqvarna dirt bikes, close to a decade ago and at the old-age of 60 now, it has been an AOK bet. I think I'll ride these till I can't ride'em no more.

Inlines below.

So it would appear KTM is in fact doing all it can to bury the brand, bringing it's arrogance and complete lack of customer service to their new acquisition. My dealer, Full Throttle, informed me Husky Australia has pulled the rug out from under them. They were consistently among the highest volume Husky dealers in Australia. No more support, no more service for us. Further, after Husky screwed up my bikes with that recall mess, they are just not getting it handled. Lots of ignored messages until I contacted the ACCC AGAIN. My wife and I both now have gone down on our TR650's as a result of what they did to them. And they never even followed legal requirements to notify owners of the TR650 of the recall. They are thumbing their noses at all Husky owners here in Australia.

First off, I certainly hope your wife was not hurt too bad. I'd ~never ride a bike that I knew was dangerous to any degree and if I did, I'd be fully aware of whatever was dangerous. This does not let bwm or ktm or Husky off the hook on the issues with this bike.

No invitation to that 'rug pulling' business-decision-making meeting so I'm clueless on the business decisions that were made there. After working at m$ and Intel for over a decade, I grasp the point of 'you need to be at the meeting or you will ~never really know what happened there and for what reasons'. You just get the press release jargon.

Too bad on the nose thumbing... For future references, it might be a good idea to not purchase a product that was made for such a short time as that TR bike was made. Can't have too many parts in the supply line for openers and the bike probably never was right when bwm rolled it off the line. Again, this does not let bwm, ktm or Husky off the hook on the short-comings of their product.

Now add this to the mix... I am launching a new global company in the world of motorcycles, so working with people all over the world in the industry. A video production pro (does a lot of the stuff you see for ads, etc) was approached by Husky to ride RTW again after doing it once, this time on a new 701 Enduro. He gladly accepted, but is now stranded half a globe away from his home, with Husqvarna quite uninterested in getting the bike fixed and back on the road.

Absolutely clueless here on your words; Nothing in the contract on support here? Sounds bad but business is business, even if bad business and that is why contracts are necessary.

THIS is how you promote a brand you acquired? Nah. It appears quite obvious, Husqvarna was purchased to be killed by Goliath KTM. It appears to only be trying to kill off all the competition (ditching Husaberg after purchase, now burying Husqvarna) because their bikes are now nothing more than over-priced, dealer-dependent piles of crap made in China, and don't live up to the reputation which built the company. Customer service is non-existent.

Let's go back a few yrs to when the Italians sold out to the Germans. I'm cursed with a memory that maybe SP does not have or maybe he does not read this cafe? Because it was said here by a few that Husky was going under in the hands of the Italians and bwm saved the brand. Next was bwm just ~gave SP the Husky brand name and cut their huge losses. Why not just let them die in bwm hands like they did with that street bike brand where they crushed the last one they made off the assembly line? bwm has that recent history.

As far as Bergs go, please, they have ~no history as compared to Husqvarna. Yes they won races and were good bikes. But no name brand recognition. Most people around the world were clueless on them.

The business-model of the ~entire world is such that most modern world countries produce their products in countries where the labor costs are lower. It has been that way for decades? You are just gonna have to get used to that. Say whatever you want to say on this process, but it benefits the poorer countries and we, all the 1st world people, get a lower-costing product. You do understand capitalism?

Even the unveiling of the new Svartpilen in Sydney at the expo... public not allowed. Arrogant jerkoffs. They clearly aren't interested in supporting or promoting the brand. Anything you see I am sure is just to throw everyone off. It woulda been too obvious to buy both brands and immediately shut them down. No, shut one, PRETEND you are carrying on with the other, but bury it. Point the finger at the market, whatever. All designed to bolster KTM sales of their crap.

Not sure on that Svartpilen bike, but Husky and ktm are shoving Japanese made bikes off every top-level dirt bike podiums around the world today. Racing is a live performance of your product. Racing is advertising. Remove Husky from the equation and at the best, you have to have another ktm on the podium or it will allow a Japanese brand to get all this camera\advertising time.


There is no real competition out there for dirt bikes \ MX racer bike other than the 4 bike brands made in Japan. Not sure on ADV bikes or what ever. Japan really makes a few big heavy bikes for ADV(?) + MX racer models and sells millions of small street bikes around the world. A totally different business model than the high-priced ktm and premium priced Huskies. SP priced the Huskies over the ktm day 1 or he at least made that statement. Seemed like that would have pissed off the ktm riders?

Husky sold 30,000 bikes last yr or make 2 yrs ago. Not sure of what models sold the most but I'm sticking with my predication that the Husky brand out-selling some of the ktm brand bikes of the same type until I see some specific sales numbers...

It was a great run. Sorry to see you go, Husky. At least here in Australia.

JA21 is riding a 450cc Husqvarna branded bike and has a 36 point lead in the AMA SX racing today at round 7. ZO16 is defending his 2017 250cc SX champion and just won his 1st race yesterday in the new 2018 season, on his Husqvarna branded bike.

You probably know this but SX, not MX, is the title everyone wants today in the USA... So, I'm guessing SP will let these hard-chargers win their championship titles before he pulls the plug; But again, I have no money bet on any of these possibilities or stocks in any of these companies so I'm not too concerned any way the chips fall.

Max Anstie went 1-1 on his 450cc Husqvarna branded bike at last yrs (2017) MXoN... AC222 is going for his 9th MXGP championship this yr; Max has already finished a close 2nd to him already this yr in Italy; It is a long shot but hope Max has a chance to de-throne AC before the plug is pulled.

EDIT: It does seem a little weird that SP is awfully quiet these days on the success of the Husky brand and that goes along with Pit also; The competition of these 2 brands under one roof might be making more waves than expected?

Here are the stock owners:

KTM Industries AG (50.67%)
Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV (49%)
Public Float (0.33%)

Not sure on how this plays into the overall company but ktm seems to have limitless pockets for research&design. Also, it might be true that SP has leveraged all he can from Bajaj without losing controlling interest in ktm?

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Here is another tidbit of info (2015) ... I'm sure you understand what these blocks mean? Spending money\Clout\Power inside a company putting it bluntly... The only block diagram I saw with Bergs had them a level below the KTM bikes; meaning they never had the same support of the orange bikes.

It is possible to make a bad business decision, but why put Husky at this company level if he has planned since day 1 to burn them? ESP since Husky was already toasted... Husky was whipping ktm in some enduro races in EU but that is small potatoes to what ktm was doing at the same time. RD5 was winning AMA SX\MX championships on orange bikes in this time frame.

Husqvarna, which was purchased by SP, sits at the same level as the orange bikes. Maybe some business guy can explain how SP company(Husqvarna) sits so nicely inside KTM AG?

 

[racemx904]

Husky is far from dying.....

Let’s be honest the 100 people that bought tr650s won’t kill it now..... they weren’t supported very good from day one

 

[ray_ray]

Seeing this thread is in the CORP forum, I'm gonna use the thread owner and myself in an attempt to explain some of the history of this TR streeter bike in question and the other Husqvarna branded bikes made over time. There is zero malice or anything overly ~determinable meant here in my words and if you think so, please re-read my words and ~check yourself. And then send me a PM.

The Husqvarna brand has a long legacy in time with motorcycles alone, most good but not all of it.
Sort of breaks down like this:

1) Swedenish born (I'll call this the 'On Any Sunday' era)
2) Italian owned
3) bwm era (streeter series bikes happen)
4) Ktm era (current)

--
Myself, I'm from the 'On Any Sunday' era. Saw the movie at age 15(?)... Owned a '76 CR250 soon afterwards; Only brand of bike I've really owned is a Husky. All I know is Husqvarna Dirt bikes. Period.

I'm bringing in Mr AzOzRider. All I know on this fine fellow is he owns 5 brands of bikes. Easy enough to guess 3 out of the 5 are streeters, with the single Husqvarna branded bike a bwm era streeter bike;

Meaning the 2 of us are totally different motorcycle owners and probably have 2 totally different takes on the Husqvarna branded bikes we own but still expect a certain amount of performance + support of the bikes. My Italian made Husqvarna dirt bikes are AOK with me for close to a decade now and perform as ~expected to a high degree. His bwm era made streeter bike seems to come up short.
--

These bwm era street bikes were purchased with good intentions and then the owners got ~left-in-the dust to some degree after the KTM buyout; Blame all their misfortunes on bwm, ktm, Husky, take your pick. But be sure you remember the eras I pointed out above and that the Swedes did not and the Italians did not build these bike under anyone but bwm. The Husqvarna brand was a subsidary of bwm then and now the brand name belongs to KTM, meaning Husky calls no shots today unless big-daddy-orange-says-ok.

Also, easy enough to say the 'On Any Sunday' era riders were left to some degree out from the Italian era, maybe? And certainly easily to say that SP dropped all the Italian era bikes from his radar but I doubt either of these cases were left as high&dry as this 'dangerous' streeter bike in question here.

I'd like to add that Husqvarna bikes sales numbers when up in the bwm era at some point in their ownership. Dirt bike sales actually went down but the street bikes sales pushed the overall sales numbers of brand upward. Can't remember the exact sales numbers, but Husqvarna dirt bikes had sold ~9-10,000 bikes a yr for a large part of the Italian yrs... This number probably is heavily-weighted with the 'On Any Sunday' era type riders.

This is the legacy of the 'bwm era' streeter bikes and the stain that time frame of ownership left on the Husqvarna brand name that the Swedish \ 'On Any Sunday' and Italian Owned era Riders are stuck with.

 

[ray_ray]

Here is an article from Forbes, an American business magazine, that might interest Mr AzOZ, since he mentioned the Svartpilen bike and it appears, at least by his profile, to be a bwm Era Husqvarna Streeter owner, looking to move into the KTM Era streeter owner crowd. Being an 'On Any Sunday' Husqvarna rider myself, the words in this article are interesting and sound OK but ~about meaningless to me other that pointing the direction of the Husqvarna branded streeter bikes + who the Kiska GmbH company is and how they relate to the Husqvarna\Ktm companies.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markew...s-a-high-style-motorcycle-brand/#11d7a50b476e

 

[ray_ray]

Husqvarna sales numbers for 2017 (the European manufacturer of premium motorcycles saw their annual turnover increase by a notable 25% compared to the previous year.); If this is a SP smoke screen, it is a thick one

http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/husky-sales-up.88468/#post-637772

 

[fletchman45]

My lord...what a mess..i have no clue where to go on this and fingers can point many directions...had the Italians used better marketing strategy...and done more r and d they would of in theory never been in a predicament they were in to sell out to BMW. Now if BMW would of thought things thru a little better instead of buying husky to add to there total sales so that ktm would not outsell them...bragging rights I guess...those BMW bikes are well ...weirdo bikes...well kind of... find a good dealer in sure someone can help ...and I get it ktm while they have actually saved the marque. ...really don't give a crap about there rival...bmw/varnas...and we'll I sort of get it...i wouldn't either if I were them...the new husqvarnas are far from junk and are all over the place now...which I guess is cool....theres been a tr650 for sale for awhile for next to nothing as it has a fault code and won't run.....i My self would not hesitate to buy a Swedish or Italian two stroke....and I liked the strada...would I buy one?? I know halls could fix anything so possibly if it were a killer deal ..while ktm will lose a few customers they are gaining lots.. and let's face it..platform sharing has other benifits....just like walmart...the more if one thing you buy the cheaper you get it. Enough rambling...yea a mess..