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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Is husqvarna's identity gone?

nep2012

nep2012

Husqvarna
A Class
I have seen the new Husqvarna website and I am sort of dissappointed. No more 310 it is now replaced by a 350 and if you ask me it's a KTM. The fenders, the swingarm, the engine, the suspension, this is a KTM with the Husky logo on it. Take a look at the KTM and look at the Husky and everything is identical. KTM is just using the Husqvarna logo to market more bikes. The cuts on the fender, the swingarm, the motor, everything. Is it me or is this reality?
 
This is covered in about 8 other threads now. Huskys are white Husabergs which are blue KTMs. So yes, the new huskys are rebadged KTMs with a few changes.
 
Husqvarnas haven't been Husqvarnas since the move to Italy and the phase out of all the old Swedish motors.

Here's a Swedish Husky from about 1973, with Akronts and Trelleborgs and a Jofa.

MXsjt2.jpg
 
OlderHuskyRider said:
Husqvarnas haven't been Husqvarnas since the move to Italy and the phase out of all the old Swedish motors.
Click to expand...

not entirely true as the 570/610/630 motor and frame lasted until just a few years ago clear into the german ownership. Was also the basis for the original Husaberg line and then the RFS. They must have been on to something with that design. I still love that vibrating lump of a motor.
 
I guess I was trying to make a subtle point, as in, if you were to believe that Husky has lost its identity, at what point along the road would it have lost it, if it lost it at all? If it has lost its identity, it was surely much longer ago than just now. The 3-5 most recent 4t Husky motors are of either BMW or KTM origins. Did they lose their identity when the Husaberg folks stayed in Sweden? Or when BMW bought them? Or when KTM bought them?

Or does the brand still hold something from the past? One of the reasons I bought my 2010 Husky is that I once owned a 1973 and a 1975 Husky 2t MX bike, and my younger brother owned a yellow 125 2t. I know a little about the Husky history and alot of the old time names associated with the brand. I've watched On Any Sunday many times and I've watched it with my kids and will watch it with my granddaughter and I always call attention to the red Husky when it comes on the screen.

For some younger folks, it surely has lost whatever identity it had. For some older folks, it will never lose that connection with the past as long as the name, Husqvarna, or the crowned H, is still on the tank.
 
Motosportz said:
This is covered in about 8 other threads now. Huskys are white Husabergs which are blue KTMs. So yes, the new huskys are rebadged KTMs with a few changes.
Click to expand...
It certainly has been covered in one way or another. However he makes a point. The factory is done. Everything is moved and if you want a white KTM you buy a Husqvarna........................... Oh. Or a RED and WHite 2014********************************************************************************
 
Cool old pic's OlderHuskyRider ! Those were the days, when it took 5 min. to put all your gear on. Leathers, boots, helmet and you were ready to race.
 
Leather never smelled very good after a while.
My bootsoles last a lot longer now... but mebbe that's because I sit a bit more.

The problem I see with the new Husky line is that it really isn't much of an alternative to what's already out there. For example, GM got rid of redundant auto brand lines to strengthen other sales, so you'd think that the idea of simply rebadging existing KTM lines, with just a few differences, would be bad business.
 
OlderHuskyRider said:
Husqvarnas haven't been Husqvarnas since the move to Italy and the phase out of all the old Swedish motors.

OlderHuskyRider said:
I guess I was trying to make a subtle point, as in, if you were to believe that Husky has lost its identity, at what point along the road would it have lost it, if it lost it at all? If it has lost its identity, it was surely much longer ago than just now. The 3-5 most recent 4t Husky motors are of either BMW or KTM origins. Did they lose their identity when the Husaberg folks stayed in Sweden? Or when BMW bought them? Or when KTM bought them?

Or does the brand still hold something from the past? One of the reasons I bought my 2010 Husky is that I once owned a 1973 and a 1975 Husky 2t MX bike, and my younger brother owned a yellow 125 2t. I know a little about the Husky history and alot of the old time names associated with the brand. I've watched On Any Sunday many times and I've watched it with my kids and will watch it with my granddaughter and I always call attention to the red Husky when it comes on the screen.

For some younger folks, it surely has lost whatever identity it had. For some older folks, it will never lose that connection with the past as long as the name, Husqvarna, or the crowned H, is still on the tank.
Click to expand...

Here's a Swedish Husky from about 1973, with Akronts and Trelleborgs and a Jofa.

MXsjt2.jpg
Click to expand...

OlderHuskyRider said:
Husqvarnas haven't been Husqvarnas since the move to Italy and the phase out of all the old Swedish motors.

Here's a Swedish Husky from about 1973, with Akronts and Trelleborgs and a Jofa.

MXsjt2.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Combinations of the best of the available components of other bikes are cool as long as their done by the owner/riders and it meets there personal needs or criteria. My 2009 BMW G450X runs a 2011 TC449 Husky Engine now / revised gearbox ratios and a KTM WP 4860 set of trees and fork legs specifically set up for me by one of the biggest suspension companies out there. I also run the KTM front wheel with these forks. I've been doing this kind of stuff for 40 years and this bike well, it rips.

When you can combine the World Class Components with World Class raw materials and allow these materials to be worked by the Greatest European Proven Engineering Designers. It doesn't always make everybody happy, nor does its end product suit all the people all the time. Thats the reason some would rather buy a Japanese dirt bike and part with it in a few years. Most who would commonly do this don't know the difference in superior design or materials and just go for Japanese bikes which are all cookie cutter bikes. They do this for the cheaper overall cost of parts and upgrades being less costlyand more plentiful in the long run.

I laugh everytime I blow by one and could care a less about them existing.

I still have old late 70's Maico's stashed away.

All things need to be modified to meet the needs of the rider. Hence the Aftermarket. If one can't buy what he wants then you become skilled enough to just build it. Hence the Fabrication Industry. Anythings possible for the right price.

I don't think the KTM ownership can hurt the nameplate of the "Husqvarna Marque" or diminish its identidy. it has just brought the best minds together "again" it can only help. Lets see what comes of it.
 
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