VOL. 50 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 15, 2013
I
n March, KTM made shocking news when the Austrian
manufacturer announced it had
purchased the Husqvarna brand
from BMW, which had taken over
the company only a few years
earlier. Before BMW's acquisition
of Husqvarna in 2007, the Cagiva
MV Agusta Group in Varese, Italy,
owned the "gun-sight" company.
Ever since leaving its original
homeland in Sweden and moving
to Italy in 1987, Husqvarna has
definitely made the rounds, but it
appears now that it has found a
secure home in Austria.
The first round of Husky models from the KTM/Husqvarna
marriage has been unveiled. The
U.S. will be getting 10 new Husky
Models – five motocrossers (designated FC and TC – "C" stands
P41
for "cross" as in motocross) and
five off-roaders (designated FE
and TE – "E" stands for enduro).
For motocross, the Husky will import three two-strokes - TC 85,
TC 125 and TC 250 ("T" stands
for two-stroke) – and two fourstrokes – FC 250 and FC 450
("F" stands for four-stroke). For
off-road, we will see two twostrokes – TE 250 and TE 300 –
and three four-strokes – FE 250,
FE 350 and FE 501. (There will
be an FE 450 but it's not coming
to the U.S.)
It's not hard to see that these
bikes are essentially KTM's
dressed in Husqvarna clothing
and are produced at KTM's plant
in Mattighofen right along side
the orange bikes, much like Husabergs are now.
KTM, which also owns Husaberg, will continue to offer 2014
Husaberg models but will drop
the brand after the 2014 model
year. The last of the Italian-built
Husqvarnas are also available
for the 2014 model year. So, by
2015, things will be a lot less
confusing with just the Australianbuilt KTMs and Huskys on the
market.
Pictured here is the 2014 Husqvarna
TE 300 two-stroke. All of the Husky
off-roaders get linkage suspension
and WP suspension components,
including the highly rated 4CS
closed-cartridge fork that is also
used on the current Husabergs. The
Husky frames are similar to KTM's
XC line and are fitted with polyamide
rear subframes. All of the TE models
(except for Europe's TE 125) feature
electric starting.
