RIDING IMPRESSION
2015 HUSQVARNAS
BY JASON ABBOTT
Y
es, my mission, which I
gladly accepted, of course,
was to travel to Lulea, Swe-
den, to take part in Husqvarna's
2015 World Press Introduction.
Here, I would get the chance to
meet up with the Husqvarna staff
and experience the Swedish heri-
tage of the Husqvarna brand. But
my real goal, of course, was to ride
as many of the new 2015 Husky
models as I possibly could in just
one day. Luckily, with Lulea being
not all that far from the Artic Circle,
that endless summer day gave me
the extra daylight I needed to ac-
complish my mission.
As you probably already know,
KTM purchased the Husqvarna
brand almost two years ago,
which, as it turns out, now assures
a promising and continuing long
future for the gun-sight brand.
Under the guidance of the Aus-
trian manufacturer, the old-style
Husqvarna models were quickly
abandoned in favor of more KTM-
like Husky models that were intro-
duced right after the Husky-KTM
marriage for the 2014 model year.
Husky motorcycles suddenly went
from being mediocre to spectacu-
lar bikes seemingly over night.
After all, the new Huskys are
now essentially KTMs in Swedish
clothing. Down the road, though,
we expect the Husqvarna line to
gradually separate itself from the
KTM line. But, for now, the 2015
Husqvarnas are still closely based
on their new orange cousins.
The big news with the 2015
line of Husqvarnas is the addition
of four new models for the U.S.
market: the TC350 motocrosser,
the TE125 two-stroke enduro, and
FE350S and FE501S dual sport
bikes. The four join the existing 10
Husky models already here. How-
ever, only a few 2014 Husky's ever
made it to the U.S. but that won't
be the case next year. Husky
WE SEND CN TEST RIDER JASON ABBOTT TO
SWEDEN. HIS MISSION: TO RIDE 11 HUSQVARNA
MOTORCYCLES IN JUST ONE DAY.
SWEDISH SAMPLER
P56
