MrBlahh, on 02 February 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

Don't worry Gas Gas will be out of money in another two years or so.

Justsayen

My last Husky was an '83. I'm 66 and kinda tired of waiting! Probably buying another new Honda this weekend.

HuskyRips, on 02 February 2012 - 05:54 PM, said:

they made the new bikes too tall for me to spend money on one, so even if they did go bankrupt which I doubt, I dont care

36MotoMarc, on 02 February 2012 - 07:42 AM, said:

MotoMarc, I haven't been wrong yet.

HuskyRips, on 02 February 2012 - 06:03 PM, said:

Lol. I guess it's a matter of perspective! Come to think of it, I haven't been wrong yet, either!

HuskyRips, on 02 February 2012 - 05:53 PM, said:

*sigh*

The original Mini was designed in the mid 1950's. All 50+ year old cars could be considered "crap", depending on your yardstick. At the time it used an number of revolutionary concepts, most notably the transverse front wheel drive engine that shared oil between the engine and gearbox. We have the Mini to thank in large part for the development of decent multigrade oils. This "crap" car also won a bunch of races, most notably the Monte Carlo rally.

The original Mini was a utilitarian car for the masses (remember that it was designed as a result of the 1956 Suez crisis which caused fuel rationing in the UK). The new Mini shares nothing but the name - like the recent Beetle and Fiat 500 it's a feelgood yuppie styling exercise. Nothing wrong with that, but I think that any comparisons are inappropriate and misleading. BTW, Mini was never a brand - it was just one of many cars built by BMC and it's successors.

HuskyRips, on 02 February 2012 - 05:53 PM, said:

The difference here is that Bugatti aren't trying to pimp for business by building some future-retro yuppy toy. Bentley aren't pushing urban SUV's, Rolls Royce haven't started making pickups and Lamborghini aren't making bug-eyed electric town cars (they did make tractors though).

HuskyRips, on 02 February 2012 - 05:53 PM, said:

So Cagiva bought the tooling for a thirty year old design. That speaks more about Cagiva than the car itself.

Anyway, BMW's Q4 figures will be released any day now so we'll see how good they are at selling dirtbikes (which is what most of us care about). My fear is that they don't have a clue. Why buy an Italian dirtbike company and use it to make roadbikes that look so bloody German?* Why didn't they just buy Morini instead?

Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce and Lamborghini must be pissing themselves laughing.

Just Sayen

* Apologies to German forumites, no offence is intended! I'm actually 1/8 German myself and proud of it.

Pumpkin450sxf, on 02 February 2012 - 08:40 AM, said:

Nah....just leave it orange.

All of this at least shows that BMW seems to be committed to Husqvarna's future (whatever that may be)
And as for the Mini (as well as the new beetle, The triumph Bonneville, any Harley model....etc) it seems to be the right product(s) at the right time.
While all the above mentioned "retro" products may seem bloated/sanitized copies of days gone by, those that are buying them seem to like them.
They start, run and (some) perform better that most of their predecessors and most of all their looks, albeit fuzzily, remind (some of) us of what we remember or desired from our youth.
Seeing some of the proposed new Husky models I'm not so sure I myself like the direction but some will.
While the 449 seems to be a great bike it has seemed to dulled the competitive edge that Husky had on the 450 class
I liked for the most part what the Italians did with Husky, they had passion for the product, it didn't seem to always just be about making a profit , proof being how many times Cagiva/MV where upside-down finacially over the years.
When I saw BMW bought Husky I thought to myself well, some much for that.......then I saw where BMW was keeping the italian connection with the factory and such, I figured there was still hope, and there may still be, I guess we'll just have to stay tuned to see how this next chapter will play out is all.
Never been a big fan of BMW, they seem to be great bikes not to mention well engineered but passionless. Some of their goofy designs (google pics of the R1200C and you will see what I mean) paint an odd picture of what they think is style.
Oh well there are still some old Swedish and Italian Huskys out there for us old faithfuls to restore and ride for now

Jeff

JHG67, on 03 February 2012 - 08:14 AM, said:

Its the (whatever that may be) that is the concern. Confusion in the market place while other brands are on point is not a good thing.

YHGEORGE, I totally agree.

When the new MINI came out in 2002, it had no competition. A high-content car, just small. There were other retro-inspired cars, but they weren't real cars. Take the New Beetle. It was a joke to drive, because VWs of that era sucked, and it was the same, just more ridiculous. The MINI was actually a brilliant car, and spectacularly useful for its size. It had the goods as a performance machine. It had the right look and feel.

Today's MINIs are bigger and uglier and have lost that edge. If you read on the forums, there are threads full of people who have owned four or five BMWs saying they will never buy another after their horrible experiences with the latest John Cooper Works MINI. Horrible reliability and horrible treatment and incompetence from the dealers.

FRECNDY, on 03 February 2012 - 06:44 PM, said:

As an owner of two Minis (2003 and 2008) I can officially state that this post is right on about how dismal they were. I can't believe I allowed myself to buy two of these pieces of $hit.

I loved my mini, I beat the hell out of that car

MrBlahh, on 04 February 2012 - 03:14 PM, said:

I would have loved to beat the hell out of mine too... tough to do when they were both in the shop more than on the road. I guess you were lucky.

I'm not so worried about them making Husky bikes for the road. People forget that this is where Husky made their name in the early years. It also allows them to be selling bikes over the winter months (most of their sales are in the Northern Hemisphere) as well as sell bikes that may appeal to riders who have no desire to ride offroad but want something fun and a bit different. I just hope they can start putting out a better product. Motorcycles that get riders on the podium are the ones that sell and it's obvious that the Japanese bikes are winning the motocross series and KTM does very well in the Enduros. Supermoto isn't even in the equation as it doesn't get enough coverage and there aren't enough tracks to make it as popular as the other sports. In the current economy BMW will not be throwing the kind of money at Husky that creates winners but they do seem to be getting better. There are rave reviews in the magazines about their suspension and braking but the power and reliability are questions that need answering. If this new marketing guy can get the sales up maybe the money will be there for more work on the engines. Then we can have the Huskys that us 40 and up year olds remember as kids. I've got my fingers crossed.
P.S. It took me awhile to get my TE 250 dialed in but I love it now, then again, I'm more of a weekend warrior. If I was racing I'd probably be on a Honda.

Indorider, on 11 February 2012 - 12:04 AM, said:

X2 on what you said.

Right now Husqvarna is releasing a lot of street product... but what everyone is missing is that they have also spent a ton of money redesigning all their Husqvarna dirt bikes both 2 strokes and 4 strokes... and between the end of 2012 and the beginning of the 2015 model year Husqvarna's entire DIRT product range is going to be completely NEW... and we're not talking about sticking BMW engines in Husqvarna dirt bikes... we're talking about completely new engines designed by HUSQVARNA... all similar in design and compactness to their Husqvarna 250/310 X-lite engine.

Right now the push is on signing NEW HUSQVARNA dealers so they can move the numbers of motorcycles required to support the cost of development and that was the KEY REASON that BMW/HUSQVARNA added street bikes... more QUALITY dealers are interested in both a STREET/DIRT product range if they're going to invest in adding a new franchise to their dealership.

JustSayen.

and burning old dealers

MrBlahh, on 11 February 2012 - 05:56 AM, said:

Yes, sad to say .... got-to-love Southern California dirt bike politics.

DEMI, on 02 February 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

BMW has improved Husky's ship dates, parts availability, raised market awareness through more advertising and helped ship the X-Lite and 449/511 platforms. To say BMW keeps promising and not delivering is patently ridiculous. They can't change everything over night, but they're clearly doing alot and much of it is good.

YHGEORGE, on 02 February 2012 - 05:55 PM, said:

The championship(s) winning X-Lite platform not good enough for you? Then I doubt Husky will ever satisfy you.


The Husky street bikes that BMW is having Husky make look like Huskies. Except that Moab turd. That looks like a Fisher Price toy. But the Nuda and Strada are ok. BMW is not planning on killing all dirt bike production. That would be stupid. Why buy the company if that was their plan? They're making street bikes to raise market awareness. When people see more Huskies, they'll be more likely to consider buying one. Dealers will be more likely to consider carrying them.

Work is still progressing on the next generation Husky dirt bikes. Next Gen 2 strokes are coming and the 450 class X-Lite is rumored to be coming soon.

This is a great time to be a Husky fan. Of course, it could fail dismally or succeed beyond our wildest dreams. In all likelihood, it'll be somewhere in between. All I know is I love my '11 TE310, which is a modern Husky. It's a great bike to ride and I'm having lots of fun doing just that.