Husqvarna Motorcycles acquired by BMW Motorrad

Isn't this old news?

no, it happended just a few days ago

Thread Hijack

Yossef whose palm do we have to grease to get you into the next MotoGP to talk to the "other 'merican". You know the one we hear nothing about. Steve Bonsey. It'd scoop the other rags, let him know somebody knows he's alive and maybe bring some insite to the great Mo collective.

yossef said:

no, it happended just a few days ago

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Yeah, but somebody beat ya to it!

Beemer fridges next?

This is simply BMW trying to acquire a brand with which to take on KTM without having to endure jibes about GS's being just old boxer tourers with knobbly tyres on. But this brand-synergy stuff works both ways, and if we can rebrand offroad Beemers as Huskys then maybe we can rebrand Huskys as Beemers. In Europe (don't know about you guys in the US) Husky also make domestic machinery: fridges, washing machines, and so on. A washing machine with a BMW roundel on the loading door could look kinda cool, don't you think?

I might show up in the misano round. will try to see what's he's up to.

BMW/Husky

The fact that BMW bought Husky from Cagiva shows BMW's intent on being a "serious" off-road player in the world market. Don't be suprised if you see ATVs being developed within the next year from Husky. This all makes sense since HD/Buell are now developing off-road products with BRP (Rotax). I'm sure that BRP and HD are working on more off-road stuff for the Buell line-up (imagine a Buell designed racing quad with the 50hp 450cc BRP mill). In today's market you have to anticipate a slow-down in streetbike sales. Off-road products are a steady seller almost all the time. Never huge numbers but good enough to steady the ship when streetbike sales slow. This is all real good news for product development types.
The next big news is going to be Bloor (Triumph) making a deal with Bajaj (India Motorcycle manufaturer) to assemble bikes and develop small cc Triumphs for off road fun. I predict this will materialize within the next 90-120 days.

acecycleins said:

The next big news is going to be Bloor (Triumph) making a deal with Bajaj (India Motorcycle manufaturer) to assemble bikes and develop small cc Triumphs for off road fun. I predict this will materialize within the next 90-120 days.

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Really? Hmmm. I wait with baited breath.

You haven't been reading the news lately, huh? BAJA wants more market share. They have BIG money and would like a Euro Marquee. Bloor's a smart man, if he can pull a HD/Buell type deal with BAJA, BAJA can assemble "big" cc bikes (remember 250cc is big for the India market) and cross-sell the low cc bike with Triumph badges both companies win. I'd expect Triumph engineers would help BAJA R&D if the deal materializes.

I have yet to see a quality product in the States from India. Even products that were designed here and built here, then shipped to India/China to be mass produced still turn out to be of lesser quality.

They make...

xlr8r said:

This is simply BMW trying to acquire a brand with which to take on KTM without having to endure jibes about GS's being just old boxer tourers with knobbly tyres on. But this brand-synergy stuff works both ways, and if we can rebrand offroad Beemers as Huskys then maybe we can rebrand Huskys as Beemers. In Europe (don't know about you guys in the US) Husky also make domestic machinery: fridges, washing machines, and so on. A washing machine with a BMW roundel on the loading door could look kinda cool, don't you think?

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...chain saws! Good ones too! Maybe not as good as Sthil but quite good nonetheless.

The BMW motorcycle division is rumored to be getting serious about racing again. Let's not forget that the factory team won the Paris-Dakar race several times in the past. They know how to do it if the rest of the company is behind them with the necessary euros.