Husqvarna’s Weapons Factory

There’s never been a better time to get your hands on a brand new 2015 or 2016 run-out model from Husqvarna Motorcycles Australia. Put a grin on your dial and a twitch in your wrist with your choice of superseded TC or FC motocrosser, or a spanking new TE or FE enduro bike, financed with a zero percent comparison rate. Offer running from February 1, 2017, until March 31, 2017.

“Producing everything from sewing machines and chainsaws and lawnmowers, to meat mincers, blenders and irons, Husqvarna had you covered whether you were a hunter or a housewife.” Transmoto‘s Andy Wigan revisits his eye-opening visit to the Husqvarna museum in the brand’s Swedish birthplace, Huskvarna.

Husqvarna’s motorcycle division may have been around since 1903, but since leaving its Swedish homeland in 1988, the brand has been anything but settled. Perhaps that’s why, for the past quarter of a century, it has never mounted a serious challenge to the world’s leading dirt bike manufacturers. Whether you blame periods of inexplicable Italian management, a chequered reliability record, or inexperience in niche off-road markets under BMW’s ownership, something always seemed to derail Husqvarna’s momentum and ability to capture the dirt bike public’s psyche.

So, back in 2013, when we heard that KTM had bought Husqvarna from BMW, nobody knew whether it’d mark the birth a successful new era for the world’s oldest motorcycle manufacturer, or just another temporary stopover for this Swedish-born refugee.

Well, just three years down the track, we appear to have our answer. Based in Austria, the ‘new-era’ Husqvarna is on track to sell 30,000 motorcycles by the end of this year, and has set its sights on becoming one of Europe’s top three manufacturers. All around the world and across several disciplines, its factory race teams are kicking goals. And, as you’ll read in our ride impression on the new-generation bikes, its 2017 enduro models are now – along with their KTM cousins – the lightest and most technologically advanced competition enduro bikes on the market.

All of which made my recent trip to the brand’s birthplace of Huskvarna, Sweden, a fascinating experience. Admittedly, the Swedish launch for the 2017 bikes was patently orchestrated to reinforce Husqvarna’s proud Swedish heritage, and to divert attention away from the fact it’s now owned by KTM. Nonetheless, the trip offered a revealing insight into how, since first making guns for the Swedish Crown in 1689, the company’s DNA was forged; in particular, its ability to adapt to a changing world by manufacturing products to suit.

Wandering through the Husqvarna Museum underlines the point. In times of war, the company supplied the military with weapons. And in times of peace, it churned out household appliances (whose labels, curiously, included “Weapons Factory” right up to the mid-1970s) for the masses.

Producing everything from sewing machines and chainsaws and lawnmowers, to meat mincers, blenders and irons, Husqvarna had you covered whether you were a hunter or a housewife. Same thing if you were into motorcycles; for quite some time there, Husqvarna also made the most desirable motorcycles on Earth.

So while plenty of companies trump up their ‘heritage’, Husqvarna’s is thoroughly legit. But what a bizarre coincidence it is that every chainsaw, lawnmower and whipper snipper bearing the Husqvarna logo comes in a KTM shade of orange. Perhaps it was always destined that these two innovative European brands would one day join forces.