When one company controls two storied motorcycle brands competing for the same championships
WORDS: DAVID PINGREE
PHOTOS: SIMON CUDBY, JEFF KARDAS & RICH SHEPHERD
WHEN KTM ANNOUNCED in 2013 that it was buying the struggling Husqvarna brand from then-owner BMW, more than a few folks were left scratching their heads. How was this going to work? Would the Austrians at KTM consolidate production of the Swedish-born, Italian-relocated, German-owned Husqvarna? Would they compete in the same markets? Would one brand focus on off-road and the other on motocross? It took some time, and there were some awkward moments along the way, but the KTM/Husqvarna merger is finally making some sense.
So, how do each of the businesses operate? First, you have to go back to where each company came from to understand how they got here and why they’re working together.
When one company controls two storied motorcycle brands competing for the same championships
WORDS: DAVID PINGREE
PHOTOS: SIMON CUDBY, JEFF KARDAS & RICH SHEPHERD
WHEN KTM ANNOUNCED in 2013 that it was buying the struggling Husqvarna brand from then-owner BMW, more than a few folks were left scratching their heads. How was this going to work? Would the Austrians at KTM consolidate production of the Swedish-born, Italian-relocated, German-owned Husqvarna? Would they compete in the same markets? Would one brand focus on off-road and the other on motocross? It took some time, and there were some awkward moments along the way, but the KTM/Husqvarna merger is finally making some sense.
So, how do each of the businesses operate? First, you have to go back to where each company came from to understand how they got here and why they’re working together.
When one company controls two storied motorcycle brands competing for the same championships
WORDS: DAVID PINGREE
PHOTOS: SIMON CUDBY, JEFF KARDAS & RICH SHEPHERD
WHEN KTM ANNOUNCED in 2013 that it was buying the struggling Husqvarna brand from then-owner BMW, more than a few folks were left scratching their heads. How was this going to work? Would the Austrians at KTM consolidate production of the Swedish-born, Italian-relocated, German-owned Husqvarna? Would they compete in the same markets? Would one brand focus on off-road and the other on motocross? It took some time, and there were some awkward moments along the way, but the KTM/Husqvarna merger is finally making some sense.
So, how do each of the businesses operate? First, you have to go back to where each company came from to understand how they got here and why they’re working together.
n 1934, Austrian engineer Johann Trunkenpolz set up an auto-repair shop in a little town called Mattighofen, Austria. Within a few years he started selling DKW motorcycles, and later Opel automobiles. His shop was known as Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen. During the tumultuous years of World War II, it was Trunkenpolz’s wife who took care of the business, which had been thriving thanks to the need for diesel engine repairs. When demand plummeted and the war ended in 1945, Trunkenpolz pivoted to the idea of building his own motorcycles.
By 1951, Trunkenpolz was ready to build a prototype, with almost all of the motorcycle’s components produced in-house—with the exception of its Rotax R100 engine, which came from the Fichtel & Sachs motor works. Within a couple of years, the R100 reached mass production, though with fewer than two dozen employees, Trunkenpolz’s company could only finish three bikes per day. He looked around for investment help, and in 1953, businessman Ernst Kronreif became a sizable shareholder. The company was renamed and registered as Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen—which we now know as KTM.
The next big milestone came at the 1956 FIM International Six Days Trials in Germany, where Egon Dornauer earned KTM its first gold medal. With that honor, the brand’s racing heritage had begun.
The company continued to expand through the sixties, even after Trunkenpolz and Kronreif had both passed. Forty years after it was founded, KTM was offering 42 different models. During the 1970s and 1980s, KTM also started to develop and produce motors and radiators. Radiators sold to European car manufacturers constituted a sizable part of the company’s business in the eighties.
As far as racing goes, KTM began having success in the FIM Motocross World Championship in the early seventies, especially in the 250cc class, where the great Russian rider Gennady Moisseev won the brand its first three world titles. In the U.S. (where the bikes were known as Pentons through much of the seventies as a result of a licensing deal with John Penton), they garnered most of their successes in off-road. In 1978, Penton sold his U.S. license back to KTM, and the U.S. subsidiary KTM North America Inc. was born. But success in motocross equal to what was happening in Europe was still a ways off.
Throughout the nineties the company underwent a series of restructurings and stakeholder changes under the watch of KTM’s managing director and Cross Industries owner, Stefan Pierer. In 1995, KTM acquired Swedish motorcycle maker Husaberg AB and also took control of White Power Suspension, a Dutch company now known as WP.
The next big event happened far away from the U.S. stadiums and racetracks. In 2007, the Indian motorcycle manufacturer Bajaj Auto bought its first stake in what was now called KTM Power Sports AG. By 2013, Bajaj Auto held a 48 percent interest in the company.
Finally, in 2013, KTM acquired Husqvarna Motorcycles, which had strayed far from the Swedish roots that had first sprouted in a town next to a watermill on Lake Vattern
There are folks who simply don’t want to buy a KTM or they don’t like the color orange or they had a Husky growing up and they like the history of that brand. Those are customers we couldn’t reach with just KTM, and now we have an option for them.”
After diversifying from guns and cannons to more peaceful products like sewing machines, wood-burning stoves, and bicycles, Husqvarna produced its first motorcycle in 1903. Racing soon followed, especially after World War I, when the brand teamed up with the Swedish army to field cross-country and long-distance motorcycle races. The Second World War then consumed all of Europe, including Sweden. But by 1945, the country and its resident motorcycle makers were ready to get back into racing.
By the 1960s, the British-born, French-named sport of motocross had caught on, and the Swedes were a dominant force on their Husqvarnas. That dominance was exported to America by motorcycle importer and entrepreneur Edison Dye, who invited Sweden’s best rider, Torsten Hallman, to show the U.S. market just how fast a Husqvarna could go in capable hands. The Inter-Am Series that was borne out of Dye’s original marketing plan was the beginning of professional motocross in America as we know it.
Husqvarna’s next transfer took place in 2007 in Germany, initiated by BMW Motorrad AG, which bought the brand from the Italians in hopes of making it a spin-off of their own offerings. That didn’t quite pan out for anyone, and in 2013, KTM swooped in and purchased Husqvarna from BMW, moved it to Mattighofen, reintegrated Husaberg, and called the whole group Husqvarna Motorcycles.
“Well, they’re all made on the same production line, and it really just comes down to the number of bikes sold,” explains Tom Moen, KTM North America’s marketing manager. “If you look at the 2018 numbers, KTM’s market shares in off-road are slightly down from the previous year, but Husqvarna’s are up by quite a bit. But if you look at total market share combined, it’s risen significantly. There are folks who simply don’t want to buy a KTM or they don’t like the color orange or they had a Husky growing up and they like the history of that brand. Those are customers we couldn’t reach with just KTM, and now we have an option for them.”
The marketing strategies for each company differ as well. KTM tries to live by the slogan “Ready to Race.” They’re fiercely competitive and focused on winning. Their forays into everything from MXGP to AMA Supercross, GNCC to MotoGP show just how committed they are to racing. This appeals to the hardcore racers who want the very best equipment they can get and who love competition. Those followers have been rewarded with an unimaginable number of GP titles in the past couple decades, as well as a striking number of wins and titles here in America. The U.S. market, supercross in particular, had been the crown jewel that KTM could never secure. But that changed with the addition of Roger DeCoster and Ryan Dungey, and KTM rapidly became one of the most coveted rides of all.
Whether you’ll be watching on your phone while at the track or across the world on any compatible device, you’ll have the fastest racers at your fingertips!
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Combining both brands, you have the most potent adversary to Japan’s “Big Four” of Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki since they really went all-in beginning in the seventies.
The Husqvarna subframe is also different. By fabricating the subframe out of a composite rather than aluminum, the bike’s feel is more forgiving and supple through chop and bumpy sections where you remain seated.
The swingarm is another part that is made different for each bike. The Husqvarna frame is designed to flex more than the swingarm on the KTM. The change is subtle, but when you combine it with the other differences, the two bikes feel different when you ride them back-to-back. The other difference is the cosmetics, which don’t change performance, obviously, but it does give each bike a unique feel.
Combining both brands, you have the most potent adversary to Japan’s “Big Four” of Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki since they really went all-in beginning in the seventies.
The Husqvarna subframe is also different. By fabricating the subframe out of a composite rather than aluminum, the bike’s feel is more forgiving and supple through chop and bumpy sections where you remain seated.
The swingarm is another part that is made different for each bike. The Husqvarna frame is designed to flex more than the swingarm on the KTM. The change is subtle, but when you combine it with the other differences, the two bikes feel different when you ride them back-to-back. The other difference is the cosmetics, which don’t change performance, obviously, but it does give each bike a unique feel.
As for the 2019 racing season, well, it’s been a surprising start for both brands. Reigning champion Jason Anderson looked way off at the opener, back to himself in Glendale, and then off the map again at round three. Now he’s out with a broken arm and fractured rib. The other 450 Rockstar Husqvarna team rider, Zach Osborne, bent a plate in his collarbone right before the start of the season and had to have it surgically repaired, leaving him on the sidelines to start 2019.
The Orangemen had a better go of it early on. Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin damaged the meniscus in his knee during the off-season, which left him underprepared heading into January, but the friendly Frenchman has still managed solid results and shown impressive speed early on. His new teammate, Cooper Webb, and the veteran Blake Baggett of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-KTM-WPS satellite squad both stepped up big to get their first 450SX wins ever, helping put to rest myriad rumors in the pits that the KTM and Husqvarna teams were struggling to come to terms with a new, stiffer frame that came on the 2019 models.
As a member of the Red Bull KTM factory team for two years in 2001 and ’02, I’m amazed by how far they’ve come in such a short time. That was right when KTM really started pushing to succeed in the U.S. They said they wanted to “build an orange village” in the supercross and motocross paddock. Well, that village is still growing—and is showing swirls of white around it, too, as it now has roots not only in Mattighofen, Austria, but Huskvarna, Sweden, as well. 
As for the 2019 racing season, well, it’s been a surprising start for both brands. Reigning champion Jason Anderson looked way off at the opener, back to himself in Glendale, and then off the map again at round three. Now he’s out with a broken arm and fractured rib. The other 450 Rockstar Husqvarna team rider, Zach Osborne, bent a plate in his collarbone right before the start of the season and had to have it surgically repaired, leaving him on the sidelines to start 2019.
The Orangemen had a better go of it early on. Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin damaged the meniscus in his knee during the off-season, which left him underprepared heading into January, but the friendly Frenchman has still managed solid results and shown impressive speed early on. His new teammate, Cooper Webb, and the veteran Blake Baggett of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-KTM-WPS satellite squad both stepped up big to get their first 450SX wins ever, helping put to rest myriad rumors in the pits that the KTM and Husqvarna teams were struggling to come to terms with a new, stiffer frame that came on the 2019 models.
As a member of the Red Bull KTM factory team for two years in 2001 and ’02, I’m amazed by how far they’ve come in such a short time. That was right when KTM really started pushing to succeed in the U.S. They said they wanted to “build an orange village” in the supercross and motocross paddock. Well, that village is still growing—and is showing swirls of white around it, too, as it now has roots not only in Mattighofen, Austria, but Huskvarna, Sweden, as well.