It happened a thousand years ago, that is, a month ago, when the country was in turmoil over the kidnapping of the three boys, which in retrospect - who knew then - led to the operation in Gaza that turned into a war. At the time the country was in turmoil, an Israeli journalist was riding alone in a green, densely wooded Nordic forest in the north-northeast of Sweden, his engine breaking a cosmic silence that can only be heard in places that are a hundred kilometers from the Arctic Circle, a journalist on motorcycle With a mythological name that once again died and was reborn.
The Husqvarna motorcycle factory, founded in 1903, has always been associated with off-road motorcycles - at the beginning of the last century they produced motorcycles for the Swedish army, and even the IDF's Shaldag patrol used them in the late 1970s. In the 1990s, the "Huskies" repeatedly won enduro races - but their name will forever be remembered as motocross motorcycles, as those who practically invented this field in the 1960s and actually introduced it to the US, which fell in love with the brand.
Husqvarna was a Swedish company until it was bought by the Italian company Cagiva in 1987. 20 years later, BMW bought them, an acquisition that didn't work out well. The one who noticed this was Stefan Fierer, an Austrian billionaire who owns most of the shares of KTM - one of the two leading motorcycle companies in Europe.
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Apparently, he had one small problem - just a short time before that, he had bought the Husaberg off-road motorcycle brand, a manufacturer that itself had once spun off from Husqvarna. He decided to delete Husaberg and buy Husqvarna - simply because that name is very strong in America. Another business decision that was made was that K.T.M. and Husqvarna would be marketed in each country (including Israel) by different agents, in the hope that the jealousy of importers would increase sales and further increase Fierr's already fat pocket.
Riding the motorcycles reveals that they are almost the same product: the Husqvarna is made with the same components on the same Austrian production line as KTM. The differences are only subtle - the Husqvarna has a hard plastic tail frame, a link rear suspension (instead of PDS), and most importantly - they have completely different plastics and paint, yellow-blue-white, beautiful.
And so they stood, about 30 motocross and enduro models, coveted tools with a high level of performance and finish, some of the best that the off-road world has to offer today. Each tool is suitable for a different terrain and style, from the light and cheerful 125 two-stroke that will delight in slow and technical singletrack, to the powerful and beastly 501 four-stroke, which is suitable for trails and high speeds. All you have to do is decide what type of riding you like, choose the model and step on the gas.
I took them to the Swedish forest, returning each time to the mechanic to exchange one motorcycle for another.
I sampled them, exhausted and sweaty, not wanting to stop until I was completely exhausted, until I reached a complete loss of strength, until I really, really, didn't have the strength to take my phone out of my bag to check the news.
The writer was a guest of Husqvarna in Sweden.
