Black arrow

When KTM owner Stefan Pierer purchased Husqvarna from BMW Motorrad in January 2013, it was by his own admission to clean up the existential ambiguity of the two separate off-road brands of Swedish ancestry; Husaberg, which KTM already owned, and Husqvarna.

“I’m convinced we must work to Husqvarna’s traditional strengths, which means immediately developing state-of-the-art Enduro and Motocross lines, and also going back to two-strokes,” Stefan Pierer told me in an interview soon after the acquisition, in which he put the chances of an outright range of road models on the back burner.

But one year later, Husqvarna’s 16,337-unit sales in 2014 had been the all-time highest in the 110 years of the company’ existence.

“I admit it – this was beyond my expectations,” Stefan told me at the end of that year. “Husqvarna customers are happy to get a really serious high-quality product – but the brand has