Someone always gets hurt in the fallout. When centuries-old Swedish armaments firm Husqvarna sold its motorcycle operation to the energetic Castiglione brothers in 1986 they promptly moved the operation to Italy.
A number of Swedish staff who weren't prepared to move to pasta-land were left empty-handed.
So they pooled their resources, rounded up some investors and started Husaberg, building specifically four-stroke off-road competition singles at a time when only Yamaha among the majors was doing it - and that not very successfully.
A decade later four-strokes were the hot ticket, Husaberg were among the best - and Austrian dirt-digger maker KTM didn't have a competitive unit ready to go.
So it made Husaberg's backers an offer they couldn't refuse and moved the whole engine line to Austria and once again, our heroes were left with nothing.
So they picked themselves up and started Highland Motorcycles (why the fascination with the letter H, guys?) - only this time it's all their own money and nobody can sell the business out from under them.
There are 10 of them; between them they have five World speedway titles, a couple of motocross GP wins ands various other titles and trophies. One came up with the original lightweight DOHC Husqvarna four-stroke single layout - these guys know what they're doing.
They build what looks like two of those original Husky singles on a sand-cast crankcase.
Everything is hand made and it shows with flat, tight machined surfaces where production stuff has smooth moulded curves.
The square steel tube frames are welded by hand, too, and they all differ a little depending on who welded them.
Everything else is bought in, sourced from the very best components on the market - most of it by necessity Italian - including Acerbis plastics, Brembo or Braking brakes, Ohlins shocks, Marzocchi forks, Magura handlebars and Silmotor titanium exhausts.
Their production line is exactly two and a half bikes long and they make around 100 bikes a year - depending on how much time they spend out test-riding (read playing) on customer's bikes. Can you spell exclusive?
They make three models, which differ only in whether or not they have lights and indicators and whether they run on big knobblies or 17" street tyres. Engine, frame and suspension are exactly the same.
It produces 63kW (about the same as a BMW R1150GS) and weighs 166kg dry (about 100kg less than the Beem). Put the other way it weighs the same as the new Honda FMX 650 but has double the power.
It's not a question of whether it's fast but whether it's controllable.
Riding the beast
I was recently offered the chance to ride one of these rip-snorting monsters in "Motard" guise (street tyres and special brakes) on the short circuit at Killarney - perhaps not the best setting for something with this much punch but the bike was in track trim for a supermotard meeting and wasn't street-legal.
First off, it's even uglier than it looks in the photos; the frame is squared off-and cobby, the motor is all angles and planes and oddly-rounded magnesium covers. The plastics are heavy, clumsy and incredibly slab-sided, fit and finish are poor, and the stickers don't line up.
Well how should they, they're all applied by hand.
The test bike was reluctant to start, hot or cold, and took a long time to warm up; there was an irritating flat spot at about one-third throttle that only started to go away after about fifteen minutes of riding.
It's surprisingly clattery for a liquid-cooled machine and distinctly vibratious throughout the rev range.
The Webcon fuel injection system slams open and shut with the slightest movement of the twistgrip and the bike is very uncomfortable to ride at low speeds - for all its torque there's very little flywheel effect and it stalls easily just above idle.
Mild head-shaking
Out on the track I found that although the bike is incredibly light for a litre-class V-twin most of its 166kg is fairly high up and the bike is a little oversensitive in slow corners, indulging in some mild head-shaking every time it jerked forward or back on the throttle.
Then I started opening it up a little along the "K" circuit's one and only straight and through the faster corners.
Above half throttle the carburetion is much better and the bike settles down. The engine pulls like nothing else this side of a steam locomotive, shaking and rattling all the while like Thomas the Tank Engine.
The front wheel comes up anytime you like just for the asking, the bike picks up speed like a rocket sled and the steering tightens up to become remarkably accurate.
Clutch and gearbox are - as you would expect them to be from a purveyor of off-road (I nearly said agricultural) machinery - absolutely superb once you get the bike rolling, although the clutch has a tendency to bite when pulling away in first.
Superb brakes
The brakes, of course, are phenomenally powerful - easy given the bike's low weight - and easy to manipulate, which is just as well because you seem to need them going into corners - either the bike doesn't have a lot of engine braking or I was arriving at the corners a lot faster than I thought I was.
The rear brake is wonderfully controllable, just right for those extravagant rear-wheel slides motards are famous for.
Despite the almost complete lack of saddle padding the bike's ergonomics are good and the Highland is surprisingly comfortable; you can slide forward to dive into the turns and move back to lighten the front end for rough ground.
The fuel injection becomes even more ill-tempered if the voltage in the little battery is low and I quickly got it that way trying to start the beast. By the end of the afternoon the thing became unrideable because it just wasn't running long enough on the track to get any amps into the battery.
We suspended the test and the bike went away to sit overnight on the charger.
Less than the sum
Despite its impeccable pedigree and the obvious hard work that has gone into its development, this bike is still less than the sum of its parts. Its finish is poor, the suspension needs a little work and above all the fuel injection only works properly when the bike is running harder than the average weekend rider can handle.
Certainly, the confines of the "K" circuit are not the ideal place to ride a 63kw Big Vee; I'd like to ride the bike with a fully charged battery on some of my favourite long sweepers out in the country where its only competitor, the KTM 950 Adventure, did so well.
Until then, I'll reserve judgement, saying merely this is an expert's tool that works better the harder you ride it - and only the bravest among us will be able to ride it really hard.
Test bike from Maniacs, Cape Town.