1983/84 cr 500 auto

Has anyone one of these , trying to get some info ( good and bad )

thanks Scottm

They are the worst lemon made by this brand. The 420 is most likely the best choice. At least of what was imported to the United States. The 500 and the 430 went away from the bronze first gear shoes. The bearing in the "clutch cover" the transmission input shaft rides on is really small. They do have two one way clutches where the earlier ones had one but only three speeds. I never had one as a bike, I do have about 1 and a half engines and rode a 430 for a season or so which is pretty much the same. I promoted events with a guy who bought one new and the first sentence is kind of a quote. He actually bought another husky in 1999.

I think the cr in the title is misguided. Around here it would have been an AE. some earlier auto bikes were axc. Think snow, snowmobile automatic,
Saab three cylinder two cycle car model 95 with free wheeling. Not closed course moto x like cr denotes.

All the negative I posted above pertains to the engine. Auto bikes are excellent purchaces for the chasis. That white dual shock frame I prefer to the prior silver mainly due to how the ankles don't have a frame tube to impact when forced back due to trail hazards.

500 AE are very good engines. Change the fluid after every race weekend and they are long lasting. Vintage riders do not put any serious demand on our elderly steeds. The get ridden infrequently and should last longer than we will! I have raced mine for 3 seasons without even suffering a broken spring ....touch wood. Fitted a decomp to make my life easy starting it.

So the opinion is divided ?

well there is no such thing as a cr auto .
and there are plenty of other threads covering autos in general so may aswell close this one

Why do you ask? Found one for sale? Want to expand the 500cc air cooled collection? You should be able to look in the teck data and see how close the three transmission ratios are compared to the other two 500cc bikes I see in your signature.

Im not much into TECH info , I was trying to gauge what riders of these mid 80's autos where like as a rider, I will tuck my tail between my legs and find out elsewhere , thanks anyway.

I think what people are saying is-
1, Its a Husky so its good
2, The gearbox and clutches need a lot of love care and understanding, also luck!
Spares are now like gold dust and a lot of people realise this unfortunately.
I don't think there is something as a cr Auto, the only way of changing the revs the engine will change gears at is changing the spring tension, I believe they only made one set of gears for each model.
Just be very sure you are prepared for the challenges of owing an Auto especially if you are going to ride it. On a personal note I would prefer people who are not going to use them didn't buy them, helps keep the affordable for those that do, and stops people using precious spares in garage queens

I heard in general here the autos would hammer themselves apart from the constant up shifting and down shifting from a novice rider. The guys who raced them hard God no problems. I had one with extra parts and sold everything to a guy with one leg who wanted to ride. I had a good running 390 auto I wanted to keep but I sold it to the man who desired to ride. Good karma when we help others.

Autos ? You must enter in religion....

My 84 auto has been very reliable.Change the oil and maintain the rear brakes.If you do that ,not many bikes will beat you in the woods.

riding the 500 is tricky, you need to be either on the gas or off it to preserve the clutches, once you start feathering and fluffing about with the throttle, the clutches heat up real quick and problems start. ol mate had on new years a go and very rarely ever finished an event unless it was a desert race. (he was pretty hopeless on it)

It's like my Polaris quad in the woods with the snowmobile clutch. No shifting, no clutch to worry about you can focus on picking your lines more. I redid my clutches so she locked in at the higher rpm. In the tight woods I could launch it through anything. It spent 50% of the time in the air. We clocked the speedo with another bike. I said we went 28 miles, the bike that stayed more on the ground said we went 14 miles. Just some food for thought.

My point is what if they had used a centrifugal clutch in an oil bath with a standard tranny? Honda did it with there quads. A husky 500cc would be wild.

There's a shop in Stratford,ct were the old timer raced dirt track with a 390auto.
He was a husky dealer in the old days.