• 2 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     WR = 2st Enduro & CR = 2st Cross

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

All 2st How tall are you and what do you ride?

Gotlabs

Gotlabs

Husqvarna
AA Class
I'm contemplating a WR/CR 125 for my daughter later this year. My concern is she is 5'4"/ 130lbs and I know the seat height is high. I'm hoping the proper spring rate and correct sag might fix things up. She can ride my 300, but has to one leg it and can't start it. She's ridden a lowered KTM 250 (bleh) and can start it with no problems. My other options is GG or KTM (beh) 200, which she has no problems with. Heaven forbid I have to buy her another pumpkin.

So any short, small frame riders out there?
 
Proper spring rate and sag will put the seat height at stock height. You'll need to get the bike lowered to get a lower seat height... Or go with a softer spring and less preload (which is less than ideal).

Internal spacers is a better route than using a kouba link - the link can hit the fender during heavy compression and if it does it hard enough at speed, it can lock up the rear wheel unexpectedly and possibly bum your day. This is because the link doesn't reduce the suspension travel. Changing internal spacers does.

What about the TE250 low? There's a factory lowered version available as of 2012.
 
I'm 5'05" 200lbs (like the Dwarf from the "lord of the rings" with about the same attitude....)and ride a 09TE450 with no height mods of any kind: preload set as prescribed by Vinduro's Sag 'formula'. Stock seat...
Seriously not an issue for me- but at my age I've been this height for most my life:thinking:.... and learned to ride on the pegs, don't dab, don't paddle, and don't and stop for nothin':D

So yea when these 5'10"-6'00" guys say these bikes are too tall, complaining, talking about kouba links- I kinda feel special inside.

That may not help you but- good luck- she's a lucky girl to have the options you are providing her:thumbsup:
 
mnb said:
Proper spring rate and sag will put the seat height at stock height. You'll need to get the bike lowered to get a lower seat height... Or go with a softer spring and less preload (which is less than ideal).

Internal spacers is a better route than using a kouba link - the link can hit the fender during heavy compression and if it does it hard enough at speed, it can lock up the rear wheel unexpectedly and possibly bum your day. This is because the link doesn't reduce the suspension travel. Changing internal spacers does.

What about the TE250 low? There's a factory lowered version available as of 2012.
Click to expand...

That makes sense about the link change, never thought about that. Definitely don't want to have something like that happen.

The thumper option has been mentioned, but that is a last resort.

PowerKord said:
Best bet would probably be to talk to Les at LTR about getting the bike lowered.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping someone on here has had theirs lowered to see how they like it.
 
My 03 EC200 GasGas would my #1 choice except for the fact that I'm 6'6" so I gave it to my son when he was 15. He's 16 and now he's taller than me(oh well what can I do). The GasGas really is a smaller, like 7/8ths scale of my 09 WR250 Husky. When I ride the Gasser my legs get tired from the deep knee bends required going frm sitting to standing which is why I prefer the Husky. I'm not sure of the ergos of the new Gassers but the older ones are well suited for shorter riders.
 
Woodschick should chime in as hers is lowered. She is 5' nothing and does well. I am pretty sure she had Les lower hers.
 
I am 5 ft. 5 in. tall, and ride a stock height 07 TE450. Yes, it sucks in tight technical going, but I hate casing my bike on rocks and such, so I leave the ground clearance alone.
 
HUSKYnXJnWI said:
I'm 5'05" 200lbs (like the Dwarf from the "lord of the rings" with about the same attitude....)and ride a 09TE450 with no height mods of any kind: preload set as prescribed by Vinduro's Sag 'formula'. Stock seat...
Seriously not an issue for me- but at my age I've been this height for most my life:thinking:.... and learned to ride on the pegs, don't dab, don't paddle, and don't and stop for nothin':D

So yea when these 5'10"-6'00" guys say these bikes are too tall, complaining, talking about kouba links- I kinda feel special inside.
Click to expand...

It takes a pretty advanced rider to be able to ride like that. And you can't just get there instantly. Some of us weren't lucky enough to have a dad around. So there were no dirt bikes in our youth.
 
My sister is 5' and can ride the WR125 really well. She does the one leg start and kicks the bike on the kickstand. Her main bike is a CRF150R which has proven to be an awesome and fast little bike. The CRF150r handles trails really well in stock form. My sister is hindered by her clutch skills more than anything on tight stuff. That little bike has a ton of bottom end snap.

JS
 
180cm tall, 90kg, 2011 WR300 re-springing/valving for my weight real soon as I do with all my bikes. Going through Cannon Racecraft again.

Stu
 
Hi! i'm 5"8 short and i cut my seat 30mm and applied a softer foam that weas 20mm thick. That made the seat about 1inch lower when i sit on it and not too stiff. I have my standard springs. I also removed the spacers at the handlebar to come down to an equal height there. Very easy to do and works fine!
 
Johnnymannen said:
Hi! i'm 5"8 short and i cut my seat 30mm and applied a softer foam that weas 20mm thick. That made the seat about 1inch lower when i sit on it and not too stiff. I have my standard springs. I also removed the spacers at the handlebar to come down to an equal height there. Very easy to do and works fine!
Click to expand...
You would have done better by changing the springs. Static sag is what the issue is. Stock I had trouble throwing my leg over the bike. I only had about 25mm static front and 10mm static rear. I put one step softer fork spring in and now have a static sag front of 40mm. (rider sag 75mm). On the rear I had to go up 5 steps from stock. I have now a static sag of 33mm and 103mm rider sag. MUCH BETTER. And very plush but controlled. Even Drew Smith tested my bike and was shocked on how well it worked.
 
mnb said:
It takes a pretty advanced rider to be able to ride like that. And you can't just get there instantly. Some of us weren't lucky enough to have a dad around. So there were no dirt bikes in our youth.
Click to expand...

Actually quite the opposite, I am 5,6" with 30" inseam and ride a stock TE450 and WR125. I started out riding then racing in enduro's (where you stab way more than MX riding) KX 250's and YZ 125's. I didn't have a bike when I was young, 1st was when I was 28 years old. Dad never rode either. When I bought my bikes, I only had enough cash to buy them, let alone modify them. If I wanted to ride, I had to learn "how" to ride what I had. Great motivation! I think the folks that have "all" the options available to modify stuff are the ones who tend to do those mods, and in my opinion may be just a "tad" spoiled.
 
I'm on the opposite side of the scale. 6'6" (2m) and 215lbs (95kg). WR300. Just got a 5.8 rear spring to install soon.
 
justplayin said:
When I bought my bikes, I only had enough cash to buy them, let alone modify them. If I wanted to ride, I had to learn "how" to ride what I had.
Click to expand...
Yeah, yeah, and when I was a kid I had to walk to school 5 miles in the snow. Uphill. Both ways! :oldman:

You can suffer with poor ergonomics or set the bike up right. Sometimes you don't have a choice, sometimes you do. It makes sense to respring for your weight and it makes sense to lower a bike to fit you. It's just being smart about getting your bike set up properly for you.

If you're happy with a bike as is, go for it. It's certainly cheaper and requires no extra effort. :thumbsup:
 
mnb said:
Yeah, yeah, and when I was a kid I had to walk to school 5 miles in the snow. Uphill. Both ways! :oldman:

You can suffer with poor ergonomics or set the bike up right. Sometimes you don't have a choice, sometimes you do. It makes sense to respring for your weight and it makes sense to lower a bike to fit you. It's just being smart about getting your bike set up properly for you.

If you're happy with a bike as is, go for it. It's certainly cheaper and requires no extra effort. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I guess you were one of those with the "silver spoon"........complaining they never had enough.
 
I all for setting up a bike to fit, especially suspension. However, I refuse to waste money on "experiments" with so much information available online. I also refuse to spend money on so called "improvements" like auto clutches and fancy levers. I was never spoiled growing up, but I do spend money on what I want. Thankfully, my daughter is an only child so she benefits from that, but she also races on a contingency program from me and her mom. If she wins her class she gets to pick her prize, we have set dollar amounts up to 3rd place.

Please don't turn this into a bickering contest.
 
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