The new TE449 wasn't raced at Erzberg. Our guy Cory Graffunder was 6th overall. He said it was twice as hard as last year with some of the most insane downhills he has ever seen. Cory rode well after getting off to a slow start. Kurt Caselli ended up 8th overall so I guess you can say Cory did all right. The factory never intended on riding the new bike at Erzberg. The original launch plans are all centered around WEC and MX3. As we know the WEC plans hade to be modified due to Juha's injury. From what Ihear Juha is healing well and will be back soon. Cory rode a WR300 for the record. Scot
It was mentioned somewhere on here amongst other places that Andreas Lettenbichler was going to ride the new Te450 in the Erzberg after doing the Italian WEC (or EWC). Why did he choose to ride the BMW? Any ideas?
hey, that's excellent news. love that bike. r p.s. being a two-stroke head, it's also a pleasure to see that taddy blazusiak won again.
As Scot (Husky Relic) posted, it was never intended to run the new bike at Erzberg. It will get EWC use before being launched in final production spec at the press launch which is late July potentially. Dave
nothing on this is husky maybe it is going to be the new bmw????? bmw using husky as a side track to develop the new bmw
Go on then, I'll bite! AFAIK pretty much everything other than the engine was designed by Husky engineers, and even the engine itself has been tweaked and wasn't bad to start with in my opinion (I have ridden a G450X). I can't really see how that's much different to the way some manufacturers buy engines in from, for example, Rotax - doesn't make the bike a Rotax. Admittedly BMW could have more say in the design than Rotax would do given that BMW own Husky, bit I don't get the impression they micro-managed it - they let the Husky engineers do what they do best and create a bike that really handles. And actually I don't care either way. If you want to look at it as a BMW which Husky have fine-tuned that's ok with me (and I'm not carrying a torch for BMW). All I actually care about is how it goes, and I think it has the potential to be a very good bike which is more advanced than the current Huskys as they haven't been afraid to try some new things (which Husky on its own might not have been able to afford in the current financial climate). Only time will tell how good it is of course, but I'm excited to find out... As a matter of interest, would believing that this is the new BMW put you off buying one even if it turned out to be a superb bike? Of course you're entitled to your own view and there are plenty of other perfectly good non-BMW bikes out there to choose from so you won't be stuck.
It looks to me like: BMW was trying to design a bike (G450X) from the get go that would turn heads and be well balanced. The BMW amazingly is on some of the top platforms winning.So,now they turned the motor over to Husky to say, take it from here? The engineers worked with some of the best riders in the world and probably some imput from Ty/Scot = Innovation. I think this bike will turn some heads but I still hate the front fender. Typpyt
No argument there! I guess I'd get used to it though and if that was the only thing I didn't like about the bike I'd be pretty happy. Seems to me that basing a bike around an engine that just finished 2nd and 9th at Erzberg can't be an entirely bad thing...
I'm not sure on the total progression progress from bmw to Husky hands but these types of races have to be some sort of stress test for the bike and its engine ... Its results were real and measurable ... You gotta stress test anything before releasing it to the general public ... Maybe they are taking some feed back from the hard-chargers here but again I'm not too sure on that either ... If this is true, shouldn't they be putting out some $$$ in their corners and actually helping them? That 300 is a bad a$$ engine .... and has been for quite a few years dressed as a 250 ... I'm not surprised at any results it records ... It just needs riders :0)
C'mon SCOT! As a rep for Husqvarna, you have a duty to Husqvarna here in the US and in Europe to maintain a professional attitude as well as convincing the general offroad riding public that Husqvarna is a good brand. I doubt that Husqvarna is paying you to express your political view(s) to future customers of husqvarna motorcycles. Your political comment(s) like this is completely unwarranted. I had a lot of respect for you from your D37 desert racing days in Southern California until now! But now, you just express your true ignorance and that's really unfortunate! Please, keep it professional and just educate us about the Husqvarna brand and what is coming down the pipeline in 2011. Thanks.
Desert Husky, Your reply to Scot's tongue in cheek, glib comment is the actual problem. Your reply reduces the general high standards of this site and kind of confirms your own foolishness. I'll take any and all comments that Scot Harden wants to make on this site just for the privilege of having him be a part of this community. If you want to be an ass and bust his chops do it in a direct e-mail and leave us and this site out of the fray. Just my hard ass opinion to a completely inappropriate comment on our site. Keep it bike/riding centric or go to TT. Walt
Whoa, had to take a quick look at the top of the page to see what site I was on....... thought I mistakenly logged on to TT for a minute.
Me too. Obviously it would have been better if certain things were not brought up in this thread that has nothing to do with bikes, but second best thing is to ignore it.
Mind you a Beta was third, only a few minutes behind, and they are not very popular. Not that good a test of the bike! I think they had a number of issues in the Dakar thou'
Yeah Coffee you have my full support to jump on any personal hits etc. This is a great meeting place to exchange ideas and experience. Personal stouches are not acceptable. Take it offline if you want to duke it out.
