250-500cc I Have 2 Old Huskies And Infected With The Sm Virus, But....

Hi there,

First of all a small introduction of myself.

My name is Edwin, I am living in North Brabant near Den Bosch so we have plenty of dirt and sand roads here. I am 42, and have driven a lot of bikes (from supersport till tourer) , and still own one streetbike which I probably will never sell... An old Ironhead

I own a 2004 WR 250 Husky and a 2009 CR 250 Husky and as I've killed the WR (the inside of the flywheel came loose, destroyed my ignition and destroyed it so hard that the threads in the engine case where the ignition plate bolts on, is completely gone) it is rebuilding time.

Truth is that I have a spare fresh engine case for the WR, but I want to use the CR engine and ignition, plastics and suspension. With other words, I will use the WR frame (this one is plated) and put all the CR stuff onto this frame so I will have the updated look and the lovely CR blast.

Now, back to my question; here in the Netherlands it's nearly impossible to drive legally in the woods or sandy roads which I loved to do on the WR. My old bones cannot handle the big jumps anymore, so my last race on a dirttrack was years ago (the CR). So now I want to go the Sumo route.

A streetlegal twostroke as Sumo would be lots of fun I guess... But I am kinda lost here on internet regarding the 17" rims everyone uses.... To cushdrive or not? I can buy a nice set of wheels but they don't have a cushdrive, and the guy who sells them had them on a KTM EXC without any issues. What are your thoughts, any experience?

My bikes:

I would say 90 % of the guys in the US are running without the cush hub on their SM regardless of the brand.

Ok so the "I've killed the splines on my sprocket axle" theory is a bit over exaggerated?

Thing is, is that I can overhaul the Husky CR/WR engine with my eyes closed, but engine parts are not that easy to come by...

Your bikes look great!! You might be surprised what you can find on Ebay for the bikes. It can take a little time to find what you need but I have had good success with the older Husqvarnas and KTMs (mostly 80's and 90's models). I have also shipped parts I sold on Ebay for these bikes all around the world. I really like helping people keep their older bikes going!

he is right, an SM is used for short duration, the cush is used for high mile adventures
if you intend to do more tan a few thousand miles you will need it to protect the other components from the shock
that said a street 2 stroke and an SM to boot, probably won't see any real miles, maybe a 50 mile ride if you really go all out

Converted my '93 WR360 about one year ago to SM. I did it using the wheels of an early TE610 which someone has relaced with Akront 17 inch rims. These also don't have a cush-drive. I once did some research on which SM bikes come with a factory cush-drive, not a lot have them. As far as I could find they are most commonly used on big four-stroke road/travel oriented bikes (larger than 500cc). I think for a 250 (or 360) two stroke the power delivery might be less jerky than a big thumper so it won't eat the splines this much.
Also I don't think most people will put a lot of miles on a 2-stroke SM as it's always a spirited ride and not nice for touring big distances. I use mine both for the track and weekend trips but never ride big distances on it.


The only real problem I'm having at the moment is that the (I think) 6mm thick brake disc doesn't allow for changing to new brake pads as the Nissin caliper is too narrow. Maybe if I manage to switch to a Brembo caliper it will resolve the problem where I have to file some pad material of before I can mount new pads. On all other aspects it's a fantastic bike, but not as practical.

I also think it's a wise decision to make it as road legal as possible as you will draw a lot of attention from the police in the Netherlands and neighboring countries.