Hi there.. i'm about to buy a 2010 sms 630 the bike looks just great ..with only a few miles on it.. but after selling my drz 400sm, i'm wondering if the husky is a reliable choise? note that i'm not expecting the sms to be as reliable as the drz.. husky is way better when it comes to performance! the thing is that i'm not willing buy a bike that i'll have to spend a fortune on it every month! i just wanted to know if the sms is the right choise for a normal use 3-4 times a week.?
Like any bike there are a number of inexpensive or free "tweaks" to do to correct factory deficiencies. This prevents future issues. They are nice bikes. Cam.
Thanks for your help guys! i think i'm going for it! i saw the bike yesterday..it was in great shape! after checking it up..i noticed a bit of oil near the the cylinder head.. (at the pipe connection) also the head gasket was glowed! is it a real problem? (the bike has about 7000km) a new gasket costs almost nothing.. but is it normal in such low mileage.. should i be woorried about some other issues?
Reliability is such a personal/subjective thing, that this is a really hard question to answer. In my opinion, my 610 has been pretty reliable, and when you consider the performance and how I use it, I would not complain. The thing is, I have occasional little minor issues that I consider wear-and-tear or normal maintenance, that somebody else would consider an unreliable piece of junk. Examples: -Shifter was slightly loose on the shaft. I noticed and fixed it, no problem. Had I not, maybe it would have stripped the splines on the shaft, and then you have a huge repair. -Part of the wiring harness by the headlight was wearing through the sheathing due to pounding and turning the bars. I just fixed it, no big deal. But, it could have shorted at some point, fried a fuse, boom, bike won't start. -Broken battery support on the subframe. Definitely a design flaw from Husky on this, the subframe should be tougher. However, it's not that big a deal, I just welded up some braces, problem solved. The bike is way lighter than other dual sports, so you've got to be willing to push the envelope a little bit. -Typical cam chain stuff. I don't know why the wear out as fast as they do, but whatever, just replace them. Some guy who is used to a KLR where you pour cat pee into the engine once a year and use it as oil, will think the TE is super unreliable.
Head gasket was "glowed"? What does that mean? Oil on the sides of the motor is generally from the valve inspection covers. These have a tendency to leak, especially if someone reassembles improperly and/or using oil gaskets. I have been into mine twice to set the valves, and they don't leak at all, as I was careful to apply gasketing properly.
The oil you speak of on/around the head where the pipe flanges are... On the 630 (and depending on exactly where you're seeing it) the water pump housing tends to allow some oil out. Kind of looks like a hazing of oil spray, for lack of a better description. The bolts to the housing extend far in and allow oil back out. The easy fix is to back out just one bolt at a time and then locktite each (it's important to do only one at a time, completely, as you do not want the pump to become totally loose as it will then slip off of it's bearing making it near impossible to get back in properly, easily that is.) I did the locktite thing w/ mine, as others have, and it worked very well.
