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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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!
09 TE610 praise
- Thread starter denmcken
- Start date
Blazes
Husqvarna
AA Class
denmcken;89713 said:
Plus one
Use my 450 te for single track. Just did 600km this week end on my 09 te610. And then something struck home--What -IF. What if the 630 is not what i want ? Will i buy another 610te and just keep it under wraps and greased till i need it ----Sure i would 
Hard to find a better do it all dualsport bike. Surprising they are not more popular.
Rollster;89922 said:
Larger frame, longer wheelbase and a few extra lbs. Those are all things that make it wonderful everywhere else but in tight turning, rocky, rutted single track it works the rider a little bit more. All that aside it's still about the best bike in it's class and you would be hard pressed to find anything as versatile.
denmcken
Husqvarna
B Class
rajobigguy;89949 said:Larger frame, longer wheelbase and a few extra lbs. Those are all things that make it wonderful everywhere else but in tight turning, rocky, rutted single track it works the rider a little bit more. All that aside it's still about the best bike in it's class and you would be hard pressed to find anything as versatile.
Be hard pressed to explain it better...
I have an 05 TE450 for single track... I notice the extra weight of bag, toolkit, the extra things I'll carry on a longer DS run. The kinds of things I worry about 200 miles from my truck... not 2 miles.
zoomdude57
Husqvarna
AA Class
Same experience - surprisingly good off-road and pretty decent on the road too. Handles two-track with no problem and very good handling. Weight is noticeable compared to my 200 XC-W but tolerable.
Blazes
Husqvarna
AA Class
Just make a note to self--as a DS bike if you are riding with a group of riders on DS bikes Don't--i repeat DON'T let them take your 610 for a ride. You will have to arm wrestle them to get it backdenmcken;89952 said:Be hard pressed to explain it better...
I've had my '09 for a month now. I have mixed emotions.
The Good: Great handling bike. Fuel injection is reliable. From a performance standpoint, it's exactly what I was looking for. Perfect application for the kind of dual-sporting I like.
The Not So Good: I knew the bike had some issues before I bought it but I ended up with 2 pages on legal sized paper!
1. Suspension is set up for Shaquille Oneal. Valving is very harsh.
2. Overall cheap components, some missing, some falling off, some not going to last long.
3. Very cheap drive chain. I just don't understand this from any manufacturer (BMW uses these crap chains too). Master link snapped like plastic upon removal. It is a cast material and a time bomb that will punch a hole in your case
4. Cheap front sprocket. Loose fit on shaft will eventually damage spines. Aftermarket fits snug.
5. Cheap plastics (already cracked both sides in three weeks)
6. Breather line going into airbox not sealed well and dumps dirty fumes straight into the intake.
7. Poor air box design. Flimsy and too little protection.
8. Handlebars that don't accept standard bar ends for handguards. Drilling them out is a pain. Ended up replacing them.
9. Weak bolts throughout. Poor footpeg design (safety problem)
I feel better now. I'm being picky, I know. I've fixed most of these issues but it's not something I've ever had to do with other brands. At least not to this extent. Still happy overall with the purchase, even if it may not sound like it.
The Good: Great handling bike. Fuel injection is reliable. From a performance standpoint, it's exactly what I was looking for. Perfect application for the kind of dual-sporting I like.
The Not So Good: I knew the bike had some issues before I bought it but I ended up with 2 pages on legal sized paper!
1. Suspension is set up for Shaquille Oneal. Valving is very harsh.
2. Overall cheap components, some missing, some falling off, some not going to last long.
3. Very cheap drive chain. I just don't understand this from any manufacturer (BMW uses these crap chains too). Master link snapped like plastic upon removal. It is a cast material and a time bomb that will punch a hole in your case
4. Cheap front sprocket. Loose fit on shaft will eventually damage spines. Aftermarket fits snug.
5. Cheap plastics (already cracked both sides in three weeks)
6. Breather line going into airbox not sealed well and dumps dirty fumes straight into the intake.
7. Poor air box design. Flimsy and too little protection.
8. Handlebars that don't accept standard bar ends for handguards. Drilling them out is a pain. Ended up replacing them.
9. Weak bolts throughout. Poor footpeg design (safety problem)
I feel better now.
I'm being picky, I know. I've fixed most of these issues but it's not something I've ever had to do with other brands. At least not to this extent. Still happy overall with the purchase, even if it may not sound like it.
zoomdude57
Husqvarna
AA Class
Can't argue with some of the component quality concerns. KTMs seem to have better components and fit & finish. That being said, they seem to have more FI problems and other nagging issues.
miketv
Husqvarna
A Class
Blazes;89970 said:Just make a note to self--as a DS bike if you are riding with a group of riders on DS bikes Don't--i repeat DON'T let them take your 610 for a ride. You will have to arm wrestle them to get it back
+1 happens to me every time and it's funny how the folks on DRZ's kinda hang their head when they have to give my 610 back
miketv
Husqvarna
A Class
Navaho6;90137 said:I've had my '09 for a month now. I have mixed emotions.
The Good: Great handling bike. Fuel injection is reliable. From a performance standpoint, it's exactly what I was looking for. Perfect application for the kind of dual-sporting I like.
The Not So Good: I knew the bike had some issues before I bought it but I ended up with 2 pages on legal sized paper!
1. Suspension is set up for Shaquille Oneal. Valving is very harsh.
2. Overall cheap components, some missing, some falling off, some not going to last long.
3. Very cheap drive chain. I just don't understand this from any manufacturer (BMW uses these crap chains too). Master link snapped like plastic upon removal. It is a cast material and a time bomb that will punch a hole in your case
4. Cheap front sprocket. Loose fit on shaft will eventually damage spines. Aftermarket fits snug.
5. Cheap plastics (already cracked both sides in three weeks)
6. Breather line going into airbox not sealed well and dumps dirty fumes straight into the intake.
7. Poor air box design. Flimsy and too little protection.
8. Handlebars that don't accept standard bar ends for handguards. Drilling them out is a pain. Ended up replacing them.
9. Weak bolts throughout. Poor footpeg design (safety problem)
I feel better now.
You can add somewhat dicey electrical connections to the list also (my experience) HOWEVER, once you get everything sorted out (except the airbox) the bike is truly fantastic in it's class. The best really, IMO for what it's intended purpose is. I experienced similar teething pains as you but as a result I became much more familiar with this machine and I think I'm better for it.
A side note: Check to make sure that the rear sprocket is properly aligned, do not trust the increment marks on the swingarm. After I aligned the rear wheel my masterlink problems went away. Do yourself a favor and have the suspenders worked on by LTR or Bottones, I did and the difference is night and day.
knary;90262 said:
KTM 690 was a 2nd choice but after talking to a few owners, I scratched it off my list. Too many major problems, including several reported FI problems that some found difficult to fix. Tranny issues and valvetrain issues, too.
The market for bikes like the TE610 is small. KTM is the only real competitor. Yamaha has a 660 but not sold in the US, and I don't know if it really would compete anyway.
knary;90262 said:
There are a couple of bike that could probably match the big Husky performance wise BUT they aren't street legal and what's the point in having a dual sport bike that you can't dual sport with.