• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

'11 TE449 suspension adjustment/upgrade options

Plawa

Plawa

Husqvarna
AA Class
I've had my bike for a little over a year now, I feel like I'm starting to use more of its potential (still nowhere near what the bike can do..) so I'm looking into options for initially properly adjusting and possibly upgrading my suspension. I'm 5"10/185lb with gear, not a racer or an aggressive rider, I ride mostly double/singletrack, I enjoy hillclimbs as a challenge far more than flat out speed (my sense of self preservation gets in the way very quickly, in other words I'm a wuss), whoops are my mortal enemy.. basically enduro is my preferred riding style. the Husky is my first and only dirtbike so I have no comparison to other bikes in what a well set up suspension should feel like. In my limited experience I feel like the front might be too stiff and bouncy, coming down from lofts or short wheelies over obstacles gives me a lot more bounce in the bars than what I'd expect (but then again, I have no good baseline)

Does it make sense to get suspension adjustment values (clicks etc) from another rider or is that all down to personal preference and feel? For those of you with actual experience with this bike, is the (well adjusted) stock suspension good enough for an average at best rider or does it makes sense to invest in upgrades? If yes, any recommendations?

I'm in Phoenix, AZ if anyone has any good tips for a shop that could help me adjust the bike to my riding style.

Thanks!
 
First! Set the sag on the rear shock for 105-110mm race sag (with your gear on) for starters then you can fine tune static sag and race sag.

Then don't be afraid to turn the clickers. On the forks compression is on top and rebound is on the bottom covered by plastic caps. Start with going all the way clockwise to stop then count the clicks back counter clockwise to stop. Set it in the middle. Repeat procedure for shock adjusters.

Ride it on a loop with a good mix of terrain including whoops. If it's too soft or too harsh, don't just do one click, move it 4 or 5 clicks and ride the same loop again. Repeat until you think it's about right and go for a longer ride. The manual has some basic settings to try, but if you don't have it, this is the best method.

So, you've tried all that and it still isn't right. Your weight is about right for the stock springs, so you might need a revalve. Call ZipTy Racing. Ty has extensive experience with these bikes and can dial it in to suit your riding style.

Or you can skip all the trial and error and just send it in. I messed with mine for a couple of years before I finally just let ZipTy dial it all in for me.

Call 760 244 7028 and they can give you a basic estimate. You can ship the forks and shock in a plastic rifle case and it usually gets turned around in a couple of weeks. Do not try and use the website to do this. Call the shop directly.

By the way I see you have an 11 like me. The rear shock is too long. They shortened it for 12 and on. I had Ty take 10mm off mine and it was a big improvement, however with a 36" inseam it's still hard to get my foot down for pivot turns. Ty noticed it on a recent ride and suggested I might go shorter since it's got plenty of travel.
 
Hmmm I wonder if I would benefit from that '11 shock, as I'm 6'5" and feel the bike is a tad low compared to what I'm used to. I have a '12 SMR though so might be a whole different shock. Mine is a Sachs unit. I'm trying to get rid of a nasty head shake at speed. It loves 60mph, but at 70 it's a snake.
 
Thanks for the input, I started with going through the manual, I've adjusted my sag (was too low) and copied suspension settings from one of the locals with the same bike and very close weight. I've only taken the bike for a quick spin around the house where there really is no terrain other than curbs but I can already tell the difference in damping - we'll see this weekend if it's for better or worse.
 
The SMR is the only bike with the Sachs. All the dirt bikes have KYB. I believe the Sachs is already quite a bit shorter. You can still shorten the stroke on the shock and get what you're after.
 
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