• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

2 focused bikes or 1 dualsport

Well I've had the same problem for a long time it only gets worse with age.I can remember at 1 point having more than 10 bikes in the garage.I think my favorite woods bike for all around,including dualsporting was the 05 KTM 300 I had.I can't say if the WR300 is as good,because I never had one.I have owned a few Huskeys and that's the reason I have a TE510 now.I can say that out of the box my suspension was pretty darn good,I just got stiffer springs because I go about 245-250 lbs. ready to ride,I also went up 1 tooth on the counter shaft to space out the gearbox a little for running down the road.The 510 has enough motor so that I can short shift it and I have yet to run into anything that I can't do with this gearing although I wouldn't want to run miles of tight "stick farms" as we call them here.I believe that for me I have found the happy medium between a true race bike with just enough to make it legal and the boring "dualsport models" that have been available for years.The ultimate for me was the street legal KTM 300,turn your GG into one with the proper lighting requirements and gear it up for running down the road that motor should pull taller gearing with no problem.As for 1 bike to do it all,not happening for me K1200 RS for running down the road,625 SMC for curving through rural backroads,TE510 for all my offroad needs including should I decide to do anymore Enduros,and a 1981 Honda Sr Express for the cruise through the neighborhood.
 
Totally agree. It is a tough choice because I have to decide if I really want a dirt bike with a plate (Husky TE449/511, Beta 525, KTM 530), or a true dual sport (DR650, XR650L, DRZ400). I know that performance is terribly lacking on the old world dual sports, but I dont plan on attacking singletrack with the bike, that is why the Gasgas 300 will be staying in my garage. I am leaning toward reliability, cheap and easy at this point because I really wont be riding the bike all that often.

What about splitting the difference with a TE610? I have found a nice '09 at a reasonable price with just 1500 miles on it. Seems like it could be best of both worlds. No problems on road stretches and still pretty good performance off-road.

What about a SM 610 or SM 510? Can you put dirt oriented tires on a SM and still do a few trails?

BTW, I have to have a factory street legal bike here in Oregon. No more days of plating your dirtbike. Wish I lived in Washington, they just passed a law making dirt bikes with dualsport kits legal!
 
Man i think that 570 in Tillamook is right up your alley and the price looks good. Maybe Iam just trying to talk myself into buying it:cheers:
 
I know your problem. I have a 08 TE 450 that did the woods singletrack and also had to do the occasional DS gig. I just ended up getting the 11 TE 250 that I'm gearing down for all the slower stuff including single track and think I'm going to re-set up my 450 for the fire roads and explorer stuff. The TE 450 is a wicked DS bike! I'll Put the bigger DS tires on it, gear it a bit higher, already have the softer seat foam, back to the factory blinkers Ect. If pavement is a rare occurrence, this is going to be a beast of a dualsporter. I've owned the DRZ, WR250R and they don't hold a candle to the TE.
 
I think that since you are keeping the GG, a 610 would open the door for long trips. The close ratio transmissions of the other TEs make them unsuitable for dualsport rides of any distance IMO.
Even one of the Japanese DS bikes will be just fine on gravel and asphalt.
You are welcome to ride my 450 and 610. I have a little track here at home and there are gravel roads nearby.
 
I've had the same issues over the years. Had 6 bikes at 1 time. The most recent regulars were a 2009 250xc-w 2 stroke and a 2007 525 EXC 4 stroke. Both great bikes.

I just recently got a 2009 TE 250 and sold both KTM's. IMHO the TE is a great all around bike. The guys I ride with say I am substantially faster on it in the tight stuff.

Most of my riding is tight single track and a little road from trail to trail.
Suits my needs perfectly:banana:
 
3 Bikes.jpg
I currently believe that 3 is the correct number ...that is all the pickup will hold...wait I have a hitch rack!!
 
I (like many of us addicts out there) have sought after the holly grail of the "Do it all bikes"...........The closest thing to that I have found is my 2007 KTM 525. Husky TE 449/510 and KTM 450 are basically the same for this explanation and would work just as well as the 525.

These bikes can handle Dual Sporting duties with no worries. I have 4 seasons on my 525 with just oil, tires and a couple valve checks. These bikes also can go anywhere and while not as easy to ride as a 200 in some situations, there is nothing or no where they can't go. I ride 100 miles a day for most Dual SPorts. SOme are 2 days consecutive. I have yet to have issues other than flats, normal............

I don't know how many times guys buy a UJM and then wish they would have bought a DOT legal dirtbike. Especially if you want to go do a Enduro or some other dirt event. I am not knocking the Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha bikes. They are good bikes, but they are heavier and not as "universal" as the KTM's, Husa's and Husky's.

Do yourself a favor, go ride a 450/510 bike before you decide. Any bike from any manufacturer can go anywhere, but it's how much effort it takes from the rider to get there that is the difference. I have a SM 610 and even if it were the TE, I would take the 525 anytime cause no matter how good you are, 50 lbs is 50 lbs and that is the average difference between the 450/510 world and the 600cc plus UJM world.

I run my SM610 on some fire roads and such, but you always want to go where it gets ugly and a SM will get you in trouble in un familiar spots if you're not careful. Again, SM for street riding for me. Dual Sport bike for anything dirt and focused dirt bike for enduro's and HS.

Lastly, I have 6 bikes and still need 1 more to round out "my perfect stable" and that is a small bore 2 stroke like a 125/200 for the really nasty days.

I say 2 focused bikes and if one of them is the right bike, it can count as 2 in and of itself......so you could have 2 bikes that spread nicely across 3-4 diciplines if they are the right bikes from the get go. I had my last KTM 200 plated and rode it a couple of times in Dual Sports. It was a hoot!
 
After this weekend ride, Hands down my 07 510 is the best bike I have ever owend. My 79 DB edition 390
came in 2nd.

11 TE 250
08 150 R
07 510 SMR
 
When I bought my 07 510TE, I kept my 99 360WR because it was fairly fresh and worth a whole lot more than the $1500 I could expect for it. I've only used it a couple of times , but it gave me something to ride when my 510 wasn't ready to ride. I'm lucky enough to have licenced the old 2-stroke years ago when it was still possible, but the 4-stroke makes a very much better road bike, gravel or paved. Just don't compare it to my BMW or Sportster for the road because it's no contest.
 
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