Dustdevil
Husqvarna
A Class
OK, finally, with the TE450 with, now, 1400 hrs on it, I finally got out to do some suspension adjustments on the bike that has hardly been in the dirt. First time I've taken it there, for sure. Has Dunlop DOT D606 tires on it, which I don't much care for when it comes to dirt. Zero PSI in front tire, and 6.5 PSI in rear. Suspect there are bib mousses both ends. They are still hard as a rock. Hard to tell, as it's a characteristic of DOT tires also. So, on to the suspension.
Was sitting at default factory settings. Took it to a club enduro and volunteered to ride sweep to get the bugs worked out, and also to shake a bit of the rust off my own skills (it's been 5 years). Course was a lot of cross-grain off-camber, loose with baseball-sized rocks scattered around, crossings of some heavily rutted trails, and some fun slalom through the bushes.
So, for the shock: Ended the weekend with high speed compression backed off all the way to the lowest setting, and low speed compression backed off 3 clicks from stock. Left rebound at stock setting for varied riding. Turns out, this thing already has a heavy spring on it. Don't know which one, but even at 240 lbs, I got the sag adjustments right at 25/100 or so.
Fork: Compression backed off from stock 2 clicks, and rebound at stock setting.
This seemed to work well. Feels controllable, balanced, and adequate for breaking in the suspension that likely hasn't seen much real work. Surprised how strong the brakes are compared to my old Yamaha with EBC pads. Handles well, power more than adequate. It will rip when the throttle is whacked open. A few rides, and I'll be well used to this one. A friend who has ridden ISDE a few times has ridden the SWM version of this bike in both 500 and 300, for the importer. He did the 6 hours of Glen Helen on both, and said the bike worked well. Had same KYB front and Sachs rear on both bikes. He rather liked it, but said the 300 was much easier to ride.
Was sitting at default factory settings. Took it to a club enduro and volunteered to ride sweep to get the bugs worked out, and also to shake a bit of the rust off my own skills (it's been 5 years). Course was a lot of cross-grain off-camber, loose with baseball-sized rocks scattered around, crossings of some heavily rutted trails, and some fun slalom through the bushes.
So, for the shock: Ended the weekend with high speed compression backed off all the way to the lowest setting, and low speed compression backed off 3 clicks from stock. Left rebound at stock setting for varied riding. Turns out, this thing already has a heavy spring on it. Don't know which one, but even at 240 lbs, I got the sag adjustments right at 25/100 or so.
Fork: Compression backed off from stock 2 clicks, and rebound at stock setting.
This seemed to work well. Feels controllable, balanced, and adequate for breaking in the suspension that likely hasn't seen much real work. Surprised how strong the brakes are compared to my old Yamaha with EBC pads. Handles well, power more than adequate. It will rip when the throttle is whacked open. A few rides, and I'll be well used to this one. A friend who has ridden ISDE a few times has ridden the SWM version of this bike in both 500 and 300, for the importer. He did the 6 hours of Glen Helen on both, and said the bike worked well. Had same KYB front and Sachs rear on both bikes. He rather liked it, but said the 300 was much easier to ride.