2015 FE501 or a 2013 TE511?

[wersmokin]

Not sure which bike will be better. Anyone have a 2014 TE511 dual sport? Thinking of getting one since it will be a lot cheaper. Opinions please. Thanks!!

 

[Thrasher]

I like my '13 511, but plan on doing lots of reading on this site and spending several hundreds of dollars and 10's of hours into getting it right. I'm sure the 501 is a better bike all around and much better out of the box, but having that license plate is a BIG deal. Depends on what you want to do, I guess. If I could afford a 501 and I was only doing dirt, that, for sure, would be the way I'd go. The amount of work it takes to get the 511 right is... a lot of work.

 

[Norman Foley]

2015 FE501S street legal DS is the simple, but expensive answer...

 

[LandofMotards]

I haven't ridden a 501 or the KTM 500 but I think the biggest difference is the transmission ratio. The 501 has a wide ratio transmission and would make it a better dual sport. If you're mainly doing dirt and just connecting to trails the 511 is awesome. Plenty of people have made it work regardless.

You'll be putting money on top of the purchase price regardless of which bike if you want them to run to their potential. 511 main mods are zip-Ty oil recirculating kit, exhaust, and a power commander.

I'm sure you'd love either bike. Go sit on them and check them out. You'll figure it out after that

 

[Thrasher]

oh ya, I forgot the '15 501 is dual sport. Pay the money and get one.

 

[Motosportz]

The 501 is probably going to be the better bike. If you have lots of money get it. The 511 if a fantastic bike once sorted and all the info is here to do so and really not that hard. Once you have the motor happy you have a great do it all bike for nearly half the money of the 501. But, resale on the husky will suck, parts might be semi hard to get in the semi near future. Thats it in a nutshell.

 

[Walt Hastings]

The 501 is probably going to be the better bike. If you have lots of money get it. The 511 if a fantastic bike once sorted and all the info is here to do so and really not that hard. Once you have the motor happy you have a great do it all bike for nearly half the money of the 501. But, resale on the husky will suck, parts might be semi hard to get in the semi near future. Thats it in a nutshell.

Agree with the resale comment! I have a 13 TC449 with 18 hrs, got $7000 in it...dealers are offering $2500 on trade in! ( Have it advertised for $4750....no calls!)

 

[oregonsage]

Isnt the real question - One FE501S or TWO TE511s? ...should be about the same price. You should be able to steal a TE which is the only way to reduce the resale downside. But if you arent a regular updater of bikes then maybe you dont care about resale much. After 5-6 years none of them have much value.

 

[N4544D]

what makes me scratch my head is that a new ktm 500 doesn't even come with a skidplate. You pay all that money and then you need to pay more money!

 

[R. Stephen]

You can buy two well set up 511s for the price of a 501. The new bikes are very tempting but not sure it is worth twice the price.

 

[Motosportz]

You can buy two well set up 511s for the price of a 501. The new bikes are very tempting but not sure it is worth twice the price.

True or you could buy one 511, have the suspension redone, have the motor totally redone at ZipTy to make huge power / be crazy reliable, buy a Dynojet, buy extra wheel sets etc. add a pile of goodies and still pocket a pile of cash.

 

[SilveradoSunday]

I don't know a lot about the new generation (KTM owned) Husky's except that I hear that they are expensive.

I bought a 2014 TE511 last January. I checked out the Café Husky site prior and knew what I was getting into. On the way back from the dealership to my house on paved roads (brand new) it stalled and flamed out a number of times. I would have normally been batsh*t under the circumstances, but being pre-warned by the wonderful people on this site, I took it in stride. To make a long story short, I made the dealer aware of this issue right away, but otherwise just kind of dealt with it for the first 600 miles because it ran a lot better on the dirt. At my 600 or so first service, I took it in to Bert's and reminded them that the bike was still occasionally stalling on the street. I understood that they did some re-mapping or some such "magic" and it doesn't stall anymore. I am taking my upgrades kind of slow, so I recently installed the power up plug and noticed an increase in power. I will be replacing the congested stock muffler with an FMF soon and replacing the stock seat pad with a Seat Concepts one.

Overall it has been a very good bike and is a blast on the dirt roads and fire trails near my house. It may not be as good as my friends new KTM's, but it was also almost half the price. I can deal with that.

 

[Motosportz]

It may not be as good as my friends new KTM's, but it was also almost half the price. I can deal with that.

I ride mine back to back with piles of KTMs, your not missing anything. All good bikes these days and really more about what fits you and how you set it up.

 

[Tinken]

2015 FE501 or a 2013 TE511?

Not sure which bike will be better. Anyone have a 2014 TE511 dual sport? Thinking of getting one since it will be a lot cheaper. Opinions please. Thanks!!

This is a really good question that I believe no one can answer. If it were a question between a 2014 FE501 and a TE511 it would still be a tough choice and I would probably choose the 501. But the 2015 501 may and probably will suck completely once emissions are installed and I would be left wanting that 511. Would I purchase a 2014 ktm500 exc over a te511? Nope. Although the 2015 may have a better feature set, it's too difficult to tell this early in the game.