• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

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    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!

Beta vs KTM-VARNA-BERG?

K

katoom400

Husqvarna
A Class
After riding KTM PDS bikes for almost 15 years I'm ready for a change.

I'm definetly going 2 stroke, and probably 300, I was considering a husky TE250 at my local dealer, but thinking 300 is best for me being a strickly rocky technical single track trail rider with a couple of dual sports a year thrown in.

I have now eliminated the 250 option, as I've found a te300 not too far away, and my local dealer has a Beta 300rr coming this week. and Steve at afterhours cycle has a 2014 Beta 300 Race for about $1k more than the standard RR at my local dealer.

so now I'm down to 2 candidates for the new bike. I really wanted to try something different preferably with lower seat height via linkage after being on KTM pds since 99. I don't like converting jap bikes, so for me that left the Beta 300, or the KTM/Husky 300.

The Husky is a gorgeous bike but is still a KTM when you boil it down....not that's a bad thing. I'm still trying to figure out if the linkage husky has the same seat height as the linkage ktm.

a huge advantage to staying "kt-varna-berg" is that I have spare forks that will slide right in, scotts damper, bpd rad guards and many spare wheel bearings/brake pads and so on leftover from my ktm.

advantages Husky:
  1. rad guards, scotts damper, and my spare forks bolt right up
  2. 4cs forks with "six days settings" might be pretty good out of the box for rocky technical single track?
  3. seems lower than pds ktm, have to confirm?
  4. seat feels softer than standard ktm
  5. easy parts availability
disadvantages Husky:
  1. resale might not be as good as the ktm version, but likely better than beta.
  2. questionable subframe? some say it's not a problem others say it is?
  3. electric start not as good as the beta? but better than previous years?
  4. a little bit taller than the beta? still don't know as the website specs for ktm/berg/husky differ?
  5. not easily street tagged

the Beta 300rr is a really intriguing bike with purported trials like bottom end and sharper handling.

disadvantages of the beta for me might be:unknown suspension (for me)
  1. parts availability
  2. resale
  3. substantial initial investment in aftermarket goodies...radiator,linkage,pipe and skid plates along with damper mounts
  4. I would want to stock some parts: seat/cover,pipe, shift and brake pedals....all this stuff adds up quickly!
  5. they call that a seat? it's teak covered in red rhino liner!
the advantages for the Beta:

  1. very torquey but smooth bottom end
  2. sharp handling, smaller feeling bike?
  3. excellent electric start tucked under the motor, not on the side
  4. easily street tagged
 
Both very good bikes at the top of their class. Cant go wrong. I personally would get the Beta because the one I rode I really liked and I like to ride something different than everyone else. The Beta to me is superneutral do it all kind of machine. Super Linear motor, really nice comfortable ergonomics, nice suspension stock. If i could find anything to bitch about its that it almost was boring how good it was. Get on and ride. I like the KTM / husky as well but I think the Beta fits me personally slightly better. Choosing between two fantastic bikes is a good problem to have. Enjoy.
 
I say get the Husky because Motosportz said he'd get the Beta :). Like he said, they're both great. I would stay with Husky because I love my dealer, the sponsors here, and overall cafehusky. Loyalty aside, I'd be looking into Beta or Sherco. I'd rather have the odd bikes myself. Don't take my advice though, I love one of the most hated bikes ever, 449's :).

I wouldn't be concerned with the resale of either bikes. The Beta 2 strokes are a bike everyone's looking at and the Husky is a KTM which has proven resale. Parts availability shouldn't be an issue either, I've never read of any issues with the Betas.

Honestly, it's sounds like you'd prefer the Beta, go for it.
 
I going through the Remorse phase right now.. Love the Beta ... Hate the fact that I don't have a Husky anymore...
 
Yep, 2 strokes are sold out as well as 350 f's. They will be bringing in the 2015's as early as August.
They have a new 350 Factory Edition coming now with a re-designed motor.

Back to the other issue, Beta parts are not a problem, they are all in stock at Beta USA.
Resale value is too soon to tell, it may be pretty good because they are in short supply. I would not count on KTM resale being what it has been, market is getting flooded.
Beta seat is deceivingly good after it breaks in, wide and flat, supports the cheeks instead of wearing the tail bone area. Beta USA has an optional soft and tall foam.
 
I've owned the KTM 300 XCW and it is an amazing bike. The Husky 300 is similar, though when I sat on Keefer's 300 it felt considerably different to me. I am obviously biased towards Husky, but support, parts and accessory availability is a huge difference between the two. Nothing seems worse than owning a manufactured flaw and no support (just ask 310/449 owners how they felt before aftermarket support stepped up). I'm not a fan of Sachs and even if I didn't like the 4CS (which I do btw), Zochi Shivers are now a drop-in on the 4CS for much less, and pretty much the best $ can buy.

I'd wait a while for a few reviews. Everything is new and it might be worth it to wait for the dust to settle. I know the new 500exc has the Husky engine in it, killing the 520, plus the Husky 501 completely dominates either of those two but lacks 50 state legal plating. A bit off topic, but was pointing out that the new Husky will advance in quality over the next two years and in 2016 will make a huge change. Time will tell.
 
i go to the Sherco site 2 or 3 times a week i would NOT be afraid of one matter of fact if i had the 9k for a new ride i'd get one just for the rarity of it hell any new bike is good you just gotta getit setup to your liking aftermarket support for the brand seems to be growing they seem to have there e-start way dialed and ready to pull the trigger on FI
 
well, I had the opportunity to ride my friend's 2013 Beta 300(racing) up and down the road today and while I know that doesn't count as any kind of a real test.

I can tell you that in that short ride I can confirm some previous comments

1. it starts IMMEDIATELY with the button, like half way thru a press of it!
2. it does feel like it turns sharply
3. it feels and looks smaller than the ktm
4. it lugs down so low you have to try to stall it!
 
Katooom is a friend of mine and has been checking mine out and tormenting himself! There are a few bikes available. The thing is, if your thinking of getting away from KTM then of course the choice is Beta. Face it, Husky (for now anyway)is nothing more than a name on a white linkage KTM, despite it being a good bike. Not a true alternative like the Italian bikes were. I've been through this on the GG side, rode them for years and had a large spares stock and knowledge base, mod on the GGRC forum for years too. Times change, and you have to step out of the box and take a shot if you want to find something that works better for you. I've said this before but the Beta is a very natural progression for a KTM rider, more so than for a hard core GG rider like myself. Its like a completely re-thought KTM variant with all the annoying and/or compromising KTM crap fixed! Just about everything that pisses you off has been addressed, like the seat height, the steering, the vibes, the starter, etc. I dislike KTMs, but I love the Beta.
 
I happened to ride with a guy with a 2014 KTM 300 yesterday. Did not know him, met him at the staging area after Blakes bike took a crap. Hooked up with him for a loop. He was not at all happy with his new machine. E-start did not work (when the hell are they going to fix that!!!) and he continues to struggle with jetting. He put the JD kit in still runs like crap. Stalled it on a hill and I waited at the top (on my 83 XC500). He got to the top 5 minutes later cussing the bike and screaming "this is why I bought a 9K e-start, the f-ing thing should start". Was not impressed. Seems E-start and jetting continues to be an issue with these bikes. Jetting is EZ to sort, e-start not so much.
 
Motosportz said:
I happened to ride with a guy with a 2014 KTM 300 yesterday. Did not know him, met him at the staging area after Blakes bike took a crap. Hooked up with him for a loop. He was not at all happy with his new machine. E-start did not work (when the hell are they going to fix that!!!) and he continues to struggle with jetting. He put the JD kit in still runs like crap. Stalled it on a hill and I waited at the top (on my 83 XC500). He got to the top 5 minutes later cussing the bike and screaming "this is why I bought a 9K e-start, the f-ing thing should start". Was not impressed. Seems E-start and jetting continues to be an issue with these bike. Jetting is EZ to sort, e-start not so much.
Click to expand...

This is my problem with getting the KTM/Husky -- the estarts are simply not reliable. I know guys with 14s, 13s, 12s with e-start issues and I just flipping hate having something on my bike that doesn't work. The Beta design is legit -- much more robust and I have heard of zero issues with it.

My problem with going Beta is simply just a mental issue -- the Betas are hard to come by and will they be supported in a few years like they are now. Just not sure -- there is some comfort because KTM/Husky will be well supported in the future. Frankly, I considered simply getting the 250 motocross version [250sx/tc250] because it doesn't have the e-start. I can deal with the suspension and gear box, buy a bigger tank and get an odometer. Problem is a run a trials tire -- so I am losing a lot by having to purchase an 18" rear wheel. I guess I am just buggered.
 
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