• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Austria - About 2014 & Newer
     FE = 4st Enduro & FC = 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

FE/FC going back to bikes after 20 + yrs on quads

bellracing2

bellracing2

Husqvarna
B Class
so ive narrowed it down to a 15 fe 250 brand new leftover . i went to check it out , but when i sat on it the rear dropped probably 6-8 inches . i was told the stock bikes are setup for 185 lb riders , with gear im 310 lbs . before you start , i know im old , fat , and out of shape .lol i just want to get back on a bike as the quads are boring to me now . riding experience , i can ride , no jumps higher then a foot or 2 , love sand and mud , tight wood is favorite type of riding . any ideas on what spring to use to help the back shock out ? i want comfort , and slow to moderate speed suspension comfort ( going over rocks , roots , square edges ) if i get any higher then 2-3 ft off the ground ill probably crap myself , so thats not a concern . just want a real nice tame comfortable trail cruiser . ive never had a European bike , a few 250 mx bikes converted for woods , and used to race open b mx in the mid and late 80's . my second choice would be a leftover new 15 fc450 , 15 tc250 , or a 15 new fc 250 . they are all prices within 400.00 of each other , so im just looking for the best bike for my needs . so to recap , im 310lbs with gear on , 6'5" , and have not rode aggressively in 20 + yrs . lol sounds like a train wreck ! lol . any help on setup or suggestions would be appreciated .
 
You need springs for both forks and shock. At your weight you can't do only one end. I would suggest contacting a tuner to go over the needs and wants you want out of the bike. I highly suggest to modify the bleed check valve at your weight along with a shim shuffle at the minimum. This would be the least costly but a must otherwise you be deflecting off your shadow!

The 450 and TC250 would be too aggressive to anyone that hasn't rode in a while and tight trails. FC250 will need some help in the tight woods and all these MX bikes will need a full suspension adjustment. FE's will need the least work for the trail and have a power delivery much better suited for your needs.
 
Definitely stick with the FE. The 450 could be tamed down a little (not enough) but then you will still be missing all the great extras the FE line gets you. The TC250 wouldn't be to bad to mellow out with a FWW and the softer PV spring. The FE's are sprung really soft, even me at 200lbs makes my 350 squat, so like Weantright said spend the money and get the suspension set up for you.
 
I would go with the FE and go with the 450 or 501 too. Being a bigger guy myself I like the power output of an open class bike much better.

I don't have to wring it out to get it to do what I need it to do. It can be ridden a bit more lazy I guess you would say. Short shifting it is something you can do all day and its a breeze to ride.

Being in the next higher gear isn't an issue either as it has the horsepower and torque to recover and allows easier riding in the lower rpm ranges.

The power output is more fluid on the FE models. So it is a bit more tamed to allow riding in the woods.

Being a big guy, the few extra pounds weight of the bigger bike isn't an issue when it comes time to have to have to throw it around either.

For proper spring rates, you can check the "Racetech" suspension website for their spring calculator. To come up with a close to proper spring rate front and rear. Just enter in some simple information and it will tell you the spring rates you need. Check with a local suspension tuner or reputable company that has experience with type riding you intend to do so you get the set up you need.

You don't necessarily have to buy the springs from "Racetech" either

I buy my springs for my bikes with WP suspension from "Slavens Racing".
 
IMO the 15 fc450 doesn't have the low end grunt its more 2 stroke like loves to be revved. Makes its power more towards the upper rev range where the 501 seems to have tractor like power. Anything smaller for your size I think would lack the power. The 501 would be a great bike and best for all around use plus you can plate it and ride her on the street.
 
thanks guys , its a hard decision , ive narrowed it down to the fc 450 and the te 250 . the fc450 is 6000 , the te250 is 6300 . im wondering if i might be better on the 450 with a 15 oz fww ? and a g2 throttle ? can you run a fww and rekluse ? or does the extra enertia from the fww mess with the rekluse disengaging ? i have experience with kx 500 , cr 500 , yz 490 , as i have raced them all 20 + yrs ago , but dont want to spend the coin and be disappointed with either too little power , or too much power and its a pain to ride . anyone hear if the current promotion of 1500.00 rebate is being extended after nov 31st , or new larger / smaller rebate coming out ?
 
bellracing2 said:
thanks guys , its a hard decision , ive narrowed it down to the fc 450 and the te 250 . the fc450 is 6000 , the te250 is 6300 . im wondering if i might be better on the 450 with a 15 oz fww ? and a g2 throttle ? can you run a fww and rekluse ? or does the extra enertia from the fww mess with the rekluse disengaging ? i have experience with kx 500 , cr 500 , yz 490 , as i have raced them all 20 + yrs ago , but dont want to spend the coin and be disappointed with either too little power , or too much power and its a pain to ride . anyone hear if the current promotion of 1500.00 rebate is being extended after nov 31st , or new larger / smaller rebate coming out ?
Click to expand...

fe 250 . not te 250
 
You are just in a tough spot without being able to test ride. Displacement aside, I would look at what your intended purpose is. TE over the FC since you mentioned a nice trail cruiser and not really into airing out. So many benefits buying an enduro from the start. Not saying the FC couldn't or wouldn't work for you, but you will have way more than $300 into it to make it as good on the trails as a FE/TE.

Edit: Missed the FE250 thing. That changes things slightly. Still hard to over look buying an FC over and FE for just woods riding.
 
Don't get me wrong we love our 15 fc450 awesome bike. Electric start feels super light and thin. Power wise it's great it just likes to be revved. It does have plenty of low end grunt but loves the higher revs. We've put a full fmf exhaust on it and it made a huge difference. I'm comparing the fc to our 15 rmz450 and 14 yz450. The YZ has tons of low end then flattens out the rmz loves the upper rev range like the fc. The fc is not over powering and a blast to ride and I don't think you would be disappointed with it. Plus it's definetly the best looking bike of the bunch
 
i got the 2015 fe250 last week . thanks for all the thoughts , and comments . i took it down the street for a quick blast , and into the yard in 8 inches of snow . it handles great with easy to manage power . tracks really good in slop .
 
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