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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Guards - protection or just farkles?

I won't ride a bike offroad without hand guards, for the reasons mentioned above and to protect the brake and clutch master cylinders and levers and throttle tube. The brake disc guards are also a must IMO but for the moct part I only run the back. The skid plate I always run something metal or composite, I have seen tree stumps and roots take out an engine case, and rocks destroy everything from the frame to the all parts of the engine lowers and suspension linkage . The radiator guards you can be riding in wide open terrain and go down and destroy your cooling system on the spot, they are not bullit proof but IMO I have ridden out of a lot areas after a spill that I know I would have been pushing the bike out of without the afore mentioned guards. I have even seen trail debris kicked up by a bike in front of me that would have wiped put a radiator without the guards . Once I have put on what I consider to be adequate protection, then ditto on the suspension being the best money spent.I also like the handling of the bike with a steering dampner, it helps tremendously with the white knuckle/pucker sections. I guess it all comes down to how and where you ride .
 
WbCherry said:
Brake disc guards are aluminum. The rotor is tempered steel, but slightly more expensive.
If an impact is bad enough to warrant the guard, wouldnt it jam the rotor anyway?
Do they promote brake fade (like the large front covers) or increase mud retention, leading to wet brakes? Or crud under the pads?

Guards under the bottoms of the front forks? Seriously?

Heel guards. When people are buying titanium axles and sprocket bolts...can't heel bumpers be replaced by that high-impact plastic sheet (Zydex or whatever) ? Or touch-up paint?

Radiator guards. They're a joke. My IMS tank actually protects better. The rad guards are just getting in the way of airflow, and threatening to rub through the tank.

Exhaust shrouds...no, just kidding. I'm not THAT stupid.

$300+ titanium footpegs. Really? Titanium's lighter than steel, but not stronger at the same weight....they need to be the same weight to be bend-resistant.

Carbon fiber case stckers?

The Touratech oil sight glass "guard". It's the same shape as stock! Just red! What?!

Saving weight with an aluminum sprocket....then using an aluminum fin for it? If one bends, won't the other?
Why not just buy steel?
Why don't they make quick-change rear sprockets, anyway?

Please discuss.

Oh, and while I'm complaining...why does the kickstand NOT have a wider foot (besides its other travesties)?
Doesn't the term "dirt bike" imply that you're not gonna park it on firm concrete?

And why is my nose bleeding?
Click to expand...
some people don't believe in helmets....
 
The Moose E-line carbon farkle exhaust pipe guards is a POS.
Installed it today (instructions? Nope)

The fit is absolutely atrocious. I won't buy anything else from Moose.
Tightened it as much as I could without cracking it....and it still rattled and twisted around. I tried different positions, etc...it's just junk. Rattles so loud, I thought I'd thrown a bearing.
All this fun for $99!!

Pictures tomorrow.


The Touratech "Anodized pinion gear guard" (front sprocket plate, so I dont stick my toes in the gear)....
Also a POS.
I expected better from Touratech. It's a triangle of thin aluminum plate, with a 90 degree bend and two screws. $40
 
Protection is different for everyone some like the pill some need a magnum oh wait bikes right back to the topic. When I bent my radiator guards and radiator it still held fluid. No guards and I would have been pushing or being towed for 10 miles or more. $100 in a guard was well worth it but not everyone agrees. Desert guys can get away with less so why charge them for what guys in other parts need? What always gets me is why dealers don't build up package deals with add ons to sell to consumers?
 
Tessier said:
What always gets me is why dealers don't build up package deals with add ons to sell to consumers?
Click to expand...

That would make good sense even if they only made low profit on the items. Otherwise, if people are like me they fire up the web browser and start ordering guards and such from the different companies that produce the product.
 
schoops said:
Motosportz - interested in your comment re the damper. I've only ever used them on road bikes and I always assumed would be more for the fast stuff -eg stop you getting into tank slappers in deep sand etc. Are you saying helps with deflection over rocks and roots in tight stuff or hitting them at speed? And if set for tight stuff does it come at the expense of responsive steering?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Also allows you to hold a line better, have less fatigue, ride longer / harder, be safer, etc. Go to the races and see almost everyone has one. Many people tell me ours feels like power steering is it isolates you from the trail trash / removes the loose feeling.

LawnDartMike said:
I run a GPR on my WR150. It REALLY helps even in the slow speed stuff for the reasons you speak of. I can ride with a bit looser grip and not worry about the bars being ripped from my hands. Yes you can notice a bit more resistance when turning but you'll find yourself not having to correct your line as much.
Click to expand...

Take this all with a grain of salt as I make the Motosportz damper but... I personally dislike the GPR, I feel it has way to much low speed damping (gives a heavy feel at the bars under normal use). If I rode deep sand and dez at speed all the time it would be OK but flat hate them in the woods. That's just me. Our is designed to have much better feel, in many ways IMHO. I like the Scotts in feel and performance much better. We took a clean sheet, built a bunch of dampers, lets a bunch of people try them and ended up with what we thought worked great. Kinda like the Scotts in feel / performance but with our own ideas on how it should work and feel.
 
Tessier said:
Protection is different for everyone some like the pill some need a magnum oh wait bikes right back to the topic. When I bent my radiator guards and radiator it still held fluid. No guards and I would have been pushing or being towed for 10 miles or more. $100 in a guard was well worth it but not everyone agrees. Desert guys can get away with less so why charge them for what guys in other parts need? What always gets me is why dealers don't build up package deals with add ons to sell to consumers?
Click to expand...

You don't really know that, just an opinion and since it's your bike you're entitled to rule by it. However most rad guards have a bigger profile then the radiator and therefore are more prone to getting into an impact in my opinion, not to mention the weight, reduced air flow and costs. I've seen a lot of bad crashes and the protection usually ends up causing as much damage as what it was trying to protect by bending hardware or impacting other items on the bike. Knock on wood I've been doing quite a bit of trail riding the past several years and have never had rad guards. Tons of nasty spills, bent bars, triples, mufflers and headpipes and have bent my share of radiators but have never had one leak or leave me stranded. Have I seen it happen? Yes twice that I can recall and one of those bike had rad protectors that did more to cause the rad failure then the impact IMHO,...but again just my opinion. I'd rather a radiator slightly deform rather then a guard shear the tabs or core because it wouldn't let the rad flex or twist.

All the protection is to make the owner feel better typically and I can't tell you how many products out there will cause more damage then good in the event of an impact, particularly on the bigger adventure bikes.

I'd rather have a bike 5-10lbs lighter and be that much less likely to crash because it doesn't feel like a bloated pig! Hand guards yes,.....good skid pan yes,......everything else is pretty much crap in my book but I'll gladly sell it to ya**************************************** hehe
 
WbCherry said:
They make those?

So, why don't the bikes come with all this on them, in the first place?
Would kinda make sense.
Click to expand...

Just looked at a 2011 GG250 6 days version today that does indeed come with rad guards and an full coverage aluminum plate from the crate. No hand guards, though. Impressive bike.
 
Same reason a MX bike comes with a none o-ring chain and off road bikes don't come with HD tubes etc. People base a bike to much on weight and cost and not on what they want. They will by a bike for say 5K and then drop 1K on stuff but would not buy the same bike at 6K because the other brand is cheaper and lighter. Beta lets you build a bike. Plus many people like the modifying and updating, personalization is part of the fun. Then there is graphics and different colored plastic and...
 
I am a farkle purchaser. There I said it. I have found that after many years of exciting offroad riding, I wear out bikes. The $500-$700 in extra protection well covers the cost of most walks out of the forest. Most of the carnage is from trail gunk that just happens to bend, snap, twist, or puncture my bike or me, usually without crashing. I have had manzanita branches poke between my fuel tank and radiator brace and come out at the little black radiator plastic cover. I've smashed my front disc guard on a lava-cap, rotor looks perfect and stops great. My Up-tite skidplate has kept oil in my bike while I helped repair clutch covers of dual sport riders on the trail(while praising the durability of Husky's to whoever is on the trail). Brake snakes work. HDB handguards are the best. I like that my stock red shrouds wont fit on the oversize tank, less littering. My trail buddies have said that I should be an R/D tester who needs a real durability tester. 09 450te purchased April 2010, currently 7000 miles.
 
Two pics of my radiator after a minor crash yesterday without any radiator guards. Lost it in a right hand corner, swerved into a embankment on the right, clipped the right handlebar, slammed the right side into the embankment and then gracefully exited the motorcycle. Motorcycle was still upright leaning against the embankment when I walked back to it. Luckily the radiator wasn't leaking. This shot from below shows the right radiator bent, should be parallel to the left one.
IMG_1791.JPG

And smooshed fins in this blurry shot.
IMG_1790.JPG

I'll be buying rad guards with my new radiator.
Carl
 
My wr300 has "farkle" all over it but its because I have been riding offroad 25 yrs and have experienced just about all of it. I even go sa far as to bring spare cables/levers you name it when I ride. If I had the room I would bring a comlpete topend rebuild kit. lol. Nothing....and I mean NOTHING sucks being broken down out in nowwhere in the boonies.
You just cant go wrong with handgaurds, bash plates, steering stabilizers, disc protecotrs, radiator protectors etc. I even wrap my radiator hoses,clutch line with a plastic protector wrap. The only thing I think is a waste of time are those dust covers that go over fork tubes. Just keeps dirt in around the seals if you ask me.
 
Seems to make a decent skid plate. And hockey sticks.

Which covers, Firecrotch? Neoprene, accordion style, or whichever?
I ordered some of the neoprene ones from Tusk. Mulled it over when they came in the mail...thinking the same thing.
I saw a study (with streetbikes) on fork seal covers. Stock Goldwings (i think) that had them lasted 60% longer before seal failure.



Then, I realized I'm not riding a Goldwing.
 
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