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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Has anyone gone from Kouba link to internal lowering on a 310?

2wheeler

2wheeler

Husqvarna
AA Class
I am barely tip-toe with both feet on level ground.

Would internal lowering get my feet closer to the ground than my current 'setup' ?

1" kouba link
Forks: Compression -18 clicks, Rebound unchanged
Shock: Compression 18 clicks, High speed dampening unchanged, Rebound -15
Shaved low seat. (maybe I should go with just the seat pan haha)

Pics showing the fork tubes slide up, shock spring backed off, shaved seat.
 

Attachments

  • WP_001059.jpg
    WP_001059.jpg
    55.9 KB · Views: 46
  • WP_001060.jpg
    WP_001060.jpg
    43 KB · Views: 46
  • WP_001069.jpg
    WP_001069.jpg
    214.1 KB · Views: 47
On my son's TXC250, we installed the 1.5" kouba link, lowered the forks just a pinch more than yours and he fits perfect. Since you're not my son, your situation is probably different. :') Internally lowering the shock simply puts stops to its travel. It will lower the bike more at the cost of overall travel. Maybe changing the lowering link to the 1.5" would be enough? The only downside might be that the tire could touch the inner rear fender before it runs out of travel? I don't know because we don't have enough time on it yet. Good Luck either way.
 
2wheeler said:
I am barely tip-toe with both feet on level ground.

Would internal lowering get my feet closer to the ground than my current 'setup' ?

1" kouba link
Forks: Compression -18 clicks, Rebound unchanged
Shock: Compression 18 clicks, High speed dampening unchanged, Rebound -15
Shaved low seat. (maybe I should go with just the seat pan haha)

Pics showing the fork tubes slide up, shock spring backed off, shaved seat.
Click to expand...

I would remove the link and go back to oem setup, then place a piece of 2x4 on the floor and see if your feet comfortably touch. if so, you can have it lowered 1 to 1.5 inches.

never had a kouba link, but i have my 310 lowered 1 inch internally and love it.
 
I think I would do both the forks and shock. My dealer said they have a factory lowering kit for these scoots. A buddy of mine dropped his KTM dual-sport by 2" and it's really nice.
 
Ah so the 1.5" link fit without the shock rubbing the swing arm?
(The possibility was mentioned on their site that is what kept me from the 1.5. Not interested in grinding the swing arm)

Stock link and 2x4 would be a good test to compare. Wouldn't the rear just go up one inch?

I should have been clearer, I did mean internal lowering of forks and shock. Interesting, I had heard of a KTM kit but not a Husky kit. Will have to check on that. I know our Zip-Ty buds can do 1.5
 
The 1.5" Kouba link did not make the spring hit the swingarm. I chose this method because it is easily reversible. My son is 14 going on seems like 20 and still growing. We'll need to go back to the stock link when he gets there. If you aren't going to ever need the extra height, the internal lowering might be a better choice. It is great to add other suspension work like revalving or rebuilding at the same time as you get a bit more bang for your buck.
 
Good to know about the clearance. It is doubtful I would ever need extra height for ground clearance or hard landings. When I have looked at the muddy forks I am using about half of the travel, haven't hit the skid plate.
 
What is the rider's inseam?

Just putting a rear link on does nothing for the forks, so the bike squats in the rear, which upsets the geometry of the bike.

I had my TE310 modified internally to drop it 2" both front and rear. The guts needed changing that are not easily reversible. Basically, internals that were hacked would need to be replaced.

I have a 29" inseam. I probably could have got by with lowering it 1.5", though.
 
Inseam is right at 30" with boots on and 178 lbs with gear.

A local shop said machining the dampening rods would be required to lower forks. I have wondered how far spacers alone will lower the forks and shock before machining is required.

If your weight is similar to mine the 1.5 may be good. Do you get more than tip-toe with both feet?
 
My son has a 30" inseam and can touch the ground with his toes firmly. Not flat footed, but not far off. I lowered the forks so 30mm is above the top triple clamp. The bike sits quite normal and not tail down.
 
Do you want a total seat height measurement? 36" topped out, 34.5" with sag, 32" with me sitting on it at 175lbs. These numbers are "as best as I could do" numbers, not precisely measured.
 
Don't forget that a rider can move around on the bike seat, usually going to the front of the seat and this will help get your get feet closer to the ground. You can also compress the suspension, again slightly, by just bumping\bouncing on the seat as you sit down on it. The suspension will also naturally sag over time also to help get your on the ground in the future. The good point here is ya gotta ride it and put wear on it to get it to sit down lower.

As for when riding, keep your eyes peeled where you might have to stop and do the small things to make that dab or stop as safe as possible. That's being a skillful rider also.

2wheeler said:
When I have looked at the muddy forks I am using about half of the travel
Click to expand...
I'm glad someone said this. That 11-12 inches of travel is not needed by all riders and as pointed on in this thread, is actually a deterrent to riders. A Husqvarna branded bike is not needed by everyone. The Japanese bikes are smaller made and fit many more people off the showroom floor without handing over more money.

The bike owners here just put smaller diameter rims on their bikes. Works well here and I know it will not work in the states.
 
Thanks for seat confirmation and measurements Eddy!

Thanks Ray I never even thought of bouncing once on the bike. Yeah she's only got 240ish miles now. Riding frequency has picked up the last couple of months. The dealer suggested motard wheels, I just looked at him lol.

Although I did not do serious study other manufacturer offerings I concluded any contemporary bike was going to be too tall. So I tried looking at weight.

The bottom line was a Husky is a bucket list thing. They had been on my mind since 1973 when I got waxed by one at our playground. Decided to pull the trigger and deal with it the best I could.

I only dropped it twice this weekend lol. Yep, dabbing at air ugh.
 
I went through this exact same issue, I have a 2010 te 250 and rode the bike for the first year of owning it with a Kouba link installed. It does change the geometry of the bike , in my case it made the bike feel a bit like a Chopper( lower in the back). It also changes the turning and steering ratio. Last Winter I has the Bike lowered internally by Works Enduro Rider( Drew Smith). Very Very into Huskys over there. If you search my posts from last spring I wrote a big review on them in this forum! He is the man and my Bike is the best handling Bike I have owned! We softened up the suspension and lowered the bike and its awesome! Dont look back just do it and you wont regret it, I am always the smallest guy in the group, approx 5'4" and have always had a bike height issue, this is the first bike I did professionally and will continue do this to all my bikes it makes a huge difference, Once I did the inertial clicker set up and sag, I havent touched it since and all my other guys are always messing around and fussing with their suspension, mines perfect!
 
Thank you Jimmy! I read your posts and see how pleased you are with the outcome!

Same here I am 5'4". I feel like the drag racer chasing every possible 10th he can get out of the car. Insoles in boots with thick socks. Considering a lower profile rear tire when the time comes. Even got a little crazy and looked at the handles on the subframe and thought those could be cut off, form a new seat pan... lol

Do you get more of your feet on the ground with the 1.5" internal lowering vs the link?
 
ptkatoomer said:
I'm curious; with the lowered suspension, does the amount of sag have to be altered to reflect that?
Click to expand...

I don't know but am curious too. The only advice I got from the suspension tuner that lowered my womans 250 was drop the forks 5mm if it feels unstable...
Problem is I'm relying on her feedback and once she told me the front feels harsh on rocks so I "pretended" to adjust the fork compression and told her to ride again. Sure enough the bike felt much better with a simple dose of placebo :lol:

If i was going to try and set sag on her bike i'd use Vinduro's setup with percentages rather than just "100mm sag one size fits all BS"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top