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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Help deciding on which bike?

firffighter

firffighter

Husqvarna
AA Class
Been lurking lately looking at the Husky TE's. Been on dirtbikes for 25+years, trailride mostly, race 2-3 low key enduros/harescrambles a year and ride with my 3 boys most of the time.

I ride a variety of terrain, but mostly 2nd-3rd gear woods stuff.

I currently ride a highly modded KDX220 w/ KX125 front end conversion. Came to conclusion that this was the perfect 2-stroke to fit my needs after many previous bikes including KTM 200/250 exc's.

I have spent a considerable amount of time on my riding buddies Yamaha WR250 and I really enjoy that bike. Sometimes it feels like it could use some more umff, but for the most part I love the power delivery for 90% of the stuff I ride.

Been really considering a TE250 lately. Seems like the bike would fit the bill well.

The only slight hesitation I have is that in October I have been invited on a Baja trip with an old friend. This would be a low key cruise around Baja for about 5-7 days. My buddy is almost 70 and is no speed demon. We would be riding mostly dirt roads and about 300 miles of the course. My question is would the TE250 be able to handle this once in a lifetime trip, or is it too much for the bike to handle?

I have no plans on any other situations like the Baja trip for the bike other than maybe short jaunts on some fireroads around my house.

Am I barking up the wrong tree or is the 250 a winner?

Also, never owning a Husky, is there anything particular I would need to be aware of on a '08 model, or can I just get on and ride off the showroom floor?
 
The 250 is solid. With the new 250cc bikes about to be released in the US, you should be able to find left over '08's and soon, '09's at very very reasonable prices.

A 310 is also a nice bike, if you can get around it at the races.

Down in baja the bikes do fine if geared right, and with a big tank, and common sense riding. Add an Uptite skidplate.

Off the dealers floor the '08's are great. Just make sure yours has a pipe guard and some heat resistant tape on the airbox. Earlier releases had pipe clearence issues. Remove the throttle stop. Have the forks re-worked at LTR.
 
If you can do without the plate or send me a PM ;) I would be inclined to get the TXC. It's higher performance bike and more simple (no EFI) with higher spec suspension. And it is cheaper. The TXC250 will do anything you ask of it, a great bike.
 
Well, here is the thing. If I were to only ride off-road, then I would stick with my KDX. I have built the bike to perform perfectly for what I currently ride.

But, I have been wanting a bike w/ a plate for a couple of years now. I live right at the foothills of the Mt. Hood Nat'l Forest and would like to have a bike that I can zip out of my garage for some logging roads.

The TE seems to be the perfect fit. I have also found a '07 TE250 that has 550 miles on it for around $4200.
 
firffighter;35387 said:
Well, here is the thing. If I were to only ride off-road, then I would stick with my KDX. I have built the bike to perform perfectly for what I currently ride.

But, I have been wanting a bike w/ a plate for a couple of years now. I live right at the foothills of the Mt. Hood Nat'l Forest and would like to have a bike that I can zip out of my garage for some logging roads.

The TE seems to be the perfect fit. I have also found a '07 TE250 that has 550 miles on it for around $4200.
Click to expand...

I have sent you a PM.

Kelly
 
I don't know about Oregon, but we easily plated our TXC 450. They didn't even ask questions. The MSO doesn't say "Offroad Use Only," so that's enough to fool the tag people here. Now, it looks like it is going to be a pain to convert it to a road bike. Lights, brake switch, speedo, wiring harness, kickstand, blah blah blah. All that comes with the TE (well most of it). Of course, remaps and dynos aren't all that cheap either. All in all, I think I would go TE if we had to do it again. I would get TE 250 or 310.
 
firffighter;35387 said:
Well, here is the thing. If I were to only ride off-road, then I would stick with my KDX. I have built the bike to perform perfectly for what I currently ride.

But, I have been wanting a bike w/ a plate for a couple of years now. I live right at the foothills of the Mt. Hood Nat'l Forest and would like to have a bike that I can zip out of my garage for some logging roads.

The TE seems to be the perfect fit. I have also found a '07 TE250 that has 550 miles on it for around $4200.
Click to expand...

That is a good bike. I have an 06 te250.
 
Well, over on thumpertalk, I am getting advice ranging from the 250 - 610. I have been thinking that maybe the 450 would be a good choice.

The reason I like my KDX220 over the KTM 2-strokes is that I am a "luger". I like to ride a gear high in almost all situations and am a lazy rider in that regard. I prefer traction over roost. Maybe the bigger 4-stroke would fit my riding style better. I have owned a highly modded XR400 that was one of my altime favorite bikes, but hard starting even with the pumper carb was its downfall. If it would have been e-start, I might still have that bike. I dont like the higher reving new 4-strokes. I feel like I am fighting the power all of the time.

Also, I have found a local '07 TE250 w/ 550 miles on it for a good price. Carb vs. EFI?
 
Personally I like carbs at this time for a few reasons. Eventually I'll prefer efi I'm sure.

I lug my te250, but these things are difficult to describe over the internet. Adding a 310 kit adds much low end power. I always recommend a quick test ride. Any chance the person selling that bike would let you take it up/down the street for a couple of minutes?

Or meet up with someone that has a Husky (any model) then let us know what you think?
 
i've read the thread over on TT and the one here, i own an 07 TE450 and i have to say the more i read, the more i reckon you should be looking at a carbed TE, the 250 is a great bike, a mate has one and it's easily as capable as my 450 in the trails we ride. if the price on that 06 is fair and you're happy with that amount of go then grab it. want some more go? get a 310 or a 450, but after owning injected road bikes for a lot of years, and knowing the agro my mates are going through with their newer cat and O2 sensor equipped injected road bikes i wouldn't be rushing into an injected one yet, wait till their more sorted.
My 450 is so easy to ride, i can idle up hills over rocks and logs with no effort at all, it really is a tractor, the only thing i would suggest is look at the sidestand mount, if the PO has kicked it on the stand chances are the bracket and mounts are stretched, other than that mine has performed faultlessly. I can even kick start it with a flat battery****************************************!


paul
 
So, I met with my 70 year old buddy yesterday to discuss our trip to Baja. Looks like 4-5 days of riding w/ about 100-200 miles a day. The mix is 50/50 hwy/dirt road. He said speeds on the hwy. would be around 55-60mph since we will have a very new rider with us.

Considering this, will the TE250 still be OK? I would put on a larger tank, and regear it of-course. I would also run more street oriented tires for the trip as well.

The 250 would be my first choice for the woods riding I love to do, but I dont want to tax the bike or damage it with a long (700+mile) road oriented trip.

Also, would I need to do an oil change somewhere along the way to be safe, or would it be OK for the duration or the trip?

The opposite end of the spectrum is a '06 TE610 that is local w/ low miles for a good price as well. I know it would handle the Baja trip and excel in this situation, but how bad is it in the woods?
 
I would not hesitate to take my 2006 TE250 on a trip like that, especially with a larger cs.

I would not ride much more than 6-700 miles with out an oil change.
 
firffighter;35815 said:
So, I met with my 70 year old buddy yesterday to discuss our trip to Baja. Looks like 4-5 days of riding w/ about 100-200 miles a day. The mix is 50/50 hwy/dirt road. He said speeds on the hwy. would be around 55-60mph since we will have a very new rider with us.

Considering this, will the TE250 still be OK? I would put on a larger tank, and regear it of-course. I would also run more street oriented tires for the trip as well.

The 250 would be my first choice for the woods riding I love to do, but I dont want to tax the bike or damage it with a long (700+mile) road oriented trip.

Also, would I need to do an oil change somewhere along the way to be safe, or would it be OK for the duration or the trip?

The opposite end of the spectrum is a '06 TE610 that is local w/ low miles for a good price as well. I know it would handle the Baja trip and excel in this situation, but how bad is it in the woods?
Click to expand...

It's not that the 610 is a bad woods bike, it will take on anything that you throw at it but with the extra weight and larger platform it's will work you harder. Doing tight trails can be a bit of a chore because you have to set you're self up going into those quick 90 degree turns, sometimes you have to ride it more aggressively and back it into a turn so that you're set up for the next obstacle. On the other hand the big torque and wide ratio gear box will let you motor over anything short of a giant redwood so in some situations it can perform on par with it's smaller siblings.
 
rajobigguy;35833 said:
It's not that the 610 is a bad woods bike, it will take on anything that you throw at it but with the extra weight and larger platform it's will work you harder. Doing tight trails can be a bit of a chore because you have to set you're self up going into those quick 90 degree turns, sometimes you have to ride it more aggressively and back it into a turn so that you're set up for the next obstacle. On the other hand the big torque and wide ratio gear box will let you motor over anything short of a giant redwood so in some situations it can perform on par with it's smaller siblings.
Click to expand...

:D
 
Good to hear about the little 250.

I am intrigued by that 610 because I have always been found of big thumpers having ridden XR400 and XR600 in the past. But, when I went to the KTM 200 exc and KDX, I was loving life in the woods! But, there is nothing like trucking up a nasty hillclimb knowing that you can tractor up no matter what.

decision, decision....
 
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