• 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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 Husky 701 Enduro Seat and Handlebar vibration and exhaust

P

PeterOnTheRoad

Husqvarna
C Class
Hi,
I just spend the first two weeks and 2,500 km on my new 701, where 1,500 of them was on a four day trip with pillion. The bike is overall great and weight / power ratio is sweet, so is handling, suspension and brakes. It will properly also go as far off-road as a good old Kawa KLX 250 if you put on the right tires.
However I found a couple of disappointing issues I would like to share in this circle:
1: Handlebar vibration over 90km/h are bad even though it has rubber mounts. I installed Xtrig to sort it out, but again why does Husky only do it 50% when they are on it ?
2. The exhaust gets so hot all over that it melts everything that comes near including the left plastic cover when you ride with pillion. My GF got her fingers burned as well trying to catch the left passenger handle (and she wore gloves), so I would go so far and state that its dangerously hot and unprotected. I installed a Wings Titanium Exhaust and love it for sound, it doesn't get very hot, its a lot smaller and 3 kg lighter.
3. The seat is disappointing! Firstly there is stickers front and rear that pealed off before 500 km!!. Secondly it is less comfortable than on my pure off-road 501 which is ironic since the 701 is supposed to be for longer trips.

All in all I don't regret my decision to go for the 701 but I'm a bit surprised that an old brand now owned by also experienced KTM can launch a bike with such basic issues.
I'm still waiting to hear from the importer here in Thailand what Husqvarna has to say about it.
Let me know what others have experienced ?
 

Attachments

  • 2016-04-10 16.42.05.jpg
    2016-04-10 16.42.05.jpg
    78.1 KB · Views: 77
  • 2016-04-15 10.22.33.jpg
    2016-04-15 10.22.33.jpg
    37.8 KB · Views: 79
Congratulations on your GF pilion making it 1500 km on that seat and over the top of that hard rear shock! She must really like you! Take that burnt finger of hers and put a ring on it!
I think you've found pretty much all of its 'flaws' already. The seats are renowned for being torturous and the pipes have been nicknamed volcanos. My 690 had its seat complete custom remolded and recovered which helped immensely. I also installed a wings pipe and it was great, it looks and sounds like an Acro without paying $1000 for a muffler tailpipe. I'm only lightish at 75-80 kg, and the suspension was professionally reworked which also made a big difference for comfort and it improved both its on and off road traction, which is an issue on the high power to weight ratio.
I hate vibration in the bars too but I didn't find it too bad actually. No solutions beyond what you've already done. I have found that rubber mounted bars shouldn't be clamped down as tightly as standard bars, you don't want to crush the rubber or else it won't absorb the vibration energy, it will just transfer it.
 
And I doubt the importer will do anything whatsoever, except give a response saying they value your feedback or some other BS.
 
One more thing on the vibes, they were noticeable at about 80-90kmh but seemed to go away above or below that speed. Maybe it resonates a bit at the 90kmh mark?
 
Ha, yes she likes me and traveling as well. This trip was only the warmup, I have found a company in South Africa doing nimble and strong stainless soft luggage racks and crash bars so I can carry two waterproof bags. The seat is what it is but I have added two Airhawks and then it's a complete different story. Handle bar vibration is solved with the Xtrik. I dropped the forks 20mm and increased the rear sack on the spring adjuster so it's easier to paddle when needed, ground clearance is not an issues for the kind of riding I can do with full load. The vibrations in the bars is from the front tire TCK 80. Different tire pressure for on/ off road changes the vibrations and is unrelated to engine revs which was my first assumption, but again it's solved.
 
Don't know if the wheels/tires come balanced by default on the 701 or not, or if it has rim locks? My 501 has rim locks, and came unbalanced, which caused a lot of shaking on the road. Balanced out, it's much smoother.
 
PeterOnTheRoad said:
Hi,
I just spend the first two weeks and 2,500 km on my new 701, where 1,500 of them was on a four day trip with pillion. The bike is overall great and weight / power ratio is sweet, so is handling, suspension and brakes. It will properly also go as far off-road as a good old Kawa KLX 250 if you put on the right tires.
However I found a couple of disappointing issues I would like to share in this circle:
1: Handlebar vibration over 90km/h are bad even though it has rubber mounts. I installed Xtrig to sort it out, but again why does Husky only do it 50% when they are on it ?
2. The exhaust gets so hot all over that it melts everything that comes near including the left plastic cover when you ride with pillion. My GF got her fingers burned as well trying to catch the left passenger handle (and she wore gloves), so I would go so far and state that its dangerously hot and unprotected. I installed a Wings Titanium Exhaust and love it for sound, it doesn't get very hot, its a lot smaller and 3 kg lighter.
3. The seat is disappointing! Firstly there is stickers front and rear that pealed off before 500 km!!. Secondly it is less comfortable than on my pure off-road 501 which is ironic since the 701 is supposed to be for longer trips.

All in all I don't regret my decision to go for the 701 but I'm a bit surprised that an old brand now owned by also experienced KTM can launch a bike with such basic issues.
I'm still waiting to hear from the importer here in Thailand what Husqvarna has to say about it.
Let me know what others have experienced ?
Click to expand...


I sorted all three of the issues you mentioned on mine.
1: Vibrinators have worked; they've reduced the vibes considerably.
2: I fitted a WINGS pipe - all good now.
3: Seat Concepts have just recently released a seat for the 701. It's wider and is comfier.
The only thing about mine that annoys me is that it drinks oil! This isn't a real issue to me on short trips (other than the oil I use is expensive!) but on longer runs I need to carry some with me.
 
Stefan,
Also got a wings exhaust and a Seat concept cover. Vibrations in Handlebars fixed with Xtric and all fine. Installed a Lynx Rally fairing with super bright Led light and last item on the way is soft pannier racks from Toys2Go in South Africa then it's ready for traveling.
 
Can anyone comment on how the vibes on the 701 compare to a 501? I personally don't think my 501 has excessive vibes but many do. I'm considering a 701 to replace the 501 so I'd like someones experience/opinion with both please.
 
reveille said:
Can anyone comment on how the vibes on the 701 compare to a 501? I personally don't think my 501 has excessive vibes but many do. I'm considering a 701 to replace the 501 so I'd like someones experience/opinion with both please.
Click to expand...

Hi Reveille
It's very different bikes, I use my 501 for hard enduro so I should actually have a TX 250 or 300 for that. I would not be able to do any of it on my 701. In my opinion the 701 like the KTM 690 are good for longer trips and are very off road capable compared to the big heavy boys like the BMW 1200 GS.
Regarding vibration and comfort the 501 vibrates a lot in bars and pegs whereas the 701 with Xtric handlebar Mount's and either a better seat like SeatConsepts or an Airhawk pillow can make day rides on 6 -8 hrs realistic
 
PeterOnTheRoad said:
Hi Reveille
It's very different bikes, I use my 501 for hard enduro so I should actually have a TX 250 or 300 for that. I would not be able to do any of it on my 701. In my opinion the 701 like the KTM 690 are good for longer trips and are very off road capable compared to the big heavy boys like the BMW 1200 GS.
Regarding vibration and comfort the 501 vibrates a lot in bars and pegs whereas the 701 with Xtric handlebar Mount's and either a better seat like SeatConsepts or an Airhawk pillow can make day rides on 6 -8 hrs realistic
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment on vibes. I would be replacing my 501 with a 701 and using my 300 for offroad duties. I learned the hard way some years back trying to take a heavy dualsport in places it shouldn't safely go. I have a nifty 14" scar on my right knee as a momento.

My other option is to buy supermoto wheels for the 501(read awesome idea!) and install vibranators or fill the bars with BB's to reduce some vibes. It seems the 501 is sitting in the stable more and more as the 300 has been getting the nod lately. Being the 300 is street legal in my state, I'm finding the 501 becoming somewhat obsolete.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top