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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Hyde Skidplate on a 449/511

bigmo

bigmo

Husqvarna
AA Class
***If you are looking at getting a Hyde skidplate for a 449 or 511 they require modification to fit***
***I wound up keeping it and modifying it only because Hyde was not interested in solving the problem - I would up with a tolerable solution***
***IMO until Hyde addresses their clear design/manufacture problem I would recommend staying away (for the 449 and 511)***

My search powers are weak tonight... Can anyone give me a quick 411 on their opinion of the Hyde skidplate on the 449/511?

I can say that I actually prefer plastic skidplates to aluminum from a noise perspective. I hate how Al plates add a whole dimension of clanky motor sounds to my riding experience. I have been on plastic for several years now and have yet to have an issue. I also like how easy they glide on log hops. So I am good with the technology.

I am more concerned with the overall protection and fit and finish. I cannot tell from their marketing pic, but it looks to provide some decent clutch and ignition protection. Is that the case? Is there pretty good rigidity (is that a word???) on the left and right extremes? Ie if you took a vertical blow onto a rock ledge - would there typically be enough distribution to save the day?

Is removal and reapplication for maintenance an issue?

I know quite a few KTM guys have them, but noone can talk about them as the word is flippen' banned on KTMTalk - classy.

Product looks good, price looks reasonable, seems right for me - I just want to make sure I am not missing something obvious.
 
A mate has one on his '08 TE450, hasn't complained about it, and gives it a bashing. 449/511 obviously a different design, but functionality much the same i guess. He also has the swing arm protectors as well from Hyde.
 
bigmo said:
My search powers are weak tonight... Can anyone give me a quick 411 on their opinion of the Hyde skidplate on the 449/511?

I can say that I actually prefer plastic skidplates to aluminum from a noise perspective. I hate how Al plates add a whole dimension of clanky motor sounds to my riding experience. I have been on plastic for several years now and have yet to have an issue. I also like how easy they glide on log hops. So I am good with the technology.

I am more concerned with the overall protection and fit and finish. I cannot tell from their marketing pic, but it looks to provide some decent clutch and ignition protection. Is that the case? Is there pretty good rigidity (is that a word???) on the left and right extremes? Ie if you took a vertical blow onto a rock ledge - would there typically be enough distribution to save the day?

Is removal and reapplication for maintenance an issue?

I know quite a few KTM guys have them, but noone can talk about them as the word is flippen' banned on KTMTalk - classy.

Product looks good, price looks reasonable, seems right for me - I just want to make sure I am not missing something obvious.
Click to expand...

Wow, Mark Hyde must have a tuff time on KTM talk then if his name is banned.
 
Why is his name banned? I got one on my TE, it's great. I love it. Easy on off for oil changes, 4 bolts. Just know it is a consumable part. Mine is getting pretty gouged up and the gravel/rocks pelting it all the time are taking a toll on it, but I figure it's good for two years or so depending on what you ride.
 
Rom what I read Hyde Racing didn't fulfill orders in a timely manner and was charging people. Everyone complained on KTM talk, the owner of Hyde got an attorney. KTM talk gave in and deleted the comments and also made it where no one could talk about it again
 
Hyde skid plate:
Great coverage, well up and around the clutch cover, generator/alternator/stator? on the other side, and full protection for the frame rails underneath and behind the footpegs. The stocker was lacking in this regard. It's also about twice as thick as the stock plastic plate. The price is right at ~$100. The only negative is the bolt holes are 10mm narrower than the stock plate; I emailed Jay with pictures and never heard a response. I was able to still mount it, but not sure if it is as secure as it should be.
 
I run one on a 449 with no issues, provides the protection and as said easy on ond off.

and thats my bike in the hyde picture
 
IMO - Thick, plastic skid plates are superior to aluminum. Getting them to fit right from the manufacture is a different story all together. The Hyde plate looks good for the 449, but is extremely tight up around the case. If you run my breather setup, you will need a heat gun and some pipe to remold the left hand side for the drain back.
 
I'd be afraid of the plastic plate deflecting enough to brake the clutch cover. I run an aluminum one for this reason. I ride in a lot of rocks and do a lot of log crossings.
 
Cory and the guys always ran thick plastic, never broke the cases and they smashed that 310 through everything. Now, there's no skid plate over the cam gasket, so that's open game I guess...
I've only seen one 449 case broken and that was during Dakar 2011 where the water pump was broken even with that massive aluminum Dakar skid plate on.
 
I went ahead and ordered a Hyde. It came to around $125 shipped - not terrible IMO.

If it is not 0 degrees out, I will snap some pics of the install and finished job and coverage at multiple angles.
 
Tinken said:
Cory and the guys always ran thick plastic, never broke the cases and they smashed that 310 through everything. Now, there's no skid plate over the cam gasket, so that's open game I guess...
I've only seen one 449 case broken and that was during Dakar 2011 where the water pump was broken even with that massive aluminum Dakar skid plate on.
Click to expand...


As you know the 449/511 clutch cover sticks way out (not so on the 250/310) and this was my concern and why I went with the aluminum plate.
 
hp_sg_126_l.jpg
 
Unless I misunderstood - that pic from Hyde (above) is actually Cafe's own Tunp!

You guys must dip your bikes in Simple Green! Mine was dirtier than that by the time I got home from the dealer with < 1 mile on it!
 
I have a Hyde on my 511. I can tell you that the plastic is some sort of star trek inspired material. You could drive a truck over the plate and it wouldn't break. Probably wouldn't even flex much. I do wish the case covers part of it extended up a little further, though.

When mounting it the first time, loosely get the bolts in place, then heat the entire plate up good and hot then tighten the bolts and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Mine was so tight I had to do this procedure with some shims in between the sides of the frame/case and the plate. After that, mounting was much easier. Whereas originally I could place the plate under the bike and push up and the thing would just lift the bike up. The bottom of the plate never contacted the frame.
 
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