• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

I'm trying to remember....

dmrogers

dmrogers

Husqvarna
AA Class
Seems like I read somewhere in the last couple of years that when Honda was trying to put together a competitive open class bike (I think it was around 1980-81), that they used the Husqvarna CR as a model. The post (or article) pointed out several similarities between the two.

(I used to own a 1983 Husky 250CR. I loved that bike and wish I had another one. They were so well built and beautiful bikes. It came with the metal tank and also had the plastic tank and updated plastic too. For years, I've toyed with the idea of finding another one as a toy when I retire).

Anywhoo, I can't remember where I read that and wonder if you knowledgable folks could shed some light on whether there is any truth to it. So, if you have any information pertaining to this, I would appreciate reading about it.

Thanks in advance,
Dave
 
Not sure about the XC500 but I believe all of the Japanese manufacturers bought '81 Maico 490's to study and Honda seemed to take more from it than the other three, seems legit that they would do the same with the 500 Husky.
 
Yes, It's a good possibility as the Honda CR450 & 480 had left side kickers, like the Husky, but everybody copies everyone, as soon as someone gets a good idea..

honda cr450 1981.jpg

honda cr480 198.jpg
 
looks like a cagiva..or a cagiva looks like it..
i doubt anyone copied anything from a husqvarna during the 80s
 
I remember that story but I dont buy it, the "personality" of the Hondas is nothing like a Maico or Husky, also, that engine was based off of 4-5 years of 500cc GP Honda works bikes.
 
street2dirt said:
The test article I remember was along the lines of the frame geometry on the Honda being a copy of the Husky.
Click to expand...
You are correct, but it was the 250, not the 500. Honda's 1978 CR250 "red rocket" was a Japanese copy of the Husky of that era. Single front down tube twin shock chassis with 17 1/2" cantalevered shocks, 11" of suspension travel, drive chain and rear brake on rt. side of bike w/ left side kickstarter, straight cut gears in trans, aluminum "peanut" style fuel tank and the comparisons go on.

The 1978 and '79 Honda red rockets feel very similar to a Husky. They are very stable at speed and turned just "ok". The dreaded Honda head shake did not start until the single shock Hondas came out in the early 1980's.
 
I read numerous times Honda used Maico as the guide line. The '81 Maico has a cult following but the MXA Euro 500 Shootout from then has it #1 Husky 430 #2 Maico 490 #3 KTM 495

Having owned/raced several Maico 490 I can say they're like dating a super model....fun to ride but a pita
 
My '79 Honda 250 feels nothing like my Huskys. Any technical similarities are a coincidence I think, and if there was any crossover it probably went the other way since the works bike Honda had in '77 was just like the '78 production bike and was far more advanced than the Husky factory bike in '77.
 
Jap's are and have been master minds at copying other patents for decades. My opinion is they did infringe on other patents but this is difficult to prove from country to country. Now China is doing it to Japan... Pay back is a bitch.:)
 
The 1976 RC Honda works bike were more a Honda translation of Heiki Mikkola's GP Husqvarnas. They copied not only the engine layout but the frame structure as well. The ML frame was the first frame engineered around long travel rear suspension and also drawing the benefit that the Tilkens design brought to the Yamaha monoshock. That was the backbone of the frame that transferred force to the steering neck making the front wheel bite more securely in corners
 
I'm going to have to disagree, this is not a knock on Husqvarna, but the 1976 RC Hondas were nothing like Mikkola's Husky, the rear suspension was totally different and any similarities in the engine were superficial at best. Then there was the huge leap to the '77 RC Type II which was pretty much sold to the public in '78 as the CR250R, again nothing like the Husky of that year.
 
I have been restoring a collection of open class early 80's mx bikes. I can say that having my 1981 Honda 450 sitting next to my 1981 Maico is like a night and day difference. Maico with its ruff cast primary chain dinosaur motor from the 60's and then having a well detailed bike with an aluminum swing arm single shock. In many ways the Honda doesn't look all that different than a modern bike of today. Only problem was the Honda 450 made Super Hunky's 10 worst bikes ever made list and well we all know what the 81 Maico is remembered as. The Honda had harsh suspension and a 250 power band coupled to a wide ration 4 speed trans.
 
I should have said 1976 RC 125 & 250 Type 2 and Pierre Karsmakers had an RC Type 2 Open class that was the fastest in the first GP that Pierre rode it in that year. The 1976 RC you referred to were based on the 1975 RC and was used until the RC Type 2 was released to US national riders mid season. I am not an advocate of the preproduction replica that came out for 1978 and certainly not for the ill fated CR450
 
I have most all of these tests and not any of them mentions Husky to Honda has been copied.

Others did copy the Maico engine. For example the piston in my 490 Maico is make by Wiseco for the Suzuki. So
port timing and transfers are about the same.

Two articles have 81 Husky 430CR either rated as best of the year or favorite bike to ride in test.

Owning a Maico - I can say starting is just hell alone.
It just sits in my garage.
 
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