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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Improving my lowered suspension

TE 250 Girl

TE 250 Girl

Husqvarna
A Class
I love my 07 TE 250!! I wont trade it for any other bike!! :) When I moved up to a full sized bike my only criteria was that I would be able to touch firmly, with both feet. Im 5'1".

So, we had it lowerd 4", and cut 1 1/2 inches out of the seat. This is perfect!

I rode our friends 2011 KTM 250 Two stroke (Yuk!! my feet fell asleep in 3 minutes from the vibration!) and the non-altered suspension was beautiful! WOW!

Is there any way to keep my bike this low, but make the suspension more plush? My boyfriend says no? But, I thought I'd ask here.

Any ideas would be great!!

Thanks
 
Somebody who specializes in revalving might be able to help. Maybe Drew Smith or LT Racing.
 
Dirtdame said:
Somebody who specializes in revalving might be able to help. Maybe Drew Smith or LT Racing.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dirtdame! Yes, after the first lowering it was pretty stiff. So we sent it to a guy over on the west side. But he said if he made it any softer that the tires would hit the fenders too easily, or something to that effect. :confused:. He did something to the oil level in the front forks and called it good. :mad: I was mad because i got a big "I told you so".

So I guess he's right . . . . .?:rolleyes:
 
TE 250 Girl said:
But he said if he made it any softer that the tires would hit the fenders too easily, or something to that effect. :confused:.
Click to expand...
Travel is travel. If the bike were set up properly, it would use all of it's travel up before bottoming. If it had to use the fenders to bottom out, then it isn't right. If it has to set up too stiff to keep it from hitting the fenders, that doesn't sound right either. Sounds more like a botched lowering job to me, or somebody didn't properly explain it to you about what would happen to the suspension if they lowered it that much. Either way, this isn't good.

My suspension tuner explains lots of things to me when I go in for any modifications. He wants the best results for my needs. He has years and years of experience in his field. If I ever wanted the suspension lowered (which, so far I don't), I am sure he would tell me if there were any drawbacks, or explain what would need to be done to the valving to get it to match the altered lever ratio of the rear end.
 
TE 250 Girl said:
Thanks Dirtdame! Yes, after the first lowering it was pretty stiff. So we sent it to a guy over on the west side. But he said if he made it any softer that the tires would hit the fenders too easily, or something to that effect. :confused:. He did something to the oil level in the front forks and called it good. :mad: I was mad because i got a big "I told you so".

So I guess he's right . . . . .?:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Better than

GROW UP....;)
 
Crap:thinking:

No, your right, it was explained to me that lowering it this much it would have to ride stiff. I just thought that with all this technology there could be a way to make it ride nice, but still be low.

Its funny, I didnt know any better until I rode another full sized bike!
 
One clue I got about this was watching the start line at the Mammoth Motocross. Some really short riders had a box sitting next to them at the start.....not lowered suspensions. That and my dealer sort of backing that up saying it's a compromise, even the seat in a sense.
 
i would call zip-ty racng, they have worked with the zokes factory, factory people stayed for several weeks, teaching the gang out at ty's place..... they have learned how to do zokes right. that's who i would go to. IMHO..
 
When they cut springs they become stiffer. If they didn't cut them....Wow!

When they space the damper rods to make them shorter the dampning becomes stiffer.

Did you try lighter springs and maybe super light fork oil like Yamaha 01?
 
I was able to make my suspension feel more plush and bottom out less than stock by changing the valving. My suspension isn't lowered, but the principles are the same. A good tuner should be able to make the same sort of changes to yours. For example, the part of my shock that sets the harshness is now half as stiff as it was when it is stock, even though I'm a lot heavier than the average rider. You would probably want that part set up similar to mine or even softer; it would be stiffer because of your shorter suspension, but you weigh a lot less than I do.

I do my own work and could help if you want to do it yourself. If you want it done for you, talk to Alex at Konflict Motorsports in Redmond. He's a very good tuner who mostly does modern bikes, but also did a really good job setting up a vintage bike that had really short suspension.

And I agree with R-Little, replacing the fluid with the lightest fluid you can find will probably help a fair bit and is relatively easy to do. Setting the low speed compression adjusters to their soft settings on both the front and rear may help a little too.
 
They are the softest springs available. The adjustments are screwed all the way to soft, on the top and bottom of the forks. The rear shock too.

So i will have him change the oil in the forks to the lightest oil available. Im assuming "light" means thin? I want to buy it myself, so what "weight" should I get? I dont HAVE to go to Taskeys I dont think. Oil is oil?

Engine oil comes in 10W 50 ect. This oil comes in the same way? So whats super light?

Thanks so much! And I promise this was my last question on this topic :)
 
Here's what I would do. Call Les at LT Racing and ask him what oil is the lightest available. What's on the bottle, 2.5 wt. or whatever may not tell the true story. Don't have his number or email handy but it should be available on his site.

Thin oil is a good option to try and help your situation out.
 
Suspension oils have viscositiy numbers too, like motor oil, but they aren't very accurate across different manufactures. The big chart halfway down this page has the oils arranged by actual viscosity: http://www.peterverdone.com/archive/lowspeed.htm . I'd suggest buying something from the top of the chart. Or just get something that calls itself 2.5wt. Yes, light means thin, or low viscosity.

The softest springs may not be right for you. Have you checked your sag on the front and back of the bike? Vinduro's suspension setup post is a good one to read. http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/vinduros-suspension-setup-recommendations.17836/

If the suspension tends to sit in the wrong part of the stroke it will feel wrong. For example: if the spring is way too soft and letting you bottom out on everything, it will actually feel harsh. A stiffer spring will bottom less and therefore feel softer.

One last thing to check is the alignment of the forks. If they are twisted or pinched they will stick and feel harsh.
 
Not all 5wt oils are the same weight.!??

Yamaha 01 oil is expensive but very light...it may do the trick...run it at a 120mm level.
 
Perfect! Thanks guys!! Lighter oil will be changed tomorrow night! Then, camping and riding this weekend. I will tell you what kind of difference it makes, pictures too of our weekend :thumbsup:

That Emu is creepy :)
 
Was the rear lowered properly or did you use one of those lowering links,they stuff up the rising rate curve.If it was lowered properly you will loose travel,4inches is a lot.Setting it up to be plush with less travel would take more work than some might like,work= time = money.
 
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