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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Is Jimmy Lewis (Dirt Rider) really that uninformed?

Last and final thought; DB AZ is correct in as much as J. Lewis does a lot of good things for the riding public, we don't have to agree with everything that is tested but should at least support the forum it's tested in. The young lady who was featured in the test already had a YZ125 so it's fairly obvious she is the ringer, and the other guy who knows what he thought he was so evasive. It's all marketing since the 70's, if you bought a bike made in Japan your life was in danger riding them but MXA and even Super Hunky was all about trying to sell you a 400 Suzuki that would not turn without crashing your brains out, it was Maico breako and CZ had bad carbs and so on and so on. Husky was premier as was Maico but not in the Mags the boys with the pen's did Japan's dirty work for them, to their shame, and it still exists today.. I like Jimmy and old Chilly thought's on things they have both the experience and the prejudices we all have, what i find as bulls---t are the absolute's that are placed with the Japanese brands with no questions asked. Here it is ; buy Jap bike then add money.................
 
I rode the mountains with two KTM's early this year. At the bottom of a particularly gnarley rock mountain climb, the one looked at me and said I was going to need some luck getting my Husky up there. He took off.

I wish he could have seen my smile as I rode past him halfway up.
 
Well gang; it would appear that Jimmy Lewis can walk the walk. As soon as we wipe the egg off our faces we can all watch the Video of his on the Dirt Rider sight. He did it the way it should be done, looked like the 125cc stars from back in the day. Damn right.:popcorn:
 
jsleeper said:
Did you guys see this? http://www.dirtrider.com/features/hangtown-motocross-mototrials-gopro-crossover-race-the-weekly-dirt-may-23-2012/

Wonder why Jimmy road a Husky if he does not like them. The video is pretty cool.

JS
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Jimmy likes huskys OK. He was the first I ever saw to write something positive in the press for them when he was with Cycle World and picked the TE450 as top DS in 07 maybe???. (I think thats how it went) BUT in general they get treated like second rate bikes by the mags. There is a lot of bad blood there to from husky popping on themselves with the mags and tests years ago. A falling out some might say. I have met Jimmy a few times, very nice dude, works hard great rider. It is what it is.
 
jwhuls said:
I rode the mountains with two KTM's early this year. At the bottom of a particularly gnarley rock mountain climb, the one looked at me and said I was going to need some luck getting my Husky up there. He took off.

I wish he could have seen my smile as I rode past him halfway up.
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I hope your roosted his a.., as you went by

That reminds me of when me & my brother were riding, he spun out (on a KTM of course) about half-way up this hill, and I made sure I ran over his back tire as I rode by. hahaha
 
I don't know nor do I hold a grudge against Jimmy Lewis. Dirt mags in general are all about marketing product for their sponsors rather than publishing researched journalism. Trials & Enduro News reminds me of how the mags used to be before they started pushing Monster energy drinks and 4t supercross bikes.
 
Husky seems to be pushing in the wrong direction. There are new dealers everywhere but without exposure people are still going to buy what they know or read about in the magazines. Husky needs to start throwing money/developement at their sponsored machines/riders, not in enduro but in MX because that what gets the exposure. If they start winning races the mags can't ignore them. Sure, they (the mags) will still be pushing the brands that advertise the most but people want to buy what they see on the podium.
 
mnb said:
biggest myth in the industry. If that were true, I'd never have bought a Husky. I could care less what wins. I buy bikes that suit my needs and I, like MANY people, don't race.
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Maybe you (and I) don't care who wins but there are tons of people who base their decision on exactly that. They want to ride what their hero rides.
That being (or not) the case, why DID you buy a Husky?
I bought mine because I got a great deal and have great memories (I got my first Husky at the age of 10 in 1974). If I could've gotten a comparable Honda or Yamaha at the same price I most likely would've gone that direction (mainly because parts are easy to get and you can ride the hell out of them right out of the box)
 
Indorider said:
there are tons of people who base their decision on exactly that. They want to ride what their hero rides.
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So people say. But I've never seen any actual proof of that theory. No one I know buys the bike their hero rides.

I bought a Husky because it was the only bike that suited my needs. And I bought the next one because I like the first one I bought (still have it), it has one of the lowest seat heights in the market and Husky makes a full line of plated bikes and I live in red/green sticker bullshitland. With a plate, I don't have to deal with that, although I do technically have to ride in the forests and dirt bike parks with my plate, lights and blinkers on. But I'm too lazy to take them off anyways.
 
Indorider said:
Maybe you (and I) don't care who wins but there are tons of people who base their decision on exactly that. They want to ride what their hero rides.
Click to expand...
I think that is mostly prevalent amongst the younger MX riders.

I remember back in the mid 70s, when the suspension, engine tuning etc. technology was really taking off. People began to drop the European brands like hot bricks. Even in 1973 there were more Suzuki TMs being raced than Euro brands, especially in the ever popular 125 class. Then the Elsinore and YZ came along, followed immediately by the RM. By that time, European bikes were almost unmarketable for motocross, Maico being the lone holdout. At least that seemed to be the way it was here in Southern California. Racers wanted what Tony DeStefano, Marty Smith and Bob Hannah were riding....and what the magazines were telling them was the hottest ride in town.

Husqvarna and Penton were still dominating in enduro and cross country events, but out in my neck of the woods (which was more like desert), the Japanese bikes ruled. It undoubtedly also helped that they cost quite a bit less than their European counterparts.
 
I wasn't saying it had NO effect on sales. But I don't think it's this HUGE driving force. It's just one aspect of many.
 
Just my 2 cents worth on why I'm buying a Husky and how I rediscovered the brand....

I started riding in 1969 as a nine year old... I would ride my brothers bike when he would let me use it... ( Not a lot) But I did ride .... In 1972 my dad bought me a brand new Yamaha Mini Enduro... I rode that with my dad and my brother in the Pine Barrens here in New Jersey in enduros and just plain fun in the woods.... From there I progressed into many different bikes but mostly Yamahas.... My dad rode everything it seemed in those days from Pentons, Puchs, Hodakas, BSA, Husky,Suzuki,Kawasaki,Bultaco you name it I think he rode one it seemed so I was exposed to a lot of different bikes... With that came the knowledge of how things ran and what was good and bad about a bike.... I continued to ride until the mid 80's and just stopped because I met my now wife and life just went in a different direction for me... My dad and my brother kept riding in the ECEA AMA sponsored enduros the whole time.... I had just lost interest. But I did ride and still ride an ATV that I own for many years, so I wasn't completely out of touch with it... In 2006 my dad passed away at 76 years old.... He was still riding up until that time in the Masters Class believe it or not and he was still pretty fast... His last bike was a 2003 KTM EXC 250 four stroke... My mom told me if I wanted the bike I could have it.... I took it and started to ride it but I realized real soon this bike was way out of my league... The bikes had changed radically since I had seriously ridden one..The KTM seat height and power intimidated the hell out of me... Which brought me to buying a slightly used Honda CRF230F from a local dealer here in NJ... I rode this thing and the KTM for about a year and a half and gained a lot of confidence in the process... I had worked on the Honda to and tried coax something out of it that it could not offer.... Handing and power it's a trail bike not a competition bike... I started to ride the KTM more and more and sold the Honda which had a new FMF power Core pipe and some other crap on it for the same money I paid for it...Not a bad deal in my book.... I rode and still ride some hare scrambles and I do a lot of woods riding here in the southern part of our state.. To ride in our state forests your bike has to be " Street Legal" ... My KTM which is a real good bike but it is showing it's age and it is pretty heavy in the woods so I decided it was time for an upgrade... I had wanted to buy another KTM but found out I really couldn't get what I wanted.. I wanted a bike like mine or one a bit smaller... KTM does not offer a street legal bike in the smaller class I was told by a few dealers... They do not import them... I saw the EXC 125 and was really wanting one but was told they are not available in the USA.... I was completely peeved about having to buy a much heavier and larger bike then I wanted.. I'm 5' 8" and weigh 150 and I'm real strong for my size but I wanted a smaller bike.. I was on a local Husky dealers web site and saw the WR 125 that was advertised as street legal..... That made me think why would Husky have one and KTM would not ?? Then it dawned on me that it was plain arrogance on KTM's part.... I asked a lot of questions about this bike and test rode one.... I'm buying one this week... I really wish that Husky would make it known that they are not even in the same league as those Honda CRF 230 and the Yamaha TTR thing when it comes to how they are set up and how they run and the fact you can not register one for plates... They need to do a better job telling people that they have bikes for every level of riding... I hope the group I ride with takes notice when I show up with my Husky.... They are stuck in the KTM mode because of the street legal thing and need to get out of it..
 
Jersey Woods said:
I hope the group I ride with takes notice when I show up with my Husky.... They are stuck in the KTM mode because of the street legal thing and need to get out of it..
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Trust me.....they will notice how much fun you are having.......BTW, what 2012 model KTM's are still street legal? I don't think many are. I picked up my 2012 WR125 just and only because it was street legal. I've been out of the "racing" scene for a while and have been having fun on my 07 TE450 street legal dirt bike, which as you said is a "must" in Jersey if you don't want to ride looking over your shoulder all day. When I saw the same site that you did with street legal 2 strokes I told the wife I "had" to have it! It was a no brainer! She just smiled and said "go get it"........
I did have a 2001 KTM 400EXC which was a great bike and I had it tagged.......but I like my Huskys better.
 
justplayin said:
Trust me.....they will notice how much fun you are having.......BTW, what 2012 model KTM's are still street legal? I don't think many are. I picked up my 2012 WR125 just and only because it was street legal. I've been out of the "racing" scene for a while and have been having fun on my 07 TE450 street legal dirt bike, which as you said is a "must" in Jersey if you don't want to ride looking over your shoulder all day. When I saw the same site that you did with street legal 2 strokes I told the wife I "had" to have it! It was a no brainer! She just smiled and said "go get it"........
I did have a 2001 KTM 400EXC which was a great bike and I had it tagged.......but I like my Huskys better.
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I think the EXC 350 is one of them.... From what the guys at Mt. Holly KTM told me there are only a few models available and they only import a few of them.... And as I said they were way bigger then what I wanted... I just could not convince myself to get a bike I really did not want... And as you said riding in the woods here is not something you wanna do here unless your stuff is right... The park rangers can take your bike if they catch you... That's a hassle I have no patience for... I do ride a lot of closed course stuff but I also ride in the state forest too....
 
125 huskys are not street legal in the USA. No 2 strokes over 50cc's are. Did I miss read what you said? In europe you can get a street legal 125 husky but it is a slightly different bike. Maybe you saw the euro site?
 
I believe it depends on each state, as long as the MSO doesn't state "for off-road use only" or "for racing only" some states will issue a tag.
 
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