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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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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 Let's see pictures of your new FE501
- Thread starter reveille
- Start date
ptkatoomer
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Quite a step up from the 310! After you get some time on it, I'd like to hear an honest comparison between the two for the type of riding that you do........
reveille
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Thanks! I don't think so. At least not until I ride it in tight stuff a while. It doesn't need it, it's a freakin tractor man!
reveille
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Have a tall seat coming from Keytime motorsports, he actually had one on the shelf just waiting for me! My initial impressions are, the handling is similar to the 310 but the suspension is soft for my weight. Need to set sag first. I have the bike torn apart right now. Husaberg labels all over this thing...LOL
Norman Foley
Husqvarna
Pro Class
FE501 and Mathius Bellino win EWC Swedish GP, Day 2, E3 Class....
reveille
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Rode mine for a hour or so today. Wow, lot's of grunt. Dealer had tons of play in the throttle tube so it made it really hard when upshifting. After riding I pulled the tank and adjusted the play the way I like it(read the right way) and that helped smooth out the throttle. I moved the bars to the front hole, tightened the steering head a bit(steering was stupid light), set my sag and reset the clickers. Liking the setup so far but I can't wait to get a taller seat on this thing. I'm needing my Pivot pegz back too. Dealer had the rear brake set about 12mm above the peg level so I dropped it down about even but I will need to readjust once the Pivot Pegz show up. Pretty much a sub mount and the seat/pegs and I'll ride the crap out of it and see what else jumps out at me. A dampener is on the horizon because in a flash you're doing 60+, this thing is fast.
I can say this, I know I was resistant to the KTM take over and made some childish/negative comments early on, mainly regarding the price, but after wrenching on this bike for the past 3 hours I can honestly say that this bike is by far better engineered than my 310 was. Everything is easy to access and adjust with minimal frustration and the manual covers most items clearly. It took me 3 minutes or so to remove the tank, my 310 even after getting good at it took me 30 minutes of fiddling and puckering trying not to break something. This bike is just a step up in engineering and performance. It pains me to say that but it really is true. The 310 was and is an awesome bike so I'm definitely not dissing it but this thing is at another level. I'll be eating crow now
I can say this, I know I was resistant to the KTM take over and made some childish/negative comments early on, mainly regarding the price, but after wrenching on this bike for the past 3 hours I can honestly say that this bike is by far better engineered than my 310 was. Everything is easy to access and adjust with minimal frustration and the manual covers most items clearly. It took me 3 minutes or so to remove the tank, my 310 even after getting good at it took me 30 minutes of fiddling and puckering trying not to break something. This bike is just a step up in engineering and performance. It pains me to say that but it really is true. The 310 was and is an awesome bike so I'm definitely not dissing it but this thing is at another level. I'll be eating crow now
firecrotch
Husqvarna
Pro Class
This bike is on my short list as a replacement for my wr300. Main reason I went to two stroke from my ktm 525 was I got sick of adjusting or worrying about valves. Just easier to mix gas. My dealer told me an interesting fact. He got a bunch of valves for the husabergs(which I assume these bikes essentially are) and he's never had to replace any of them. The new generation of four strokes are supposedly indestructible for the average joe like me. Easy and or low maintenance will turn me back to a thumper rider for sure if all this is true. I am all about ease of maintenance as my free time is limited as is.
Mike-AK
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Dude...I was
Dude! I bought red hoses and a Rekluse so I could be like you. @#%$@%%!!!
I'll start out a new thread for posting pictures. Here's mine, picked it up today and sold my 2012 TE310 today. I'm over whelmed right now and trying to take it all in and process it. Guess my riding gear isn't going to match
Dude! I bought red hoses and a Rekluse so I could be like you. @#%$@%%!!!
reveille
Husqvarna
Pro Class
You got some catching up to do then
Mike-AK
Husqvarna
Pro Class
You got some catching up to do then
I can't afford you. How do you unfriend on Cafe Husky?
Awesome bike! I think you're the first cafe husky regular with a new 4stroke 
.
.FYI for anyone looking for a dual sport set up on the FE501. Had my dealer order the Sicass racing dual sport kit for the '14 Husqvarna FE models and add it on. I stopped by the shop today and it is absolutely the tits! He said it was truly plug & play,like they stated and it blends in perfectly with the lines of the bike and is as minimalistic as you could want. You get blinkers,horn,license plate bracket & brake light switch & switch gear. You are still able to retain the original light shut off that the FEs come with as well so when you're in the woods doing single track you can kill the lighting. Front blinkers mount to the fender brace as if they were part of a factory kit and it comes with flush mount rear style blinkers that are tucked in and not going to get melted by the muffler. It's really a great set up and I'll post some pics later this week when I pick up the bike.
reveille
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Nice. I installed the rear brake light actuator from Sicass and the plastic plate holder. That's all I needed to be street legal in this state. No turn signals required which is perfect for me since they wouldn't last long anyways. The brake actuator installs on the top of the rear brake master cylinder and replaces the banjo bolt. 5 minute install and it's a direct plug in under the seat. $35 and she's street legal. Awesome. Enjoy the bike.
Norman Foley
Husqvarna
Pro Class
Rode mine for a hour or so today. Wow, lot's of grunt. Dealer had tons of play in the throttle tube so it made it really hard when upshifting. After riding I pulled the tank and adjusted the play the way I like it(read the right way) and that helped smooth out the throttle. I moved the bars to the front hole, tightened the steering head a bit(steering was stupid light), set my sag and reset the clickers. Liking the setup so far but I can't wait to get a taller seat on this thing. I'm needing my Pivot pegz back too. Dealer had the rear brake set about 12mm above the peg level so I dropped it down about even but I will need to readjust once the Pivot Pegz show up. Pretty much a sub mount and the seat/pegs and I'll ride the crap out of it and see what else jumps out at me. A dampener is on the horizon because in a flash you're doing 60+, this thing is fast.
I can say this, I know I was resistant to the KTM take over and made some childish/negative comments early on, mainly regarding the price, but after wrenching on this bike for the past 3 hours I can honestly say that this bike is by far better engineered than my 310 was. Everything is easy to access and adjust with minimal frustration and the manual covers most items clearly. It took me 3 minutes or so to remove the tank, my 310 even after getting good at it took me 30 minutes of fiddling and puckering trying not to break something. This bike is just a step up in engineering and performance. It pains me to say that but it really is true. The 310 was and is an awesome bike so I'm definitely not dissing it but this thing is at another level. I'll be eating crow now
I'm going to honestly admit.... You were about the last CH guy, I expected to buy a white Husky. I spent a lot of years having negative feelings about KTM, but my '12 Husaberg TE250 changed that. Perfect? No, but a really good bike. Huskys will just keep getting better. I'll have a Husky TE250 at some point, because I prefer linkage to PDS. Enjoy that bike and keep the reports coming!
Yeah I hear ya. All the negative vibes because of the KTM lineage are just sour grapes as the new platforms if you look at them with an open mind are a step forward and will no doubt add stability to the marque for the next few years! No doubt the price reality will still sway some away but at the end of the day unfortunately the prices reflect the current true market values whether we agree with the pricing or not.
Buy one and ride it and work on it and I'm sure any negative feelings will quickly evaporate for most folks!
