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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Magazine reviews

ridemore

ridemore

Husqvarna
A Class
What is it with all the magazine reviews? They are so bias it's annoying. Husky could make the most awesome machine with the most power, lightest weight and best styling and still these posers will only point out that they don't like it because the exhaust is on the left side or the grips are too hard. REALLY? That's a wealth of information, thanks buddy. I'll never buy one now thanks to your obvious expertise and wisdom,,,,,Wait, who are you again, oh yeah, your nobody Mr. Dirt rider mag. dude. Collect your kick back from the Jap. companies and go practice riding, you need it.
 
Before buying my 2013 tc449 I rode as many other bikes as I could, all the jap mx bikes felt pretty much the same. They all handle good make plenty of power and all that stuff and I still purchased the TC449 without ever riding one. The magazines never have anything good to say about the Husqvarna, a local pro from my area did not like the bike, then we have Chilly White...........well anyway. I bought the bike and after just a few minutes I was at home on it and now I have just over 230 miles on it and it feels even better. It has a very different feel to the bike, it's hard to explain but the thing just works very good.

Anyway.....the magazines suck. I can't even read them, it just makes me angry.
 
I would imagine ktmrider's and ktmbike's attitudes will change when they start riding white ktm's. They will have nothing but good to say about them since they will need just as many things changed on them to make them run decent. I always figured that the mechanics were so frustrated with trying to get the ktm's setup for the shoot outs, that they ran out of time to make the small adjustments needed on the husky's.
:) :) :) :)
 
I picked up some dirt bike magazine off a store shelf maybe a ~decade ago ...Well over 50% of the pages were colorful, shiny advertisement pages ... That was about the about the last time I have even picked one of them up ...
 
Bomber1b said:
Before buying my 2013 tc449 I rode as many other bikes as I could, all the jap mx bikes felt pretty much the same. They all handle good make plenty of power and all that stuff and I still purchased the TC449 without ever riding one. The magazines never have anything good to say about the Husqvarna, a local pro from my area did not like the bike, then we have Chilly White...........well anyway. I bought the bike and after just a few minutes I was at home on it and now I have just over 230 miles on it and it feels even better. It has a very different feel to the bike, it's hard to explain but the thing just works very good.

Anyway.....the magazines suck. I can't even read them, it just makes me angry.
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Go check Chilly's site for a review on the TC449. He actually loved that bike on the Husky test ride day calling it his favorite which was unexpected even by him. I can't remember but it was the TE or TXC he hated. Being honest, I can see where those bikes can be frustrating out of the box for someone that hasn't searched for every bit of information.

Back to the topic,I'll always be one of those people that buys all the magazines. It's entertainment. I enjoy reading about bikes even if I laugh a little about the review. Even the mag with the TC449 review hated it for MX but said it would be an offroad weapon. I read them trashing it over and over, still a great read because it was about one of my favorite bikes. I'm not going to lie, just pictures of it in print is cool to see.

I think it's a real shame that someone like Clay Stuckey who is the US distributor for Sherco and used to do the same for GasGas feels he can't give a Sherco to the mags for testing. I've seen talk about how they trashed GasGas so bad that it hurt his business. I read the review, they made it sound not even remotely competitive which isn't true with any modern bike. I don't understand why it was written like that when your hurting a guy that gives the US market more choices. Even if they suck, I like options.

Also, if the big issues in the test you read are the grips are to hard and the exhaust is on the wrong side, it's validation that you've bought a damn good bike.
 
The brit and australian mags do a WAY better job and are WAY more honest and correct. I have met some of the people at the mags and they are about as biased as they come IMHO. In this global world we can pick and choose our input and we have forums not to get real info. No longer do we only have one source of info and opinion. Case and point is the husky 125 probably sold 5x or more what it would have here in the US if it was not for this site alone. Power to the people.
 
Motosportz said:
The brit and australian mags do a WAY better job and are WAY more honest and correct. I have met some of the people at the mags and they are about as biased as they come IMHO. In this global world we can pick and choose our input and we have forums not to get real info. No longer do we only have one source of info and opinion. Case and point is the husky 125 probably sold 5x or more what it would have here in the US if it was not for this site alone. Power to the people.
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How many 2013 Husky 125's are there in the US? (I used 2013 because that year was unaffected by the KTM buyout)
 
I wish Dirt Rider and Dirt Bike Magazine the best of luck in the future. There is hardly any literature in either of these magazines. These editors should be ashamed with how few words there are in these publications. I enjoy pictures and dyno pics just as much as every rider out there, however I would bet that there are more words in the editorial than in the rest of the magazine. I would guess a total of 700 words. SAD indeed. I love Racer X though
 
columbia510 said:
I wish Dirt Rider and Dirt Bike Magazine the best of luck in the future. There is hardly any literature in either of these magazines. These editors should be ashamed with how few words there are in these publications. I enjoy pictures and dyno pics just as much as every rider out there, however I would bet that there are more words in the editorial than in the rest of the magazine. I would guess a total of 700 words. SAD indeed. I love Racer X though
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Old dirt rags ruled in that regard. Long tests in multiple areas, upgrade info, dyno runs, real weight, even gear ratios and other detailed info, etc. Love those old mags and they were full of all brands. They need to get back to that.
 
They need to make money to survive. When ads overtake the pages, it's usually a sign the mag doesn't have long to live. Once circulation starts to drop, all the ads in the world won't save them.
 
Motosportz said:
The brit and australian mags do a WAY better job and are WAY more honest and correct. I have met some of the people at the mags and they are about as biased as they come IMHO. In this global world we can pick and choose our input and we have forums not to get real info. No longer do we only have one source of info and opinion. Case and point is the husky 125 probably sold 5x or more what it would have here in the US if it was not for this site alone. Power to the people.
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I have to agree, all in all I am a trail rider. I have a TE511 and love it. I bought it because I love the styling.the Italians build passion. I think most bikes ride the same. It seems today mags just keep pushing the same thing. Can't really blame them I guess.. All I know is I come here to find out about my bike.. no mag needed for me..
 
Dirt Bike hasn't been the same since Super Hunky left. Just my .02. All the mags rave about the "New Huskys" now, they are in every months issue.
 
The July 2011 issue of MXA tested the 2011 TC449 and it was very positive in all aspects. They even stated that the bike is the most hooked up bike they had ever ridden. I went from a 2012 RMZ450 to a 2013 TC449 and couldn't be happier! The bike is a little odd at first but once I settled into it I became very comfortable. I was able to ride my old RMZ back to back with my TC449. I was very happy with the outcome as I felt more comfortable on my Husky.
 
I remember reading article s that help me know the issues with the bike I was riding. Set up tips from trail riders, servicing tips.... I used to read Dirt Bike Magazine.. and yes I loved reading super hunk and his adventures.. I opens mags now and can't get past the adds... Maybe I'm just getting too old to see it anymore... Any whooo I'm going riding on my lovely Italian stallion designed by Germans, made in China..****************************************!!
 
dmx153 said:
The July 2011 issue of MXA tested the 2011 TC449 and it was very positive in all aspects. They even stated that the bike is the most hooked up bike they had ever ridden. I went from a 2012 RMZ450 to a 2013 TC449 and couldn't be happier! The bike is a little odd at first but once I settled into it I became very comfortable. I was able to ride my old RMZ back to back with my TC449. I was very happy with the outcome as I felt more comfortable on my Husky.
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Can you give more info on the rmz vs tc449? Seriously considering a 449 here for moto only use.
 
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