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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

New to Huskies

Luke Ballard

Luke Ballard

Husqvarna
B Class
Just bought a 2011 TE 449 with only 450kms on it, like new. Very happy so far. Trawling through this site, lots of researching, learning and trying to get up to speed.

A couple of questions.

1. I find the bike to be incredibly hot to ride... As in temperature. I've burnt boots, pants and legs. It is a hot dry summer where I am, 42'c today, I know that makes it worse, but has anyone else had the same problems? Any advice?

2. Going to have to have to look at some heavier springs for shock and forks soon. At 130kg I think I'm a tad heavy for the bike and after only a couple of rides, I'm finding the limits pretty quickly. Where I ride is very hard pack, flat, fast and rough. Patches of deep sand and lots of erosion banks to leap up, off and over. I'm not a pro by any means, but my weight and my lack of skill / technique means I slam the bike fairly hard. Read heaps but really confused about what weight springs to go for. Also any tips on doing the fork and shocks springs myself?

Cheers,

Luke.
 
Question 1:
Isn't 130kg, 286 pounds? I'd say you're more than a "tad heavy", for the stock springs, but do you know if the previous owner changed the springs?
 
Yeah, ok... More than a tad heavy! The previous owner changed nothing from stock except for fitting the akrapovic exhaust and de restricting.
 
I'm 210# (95 k) and the stock spring are way too soft. Once I recover from spending quite a bit to get it running right, my next project will be sending the suspension off to have it professionally done.
 
On the subject of heat, it's not just from the exhaust either. The shock reservoir gets red hot, and both sides of the bike get pump out more heat than I've experienced on any other bike. I know there are some options out there for pipe heat guards, I'll get on to them ASAP.
 
I had to swap to engine ice after my first ride on my TC449. If I sat in the same spot for more than 2 mins it would start overheating. Seems like most people like engine ice or the dry coolant. R&D also has heat guards. I have been looking in to this as well (have have a few pipe burns on my legs from riding with shorts). I will probably be going with P3 though since they are starting to do some sweet color weaves. A red and black carbon weave would look sweet.
 
Luke Ballard said:
Another question, does anyone know where I can get bar raisers and bar pad for the 2011 TE 449 in Australia?
Click to expand...

You can get factory bar risers and bar pads from your Husky dealer. They're in the parts catalogue and pretty cheap.

Whereabouts in Oz are you? By the temperature I'd guess you're not in Melbourne...

Cheers
 
Luke call Stephane at R&D Husky (They were the original Husky importers and will give you great advise. Stephane is a top bloke. They are in Penrith NSW.
As for heat your shock is working overtime mate and need help with a heavier duty spring-see if you can get a progressive spring.
Same for your forks I am 120 Kg's and need them so you will too.
Engine heat is always apparent in these Summers of ours. You made no mention of boiling over so bike is not struggling. That said go for the engine ice coolant.
Also enquire about a pipe guard to protect your leg/boots/duds. Should have one but might be too small.
Where are you located BTW.
If in Sydney as well as R&D Husky, Trooper Lu's are also first class.
 
Hi guys, thanks heaps for the advice. I'm in Coonamble, Central NSW. It been a long hot and dry summer here and so the riding conditions have been really extreme, still 40'c at 6pm some afternoons. I've been drinking the 2litre camel back dry in an hour ride. so the heat issue is probably more noticeable. Still, some great tracks and with a new bike I won't let the heat stop me from riding. Just found the P3 exhuast heat shields online and they look really good think I'll get one ASAP. I'll definitely look at the engine ice too and the new springs will be the first job after the Xmas break. I know the shock is working hard, but I never thought the reservoir would be hot enough to burn through pants!
Really appreciate the help though guys, thanks again!
 
Has anyone attempted the fork and shock spring replacements themselves? Not much of a mechanic, however I will be under the watchful eye of my brother in law who is a mechanic, so hopefully between us we can do it ourselves?
 
Luke Ballard said:
Has anyone attempted the fork and shock spring replacements themselves? Not much of a mechanic, however I will be under the watchful eye of my brother in law who is a mechanic, so hopefully between us we can do it ourselves?
Click to expand...

The fork springs are very easy. The springs are attached to the fork caps so when you remove the cap you will see a nut that holds the spring in there. It's a easy task IMO. The rear spring is even easier. Did you download the shop manual yet? It has step by step instructions. Good luck, you can do it.
 
I have the basic manual, but there is nothing in there about replacing springs?
Is there a workshop manual that has more than the basics?
 
take ya 10 min to rip the front wheel off & brake caliper/forks, like 19 bolts or something! replace oil when you do springs, you'll notice the difference mate, maybe add a little extra oil to stop bottoming out. probably be full of sludge anyway so chance to check everything out & clean up
 
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