• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Austria - About 2014 & Newer
     FE = 4st Enduro & FC = 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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!

FE/FC Rode an FE350...

Motosportz

Motosportz

CH Sponsor
Staff member
I ran into friend and CH member Russ at a staging area. He has a new FE350. Completely stock. He was done riding for the day and we were just heading back in from our 63 miles day in the high mountain single track. I asked him if i could take it for a quick rip and did so. Thanks Russ. Anyway, overall impressions are it is a very nice bike. Felt immediately comfortable on it. I just hopped off my very good running 02 CR250 husky. the 350 seemed down on power in comparison but like every 350 KTM I have ridden it needs a little encouragement to go. My 250 had a lot more bottom end and overall power. But the 350 runs very nice, pulls smooth and clean and is a nice motor. The handling was very good. I typically don't love KTM handling but this bike feels light and flickable. Was real neutral but quick steering. Completely stock suspension felt very good for me. Ergonomics felt good. Clutch and clutch lever felt great. Overall thought it was a very nice bike, very EZ to ride, had no gripes, no issues. Russ loves it and I can see why, very nice bike. I ride lots of KTM350's as a few of my friends have them. This one is my favorite of the bunch so far. Very nicely done husky / KTM
 
I made the mistake of riding this bike a couple weekends ago too. Now cant stop thinking about getting a 500 next spring. I was blown away with the buttery smooth shifting and the pinky light pull of the clutch. The seat was still a little hard for my taste but no big. I definitely felt light and flickable. I have wanted some kind of big thumper as a duel sport /occasional trail bike and the 500 is on my radar for next year for sure
 
Several people I've talked to that have ridden this bike say similar things, the main jist I get is that it's a KTM that handles differently than most KTM's lol.
I love mine with the exhaust and fuel remap it's no slouch and would put it shy of my 300 in power everywhere but the torque, traction, and handling make up for anything I may have lost in the power department. Its honestly the best woods bike I could ask for.
Waiting on ignition map switch right now which will give me even more snap at the flick of a switch, can't wait!
 
Finally had a chance to get my FE350 out for some good trail work and I gotta say there's nothing I don't like about it. Power is smooth yet very responsive and it runs flawlessly from idle to the red line! Ergos,suspension and handling is fantastic and it feels nice and light and flickable. Overall I'd say it's a great platform and it elevates the brand to a whole new level.
I had a 2014 KTM 350EXC-F and have ridden some other other 350s so I have some experience with that platform and I'd say this is my favorite and I couldn't be happier with the purchase!
For anyone on the fence my advice is do yourself a favor and go for it!
 
seriously thinking about going from my 310 to a new 350. just wish they weren't so bloody expensive!
 
I owned a 13 ktm 300 and couldn't wait to get rid of it, hated everything about it, especially the suspension, ergos and 2t motor, I can jump on any jap and feel comfy instantly, not ktm.
Bought from a friend and no doubt their a great bike, just not for me.
These look good but mist have similar ergos, the motor however in the 350 is a peach !
I've ridden my mates 350 freeride and it was absolutely brilliant.
 
rabskyline said:
I owned a 13 ktm 300 and couldn't wait to get rid of it, hated everything about it, especially the suspension, ergos and 2t motor, I can jump on any jap and feel comfy instantly, not ktm.
Bought from a friend and no doubt their a great bike, just not for me.
These look good but mist have similar ergos, the motor however in the 350 is a peach !
I've ridden my mates 350 freeride and it was absolutely brilliant.
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If you get a chance to toss a leg over the FE350 do it, it might surprise you. I don't love the KTM euronomics, feel, handling and PDS either but this bike just feels right. Real neutral, no PDS funkyness, nice suspension, sweet clutch, nice motor. The only thing the I wished for was more power. Felt kinda weak after my 02 CR250 husky which has a strong motor.
 
Got to take my 350 out today, do you guys find the steering very light, almost too light and therefore twitchy?
 
Motosportz said:
If you get a chance to toss a leg over the FE350 do it, it might surprise you. I don't love the KTM euronomics, feel, handling and PDS either but this bike just feels right. Real neutral, no PDS funkyness, nice suspension, sweet clutch, nice motor. The only thing the I wished for was more power. Felt kinda weak after my 02 CR250 husky which has a strong motor.
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I'm sure you can do a few mods to get more "FC" like power out of it. East Coast woods racers are going nuts for the '14 KTM 350SX-F. They must have improved it, because the last time around, when the 350SX-F first came out..... people bought them like hot cakes and then didn't like them too well as woods bikes.
 
Running 100mm sag which is what book recommended and have no complaints. Sprung for my weight and stock valving has been good gets better the fast I go...

Did FMF exhaust, Australian fuel map, and just installed the timing map switch. Power is way better than stock 350 xc-w from bottom to top.
 
I was amazed at how good the stock suspension worked. I just massaged the clickers and was really happy with the performance in both the high speed desert and slower rocky rooty single track. I wiegh considerably more than the specs for the stock springs. When we checked the sag is was right a 100mm.

What difference did the map switch make ?
 
I'll know a little more about the map switch after the weekend here but just putting around the yard the aggressive map felt like I had better throttle response and maybe quicker reving. Will have a better feel after a chance to get some ride time in.
 
bowser said:
Got to take my 350 out today, do you guys find the steering very light, almost too light and therefore twitchy?
Click to expand...
Yes the steering is light feeling but after a few miles I didn't even notice it anymore. Mine tracks straight as an arrow and no head shake or anything of the like and my riding consist of nothing but sand and some of it is rather loose and deep.
 
I removed my scotts damper today, dropped the forks to almost flush, tightened up the steering nut and removed the spring to swap for the next size heavier as static sag wasn't quiet correct when rider sag was set. Going to order a JD tuner as soon as I can source a RMATV code.

One thing that surprised me was how easy the bike was to mono, I can't normally mono but found and maintained the balance point pretty easy on the 350
 
bowser said:
I removed my scotts damper today, dropped the forks to almost flush, tightened up the steering nut and removed the spring to swap for the next size heavier as static sag wasn't quiet correct when rider sag was set. Going to order a JD tuner as soon as I can source a RMATV code.

One thing that surprised me was how easy the bike was to mono, I can't normally mono but found and maintained the balance point pretty easy on the 350
Click to expand...
4t for the win bowser ;)
 
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