• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Scotts Damper for Vintage / Great Company

HuskyT

Moderator
Staff member
Note: this post is also in my restoration thread. Just thought it should be over here for anyone that may be looking at dampers.

I have seen a lot of bar mounts. I wanted something different and unique for my Hybrid Restoration. I have been extremely happy with my Scotts mount for my modern TC450 so I started looking all over the net for bar mounts. Reading all the stuff that you guys have done in here. Wanting fat bar mounts but also remembering how harsh the old bikes were ... so that got me thinking...

I called Steve at Scotts Performance in Montrose, California. He rode Husky's back in the day and owned 250's 390's, 430's and 500's from 1979 thru 1984. Together him and Eric (also at Scotts) went on a mission to create a unique and as far as I know, "one of a kind" set up for me. I'm using CR500 Husky Forks and triples off of a 1983 CR500 Husky on my 1980 CR390 Hybrid. Steve did all the math as he was familiar with the old angled bar mounts on Husky's. He also had rode and seriously raced Husky's back in the day. He knew where the bar mounts should be to make the bike turn and the height to put them at based on my size ( 6ft). Eric asked me to ship him my top triple so that they could actually work on it there at Scotts! Two days later, this is what they both came up with. Scotts one piece 85 MM top damper mount for fat bars. 29mm rise lowers. New bolts all the way around.They even gave me free shipping!

I have never had less than exemplary service from Scotts. This time they went above and beyond. Damper is perfectly centered on the steering stem.

I custom polished my top triple and love the way it shines and contrasts with the other parts now. I have NOS new Cagiva mounting rubber for when the bike gets assembled as well as new 8mm x 35mm 316 SST socket head cap screws for the triple.

Here are some Pics:

Overall view before assembly:
OverallView.jpg


11 O'clock view:
11OclockView.jpg


Quarter angle view:
1Oclockview.jpg


Rear View:
RearView.jpg


Scotts View:
ScottsView.jpg


Next Up Pro Taper EVO Windham bars!

T
 
Do you have photos of the complete installation. I am thinking of trying to add one of these to 1970 Husky. Trying to figure out how to do it.

Rob
 
artracing;69477 said:
Do you have photos of the complete installation. I am thinking of trying to add one of these to 1970 Husky. Trying to figure out how to do it.

Rob

Rob,

You will have to have a weld on post tower onto the frame. You need at least 40 MM from the center line of your stem to the post mount itself. I'm pretty sure you will have that kind of room if not more. Do this fit up and welding before your frame is blasted and powdered.

I'm using an 854025 top clamp on mine. What is the spacing between the bar mounts CL to CL on a 1970? 85MM?

Depending upon the fork tube height in the triple you will probably want a riser bar mount of at least 29mm to allow tube height adjustment. Whoever is CNC'ing your top triple should be able to make you a one off top damper mount.

T
 
I found this old thread and was hoping you could tell me what the part number for the weld on stud mount is? I am working on adding a damper to my '83 250xc
Thanks,
Wade
 
Other than for mechanical amusement, why would you put a steering damper on an old Husky?
Husqvarnas in general are some of the most stable dirt bikes ever made. In particular, your '83 XC has the wheelbase, rake and trail to make it run straight and solid, no matter what speed or terrain. Of the dozens of Huskys I've ridden/raced over the years, not one has EVER had any headshake whatsoever. While the other riders were shaking and backing off the throttle for fear, Husky riders could pin it and take a hand of the bars to wave.
 
I agree that they are more stable than most, but I experienced some head shake at the end of a high speed run (at the incredible speeds that I ride, it happens, more likely the noodle arms! LOL!!), also like the secure feeling it provides in the rocks.
 
If I recall correctly the weld on stud thing comes long and you cut it down as needed. Did you see a bunch of choices for the weld on one? I got one that looks just like that and made it work for an application they only showed bolt on. Sure the bolt on ones have many choices. I most likely have made this comment before, note the rubber mount on the above application, probably not ideal.
 
Holy crap that's awesome! Cool idea, but also amazing service by those guys. I have a stock CRF450 damper I was going to try and mate up to my '76 MR250 Elsinore. Just for experimentation, if it helps, awesome, if not...no big deal. In the rocky stuff my front end gets whipped all over the place, so I was hoping it would help calm that down. At the ISDT at Zink's ranch, I had a hell of a time dealing with the rocks.
 
very cool and if you feel you need it go for it! i do not understand a steering damper on a swede though..
will still be very interesting to see pics and hear how it turns out! haha, turns out...(crickets)
 
I agree, a Swedish Husky is the last bike I would want to put a damper on. I can think of a lot of things I could better spend $500-600 on than a steering damper.
 
I agree that these Swedish Husqvarnas don't NEED a damper,but this project is more about having parts laying around from years past and seeing what it would take to mount up my old damper. Scott's is saying that the top mount PN 904020($65) would work when using the Pro Taper universal mounts, along with the weld on stud PN FBD-4551-00 ($40).....the stud is to be located 45 MM from the damper centerline.
I'm going to look into adapting a collar type stud mount to the steering head, if that doesn't work, then I will try to create a bolt on stud by bending heavy strap over the frame tube then bolting through the frame...this way the stud can be removed and would not be permanent. For the record, a WER damper would be easier to mount up, but I don't have one.......... Feel free to shoot holes through the design ideas and add any ideas or comments.... Feel free to heckle as well LOL!
W
 
Disclaimer:
Scott's gave me the top mount PN based on my measurements! I have not completed the install yet and will report any issues that I encounter along the way, so don't run out and buy anything just yet.
W
 
If anyone is interested, here is a list of parts I used to complete the installation:

Scotts 1 1/8 top clamp PN 904020 ($65) (ebay=$10)
ProTaper Universal Rubber Mount Kit - 02-2822A ($30)
Post from existing clamp, cut off and welded to 1 1/4 strap bracket
If prefered, Scotts weld on stud - PN FBD-4551-00 ($40)
 
One last item I forgot, had to have the metal sleeves that run through the rubber handle bar insulators machined a couple thousandth's for the pro taper bolts to pass through. ($20)
 
I fitted one of these to the 82 250 XC that You see in the picture. I convinced myself that I needed it for the Desert 100 a Desert Race we have in Eastern Washington State the 1st weekend in April. I found myself turning the dampening all the way down and wish I could turn it down further. I read in one of the Magazines that Steering Dampeners are considered one of the top 10 best things to be used on Dirt Bikes in the last 25 years. But when You think of it, were invented just after the transition from out door MX to Supercross. Bikes weren't built for high speeds they were made for cornering. Bikes that corner well work well in the woods so they had most of the sales covered. I ended up removing the Dampener and installing it on my 01 KTM 380 now that's a bike that can be scary at speed.
 
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