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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

SWM in the USA

As reported this past Wednesday in the 3/16 mid-week update at www.motocrossactoctionmag.com the new SWM importer,
Pete Vetrano did not make the trip to the SWM factory on last Monday. In stead he spent 2 days in "expensive care" at a local hospital due to a punctured lung. He was finally released late Wednesday, but he will have surgery before the end of the next week to pin his 2 piece collar bone to the terminal ends. Pete told me that he was headed to Glen Helen today to check in with his racing buddies.

Pete also told me that the RS300R and RS500R test bikes had arrived in Toronto on Friday and would be on the next available flight to LAX. They should arrive in Oak Hills after final customs clearance in the coming week.

Note in the following report that MXA did not mention SWM. They were not sure that it was no longer a secret.
...as per the MXA report........
"Motorcycle parts distributor and former TM, LEM, Vertematti and VOR importer Pete Vetrano was the innocent victim of a runaway bike at the bottom of Glen Helen’s Mt. Saint Helen downhill at the HYR 6-Hours of Glen Helen cross-country race on Sunday, March 13. Vetrano suffered a broke collarbone, shoulder blade, ribs and a concussion. He was scheduled to get on a plane the next morning to fly to Italy to meet with his suppliers—instead, he’s at home wincing in pain. Get well, soon.Motorcycle parts distributor and former TM, LEM, Vertematti and VOR importer Pete Vetrano was the innocent victim of a runaway bike at the bottom of Glen Helen’s Mt. Saint Helen downhill at the HYR 6-Hours of Glen Helen cross-country race on Sunday, March 13. Vetrano suffered a broke collarbone, shoulder blade, ribs and a concussion. He was scheduled to get on a plane the next morning to fly to Italy to meet with his suppliers—instead, he’s at home wincing in pain. Get well, soon"".
 
Wonder where the weight loss would have come from.

Have to say I'm actually really interest in a DS from them. Everything else is really pricey or heavy/old

I see they ditched the kick started but added a second exhaust can, maybe they ditched the lead acid battery for a lipo? Ditch the second exhaust can and the 300 could be in the 220-230 pound range. That would be awesome.
 
you can bank that the dual exhaust is taken from the previous SM models design parameters to keep noise way down in the DS/street spec limits while offering good flow.

the cool thing is......those aftermarket pipe seller guys may be selling old 4 stroke husky pipes that have been sitting on the shelf for a while. there will be a new husky 450/510 pipe and TE630 pipe market, with a new brand label on it.
 
It looks like the wheels on the SWM's are not the Takasago Excel rims we got on our Husqvarna's. They are natural/silver though which is a plus in my book.
 
Update (1)The RS300R and RS500R test bikes have been released from customs at LAX.
...however, Pete was unable to arrange for them to be picked up prior to this weekend , but they will be "in house" early next week.

Update(2) Pete's shoulder reconstruction surgery which was expected to be a 45min procedure turned into a 2.5+hr session as they found more splits and cracks in the pieces they were rejoining than the x-rays showed. Anyways he is home and recovering...and also planning his rescheduled trip to Italy in about 30 days.

Update (3) We will be doing the typical disassembly inspection prior to assembly for serious usage during which time we can gather more details on the pieces and parts. Dirt Bike magazine will have the first shot at a ride and test after break-in and tune in about 30 days. The two bikes will be trail ridden all over the high desert and certainly some laps all over the Glen Helen MX Park area in the mean time. Photos will be posted first on our Facebook page (SWM Motorcycles USA) when available.
 
Talked with Pete yesterday he's feeling much better at home on the mend.
Just bummed because the bikes are here and wants to ride them.
Going to postpone his trip to Italy for a month but things are moving forward.
Later George
 
Update 4/1/16
Neither bike is ready to ride at this point. Both bikes were delivered in EU spec with throttle stops limiting throttle opening to less than 1/2 throttle, removable quiet inserts in both mufflers, and a CD with instructions on how to convert to competition specs...LOL. Anyways, our part-time in house wrench was unable to work today to do more work on them and Pete still pretty much can't do anything. Lots of assembly was required to mount plastic and engine guards etc. The seat height is tall, they feel light for a 4T off-road bike 238# claimed wt without fuel. Oil capacity is 1800cc which is great . Ron Lawson editor of Dirt Bike magazine stopped by and looked the bikes over and liked what he saw. It appears that the new 300 is likely a de-stroked smaller bore version of the new 500 motor, both have 2 head pipes and twin exhausts. That's all for now.
 
the 300 looks to be the older "big" block 250/310 powerplant to me.....I guess I will know by the end of this week........ I had thought y'all brought in a 650 and a 500.....so its a 500 and a 300?
 
4/5/16 Report. Both bikes are running. The 300 is ready for testing to begin tomorrow. The 500 still needs the Magura oil/hydraulic clutch system bled, but it has been fired and ridden some for break-in. Both bikes have manual compression releases (?), but no k.s. option would make it's only foreseeable use as a help with a low battery or perhaps to bump start. We have fitted both bikes with Lithium-ion batteries since the o.e.m. gel(?) batteries could not be air shipped. We are currently dealing with the L-ion batteries being substantially smaller than the o.e.m. sized batteries, but no big deal. The 500 exhausts "quiet-inserts" have spark arrestors attached(b.t.w.,no sign of USFS approval). Anyways removing the inserts on the 500 made it VERY loud, so they have been reinstalled.
 
the 300 looks to be the older "big" block 250/310 powerplant to me.....I guess I will know by the end of this week........ I had thought y'all brought in a 650 and a 500.....so its a 500 and a 300?
We got what they shipped.....Actually happy to see the 300 as a last minute substitution....Supposedly the 500-650s should be the first units available for sale. These 2 bikes will have to be sold outside of the US, Mexico, and Canada according to our import certificate exemption. I think we have a buyer in Guatemala for them.
 
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