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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Why Husqvarna?

D

deacon66

Husqvarna
B Class
Hi everyone... newbie question, but here goes... background first.

I am an experienced road rider, NOT an experienced dirt rider. I want a reasonabley lightweight 250 dual purpose bike to ride some single track with lots of sand, rocks, mud, trees, etc... Have owned bigger bikes (KLR 650, XR650L) and find them way too cumbersome on tight technical stuff. I am an average rider (giving me more credit than due) who wants to simply have some fun in the dirt, not be a speed demon trying to win a race...

Question... with the above in mind, why would I spend the extra $ on the Husqvarna vs. a KLX 250? Obviously, the TE 250/310 are awesome bikes and I'm torn. I like buying the good stuff, but the price is significantly different. (looking to be talked into buying the Husky... can you tell?) HELP!
 
My personal opinion is that if at all possible, go for a test ride.

Everyones needs & desires are different... KLX250 might work great for you. I used to have a KLR250, and loathed that thing, mostly because of the suspension, it was quite old, and kick start only.
 
I know that the KLX250 feels a lot more heavy than my TE450 (and so does the Yamaha 250). The KLX250 is fairly gutless and awkwardly tall, and has mediocre suspension. I know that the TE250 has fairly snappy power, feels reasonably light and has decent suspension and handling. If I were going to have to pick a 250 for my trailbike, it would have to be the TE250.
 
Welcome.

TE250/310 -v- KLX250...

Weight, suspension, HP, handling,brakes, looks, etc. The husky is a much higher sped'ed bike, will be far faster, way better suspension way more performance. the husky wins at the top level of racing the KLX is a low performance trail bike. If you don't need those things and are just poking along at slow trail paces the KLX will be fine and maybe EZer to live with as it is slow (EZ to ride) low (EZ to ride) and take little upkeep (Slow and heavy). On the other hand if your riding is with other guys on full spec bikes you will have a horrible day trying to keep up on the KLX and hate it. it is all in what you will use it for and at what speeds.
 
Performance wise the TE has almost twice the power and handles much much better. You will find that you will be a better more confident rider on the TE. The KLX rides like a pogo stick and is power limited to the point where it will only lift the front wheel in 1st gear...not ideal for crossing logs and such. On the other hand the KLX is much lower maint than the TE.
 
Of course what internet sites where you can ask questions at may be a factor, you may like one more than another.. :)
 
I love my 2012 TE250. I had a Yamaha XT225 before this, the husky could run circles around it. If you are a shorter or smaller person you will like the husky. It is lightweight (I am a 120 lb. woman and I can pick it up easily) and the 2012 model is a factory lowered version so I can touch the ground with both feet. I did have to get a different rear spring since it comes set up for a 180 lb. rider. My husband was considering the KLX250 before he got his husky, he ended up going with the 2011 TE250 which is taller version.
 
About the second time you have to pick up the KLX you'll have it figured out.
Weighs almost the same as a KLR.
Beats me why all the Japanese 250 DS bikes have to weigh three hundred pounds, but they all do.
 
fasteer said:
About the second time you have to pick up the KLX you'll have it figured out.
Weighs almost the same as a KLR.
Beats me why all the Japanese 250 DS bikes have to weigh three hundred pounds, but they all do.
Click to expand...

I read one place on the web where it said the same engine had been use in one of the kawi enduro \ DS bikes since 1987 ... This could have been the larger than 250 models I was reading this about ...

Performance is what the Husky will deliver ... Both on the engine and suspension sides ... And if you don't ride the bike lots of miles, the maintenance costs of this steed will be greatly reduced to a point where it might not even be noticeable ...
 
Thanks everyone... really appreciate your feedback. Have my eyes on a TE250 at approx. $6,500 otd. The extra $ is less than I though when I posted this yesterday... $1,500 is not much considering the feedback received.
 
A new TE250 for $6500 OTD? That is an incredible value. In general, Husqvarna has nice touches.

At least my 2006 TE250 had allen bolts holding the float bowl on, my KLR250 had phillips which would obviously get the phillips heads messed up.
My 2006 TE250 also had a magnet on the oil drain plug, my KLR250 did not.
And I am not even going to mention the differences regarding suspension, wheels, swing arm...
 
The whole equation changed with the $6,500 price tag of the husky. KLX runs around $5K or so, WR250 runs north of $6K and the MSRP on Husky was around $8K. Now that the Husky price is more in line, the decision becomes much easier, IMHO. Both the KLX and WR250 wiegh in just under 300 pounds... 50+ lbs heavier than the Husky. That's the piece that makes a big difference in my feeble mind.
 
deacon, I was going through the same decision process a couple years ago.
If the Yamaha WR250R was 50# lighter I would be on one today.
 
The Yamaha despite it's weight is a very good bike and well liked. Still the husky makes twice the power, has way better suspension and higher end components everywhere... plus is weighs 50 less.
 
I have to agree with Motosportz. I had a WR250R when they first came out, good bike terrible stock suspension, heavy and way under powered. I put all the aftermarket hop ups on it, JD tuner, Pipe, Larger rear sprocket. It made it better but it isn't even in the same league as a TE in terms of handling and power, brakes, suspension, components. Not even close, of course the TE is a race bike and will take more care to keep it in tip top shape, but is worlds better in the performance category.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top