Hello all, new to the forum, new to Husky's and new to off road riding! I bought my first dirt bike about 6 months ago after 9 years and 150,000km of road riding. I had wanted one for ages but had no one to ride with. A recent promotion and change of office fixed that and now I have a 2013 TE449 keeping my Fireblade company in the garage. So far I love the bike (but really I have nothing to compare it to). Im on race map 2 with the stock Akra at the moment but im looking to do some upgrades soon when my bank account permits. I had the suspension done to suit my weight (85kgs) and that made a big improvement to the bike. I had the forks revalved and the shock resprung. It doesn't seem to wear me out as much now. This might be a good place to mention that im a smoker and quite unfit, but the Husky is slowly beating me into shape. When I first got the bike I changed the gearing before I had even ridden it, 15x51 seemed too tall for a dirt bike...bearing in mind that this is a road legal trail bike. So I changed to 14x51. For me, that combination sucked, it was like having 2 first gears. So I went to 15x53 and after a couple of rides with this setup it seems much better. Having said that I wonder if the stock gearing was fine to begin with because the bike seems quite brutal down low, or maybe its just that im soft and not used to dirt bikes. Then again it could be due to the poor fuelling down low that everyone talks about. The power just seems to come on like a switch and by the end of the day im struggling to hold onto the bike. Given the above, it might seem strange that im looking to do power ups... I cant help myself, im a tinkerer. If I know something can be made better I have to do it. Ill probably end up going for the full TI Akra, the 2012 TC airbox and race map 3. Im still tossing up whether a PCV is worth it on top of race map 3. Apart from this I have added barkbusters, bash guard, clutch guard, low profile LED blinkers, graphics, removed licence plate bracket. Anyway, these are my thoughts and experiences with the bike so far. If anyone has any useful info they are willing to share, maybe some suspension settings, or tuning tips/ maps, I would much appreciate any info you have. Cheers
The gearing on these bikes is definitely puzzling. I mean first gear is too tall but the rest are close ratio. Makes absolutely no sense. For me it's not a huge deal because I'm pretty much off road only but there are times when I'm on a nice mountain highway and would love to be able to open her up and rip but it's winding out. Mine maxes out around 85mph, have had it up to almost 90 going down hill once but that's really pushing it. As far as getting it to run good there's many different options to choose as I'm sure you've read about. I'm using PCV and FMF Slip-on. It's been the winning combo for me but as I've said there's many options available. Good luck and keep us updated. Ok ?
Cheers mate. Im a bit nervous about putting a TI system on a dirt bike to be honest. I mean they aren't cheap and i don't want something that dents like aluminium foil. I really only use mine off road too so I'm not really worried about the top speed. As long as the gearing is in a useable range. The way i have it now is good because if I'm doing a steep hill climb i can just put it in second and use the torque to pull me up the hill. Has heaps of torque. Cheers
Hi jaymz, Are you in Oz?? Sounds like you have the gearing pretty much spot on. They are quite tall in 1st from standard, but as jerbear mentioned, they are short in 6th?!?! My own '11TE449 is due for chain & sprockets soon, & that is the sprocket sizes I was looking at getting for mine. (depends entirely on where you ride really) Lots of hills, single track, gullies etc. will mean lowering the gearing, if you're blasting wide open desert tracks, you'll want more top speed.... With the tuning, if you aren't having any flame-outs, running on after shutting the throttle or 'no power' (dead throttle) when opening the throttle, truthfully, I'd be inclined to leave it alone. Plenty of bikes on here that have one or more of these problems, they can be cured by various means, but if it's running well, so much the better. There are a couple of good muffler protectors avail., depending which country you're from. Enjoy a great bike
Yeah mate, Aussie boy. I don't have flame out issues, it has run on once or twice and it is very on off at low throttle but other wise isn't too bad. I'm just used to the feel of an engine with an open exhaust. I like less engine braking. So far it's a good bike tho.
The level of engine braking is fine one way or the other (lots, or not so much). My own bike never did decide one way or the other, others here had the same thing. My personal choice was for full engine braking, having ridden other 450 4st bikes in the dirt & not used to none like a 2st. A personal thing, but could have got used to it if it was consistent, it is now after mods
Correct me if I'm wrong.. but on the 449 ifs there the red cone restrictor on these behind the air filter? I can't remember which model I cut the end out of one on. Also the fmf slip on with the re map makes a huge difference in those. Plus removing the charcoal canister. Does it have the throttle stop?
I think you'll find that was on one of the smaller TC bikes 250/310.... Not on the 449/511 models anyway. The only restrictor is the electronic second butterfly, it swings almost closed to part way open to fully open during different parts of the throttle/ rev range choking the engine down or freeing it up as it was programmed to do. Mine was terrible, pulled the butterfly plate out & have not looked back since. We don't get the charcoal canister in Aust & these models don't have a throttle stop on them.
