125-200cc Hood River poker run WB 165 ride report

I’ve been riding an 04 WB 165 since last year but really like the looks of the 09 and up bikes and have been intrigued by the comments everyone makes on their handling. In late October I bought an 09 165 from member Flying-W. The timing wasn’t great because I’m still not settled out from a move and I had sinus surgery scheduled for November 5th. Still the price was right and the bike is in beautiful condition. Couldn’t pass it up. I thought if I absolutely prefer one chassis over the other by a wide margin I would sell the one I don’t like or if I like them about equally I’d just consider one a backup bike / future bike for my son. Anyways I bought the bike from Kent (great guy) and brought it home wondering if I’d even have a chance to ride it before spring.

I had my surgery on the 5th and went home feeling like crap. I laid in bed until Friday when I started feeling considerably better. By Saturday I was feeling even better and decided there was just no way I was going to sit on my ass for a week like the Dr had ordered. Just because she went to med school doesn’t mean she knows everything! I had the Hood River poker run marked on my calendar earlier in the year as an event I wanted to do only to scratch it when I ran into the sinus problems. Well now it was back on!

Kent had the bike set up for his wife and one of the mods was a Kouba link. Throwing a leg over the machine let me know immediately that wouldn’t work for me so I swapped the original link back in. Everything else I left as it was and thought I would consider the poker run a shake out, just get acquainted ride.

It was a three hour run to Hood River and it rained the whole trip. I questioned myself the whole drive if I really wanted to slop around in that kind of rain. The line for sign up was a soggy wait as well. I had never ridden in this area so I didn’t have a clue what I was in for. The first couple of miles or so were slimy rocks. Then it turned into mile after wet mile of miserable, gooey slimy, slippery wet clay. In short it was Fantastic!

It only took a few corners and I realized my main mistake for the day. As I stated earlier Kent had set the bike up for his wife and while I changed the standard link back in I did not drop the forks back down in the clamps. The forks had about ½-3/4 inch out of the clamps. I was taking it easy so I never ran into any headshake but in each corner it felt like the bars wanted to fall all the way to the steering stop. I also had a just a general twitchy feeling. By the end of the day my shoulders were absolutely shot. About a third of the way in the rain broke and I debated taking my rain jacket off. I left it on and by the last third the rain had returned. The returning rain also brought with it some pretty thick fog with the wind kicking up just for good measure. Visibility was down to a couple hundred feet at times. One particular side hill trail towards the end stuck out in my mind. The trail ran on the side hill of a canyon and the fog was just high enough that you could see under it to the bottom far side of the canyon. The wind was blowing so hard that it was moving the bike around on the trail. I remember thinking. “This is so cool.”

Only saw a couple Huskies at the event. On the trail I bumped into a guy named Jim who was riding a Husky 450 he said used to be Kelly’s bike. He had just gotten up from a crash and was laughing because as I approached I narrowly saved a washout in the exact spot he went down. Speaking of crashes. My end of the day tally was 3 off the trail excursions and one dump over. The single dump over was from gassing it on a wet bridge. I know better but I was looking at the hill climb just past the end and got careless. No damage done so I consider the day a great success. The event was put on by the Lobos who seem like a great group of people. My only complaint is that the course doubled back on itself in more than one spot and I ran into a few riders going the other way yet we were both riding the course correctly. In other spots the course crossed itself and as I approached the crossing I could see both sets of arrows. It made things more than a little confusing.

One of my objectives was to get a feel of how the 09 165 compares to my 04 165. Right off the bat I know it’s still a bit of an apples to oranges comparison because of how differently the bikes are set up. My 04 has had the forks done by LTR for my weight and riding style, a Lectron carb and a Fatty pipe. Everything else is stock. The 09 has gold valves in the forks set up for a much lighter rider and has the stock pipe with the stock Mikuni and an RM needle. I still really can’t compare the handling because I think the forks being so high up in the clamps threw me way off and as slippery as the trails were as well I never pushed the bike the way I’d have liked to.

The biggest thing that jumped out at me about the 09 is how well it lugged. My 04 lugs well but the 09 is on another level entirely. I just about couldn’t stall it. It made the power delivery perfect for the wet clay. In the middle of the course I remember thinking If I had been on a 250 two stroke I’d have been unhappy and if I’d have been on a stall happy 250F I’d have been downright miserable. Naturally I’m curious as to why the 09 lugged so much better than my 04. They are the same engine. Could the pipe and carb make that much difference at that low of an rpm? I would have thought the Lectron Fatty combo would have been the one to lug the best. The 09 has a completely different sounding buzz out of the headpipe at low rpms that leads me to suspect the power valve on the 04 may not be functioning correctly.

The later chassis is noticeably wider which is why I’ve seen some folks state they prefer the older design. Having cut my teeth on old XR’s and KDX’s I don’t mind riding a fatter bike. (stop laughing I said bike… BIKE!) The seat is a different story though. Holy Monkey Butt Batman! I’ve never liked gripper seat material and this one chewed my ass like an angry wife. The seat on my 04 is harder than I’d like and a bit narrow so I thought like the wider softer seat on the 09. Not so. Even discounting the abrasion factor the width, cushion combo just didn’t work for me. Something will have to be done with that if I’m to keep the bike long term. Another seat related item. I love Husky’s idea for the hand slot on the rear sides of the seat. On the 09 however the wider body makes it harder to grasp the metal loop on the subframe and I end up pulling on the edge of the seat. It still works but I felt the seat flexing and worry somehow the seat will end up being damaged.

I had a blast on the ride but by the end my head was starting to remind me that I’d had surgery only days earlier and combined with my fatigued shoulders the last few miles were survival mode. Monday I realized just how much I had over done it on the ride. I spent most of Monday in bed. Tuesday I was more mobile but had an eye blurring headache. I feel very positive about the bike and will spend some time this winter tinkering with it to make it better suited to me.

Oh, and I didn’t come home empty handed!