TE/TC My review of the Husky TE250

Hi all,
I've got about 60 miles on my shiney new Husky 250 enduro smoker, so I thought I'd share my impressions.
I'm in my sixties, in good riding shape, experienced with tight course stuff, and have a back that needs babying.
Suspension is king for me, that's why I bought this bike - with rear linkage and upgraded WP forks.
So here's my take:

Jetting:
I've never bought a bike that was jetted right on, until now. Not a burble anywhere...until I put on the FMF spark-arrestor muffler. Even then, all it took was a bit of trial-and-error with the idle air-screw to lean it up. Now it's perfect again...just a bit of spooge on the tip, typical smoker. I'm using a 50:1 ratio and ride at 1000 to 1500 ft.

Seat height:
This is a very pleasant surprise...I'd been expecting about near 40ish inches, but after 60 miles of really rough terrain the seat is just barely over 37 inches, about 1/2 inch over my KDX's height. Not bad! I'm not short, but really tight trail work requires the occasional dab, and this makes it doable without fuss. I don't notice the seat height at all.

Suspension:
Argh, my first ride was a major disappointment...the forks seemed to ride too far down in the stroke, the arse-end would kick up in the chop, and it was difficult to keep a line on very narrow trails. On high-speed rough it would head-shake. Blah. This was with about 4 inches sag and stock valve settings.

Now it is great. I ended up after many different trial settings, to go with the fork compression backed all the way out. Rebound is reduced about 8 clicks. The rear sag was increased by two full reverse rotations of the adjuster over the 4" previous. The suspension now follows the terrain, rear braking has improved on stutters.
I weigh 165 w/o gear and the spring rates seem right on.
I went about 5 clicks more rebound on the rear and about 6 clicks less on high speed compression and 3 clicks less on the low speed compression adjusters. Of course, different kinds of terrain, weight and riding styles will mean those settings will not work for everyone.

Now I can blast through the rough and the bike stays level and the headshake is gone. It still turns on a dime (but not fidgety) and handles low speed stuff also very well. It stays level feeling and gives good confidence in turns....flat turns where the back comes out are very controllable. I expect things to get even better as I get more time on the suspension and do some more fiddling.

Engine:
Again, a disappointment at first. I'm used to an old KDX220 (souped up) and it pulls harder off bottom than the TE.
Now tho' at 60 miles, the low-end HP has improved and feels almost perfect for the kind of trails I ride. Not much wheel-spin and what HP is there right off bottom is just enough, including tricky little hill climb trails where you're trying to get over a root or need to slow to turn, the engine works it well. It's fairly quick-revving but doesn't spin the tire like an MX'r. FMF makes a torque pipe for this engine for those that might want more bottom.
My major modification was to install an iridium plug...:-)


Tranny:
No complaints... works well along with the clutch like any good off-roader.


Other:
The bike is not a lightweight, mine weighs over 245 lbs with a couple of gals of fuel, but you don't feel it. The e-start is nice.

As others have said, the left side rear panel attaches in a mickey-mouse fashion compared to most, I put a dab of silicon grease where it attaches to hopefully make it last longer and work easier.

That's about it. Pretty good bike - I'm happy so far. I'm sooo glad I didn't buy the KTM 200 exc I was thinking about!

Congrats and enjoy.

Sounds like your gonna have lots of fun on that bike.

Is it a TC 250

No it's a new TE 250 Husky (KTM) 2-stroke endure (TE) I do believe.

Nice

How does riding the TE250 2ST compare to your TE310 4 stroke? I have a 2007 TE250 converted to a 310 but am getting the bug for a 2 stroke again. Does it have enough low end gearing and grunt to get you out of mistakes? From what it sounds the jetting is crisp. It sure is a beautiful bike to look at.

MS

The 09 TE 310 is about 30 lbs heavier and carries that weight even higher, so it's a lot more work to ride, especially on slower very technical trails. The smoker has good low end response, and will wheelie over things more easily, and in general, will keep you going where the 310 will falter (unless you're built like conan the barbarian). The heavier 310 will be less likely to recover from rider errors.... I landed nearly vertical on the nose of my TE250 off a small jump, and the suspension handled it...if I'd been on a heavier bike with a lesser suspension, I don't think I would have survived that intact. The TE250 4cs forks seem to be very good so far - I've yet to bottom them, the damping feels very progressive.

The 310 seat height and side stand are a PITA. I'm 5'10" and have cut down the seat - yet every so often, I get out of shape dealing with that height on roots, ruts where you have to dab. The side stand is just bogus, you need to get off the bike to kick it up most of the time.
The TE250 smoker has a good seat height at just over 37" - and works OK in really technical stuff where you need to go under branches, or dab when in rutted off-camber stuff, etc. The seat pad is soft enough to sit on.

I take my smokers to challenging places I will not take the 310 for those reasons. If the TE310 didn't have a plate, it'd be gone. Edit: Don't get me wrong, the 310 is a great bike, it's just that I'm a deer-trail kind of rider, and the bike just isn't as "at home" in those situations as it is in most other settings.

Good review and if you take out your details on the kickstand and seat height, maybe the suspension stuff, you have just about outlined the 2t vs 4t thing for off-roading. Bike brand really does not really matter... This is the nature of the 2 beasts ... Add that about any 4t dirt bike will roll down the hardtop like a street bike and the overall pic is about complete for these 2 bike operations. Next is just the details.

congrats!!!

enjoy it