• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st Cross

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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

250 / 310 as dual sport, primary bike.

N

number six

Husqvarna
Figured I'd post this here as well as the intro section.
All the differing iterations has me a bit flummoxed ; Ita designed/built, then BMW, SE Asia ....
Are the modern huskys ( 2011 on ? ) better or less so than the older ones ?
Just want something I can dual sport reasonably, race occasionally & doesn't weigh 300 LBS
Being able to treat it like a rented mule would be a nice bonus.

Hello all, just registered.
Been riding dirt for, geez, 40 years now ( & still wad it up regularly, dammit )
Have had many bikes since the 70's ; elsinores, hodaka, yams, Suzy, kawi's, even a CZ.
Never a husky, although I did lust after the 390 auto for a bit.
Anyway ... most of my riding buddies are getting into dual sport type riding, short rides of 80% gravel or narrow pavement & 20% two track or single track non technical stuff. Typically 50 to 150 miles a day.
Most are on Japanese DS bikes.
The thing is ; I still like to ride some local enduros & cannot imagine doing that on a DRZ or equivalent lead pig of a bike.
I'd kill myself.
A modern K$M is not in the budget as a dirt oriented DS bike so I'm considering a used husky TE 310 or 250.
Hoping to gain some knowledge about the differing model years of these bikes to make a good decision.
Suggestions, tips appreciated.
Thanks !
 
I would be interested to hear a response to this as well, although not as experienced as #6, I am keen to embrace the dirt bike world & supermotard to work. Thanks, Craig
 
There are a few threads here discussing this. Search 310 dual sport etc.

In my opinion, the 310r is a race bike with a plate. Tight ratio 6 speed best at 13/50 gearing which is not so good for dual sport.

Try to get a ride on a TE449.
 
Boogie said:
There are a few threads here discussing this. Search 310 dual sport etc.

In my opinion, the 310r is a race bike with a plate. Tight ratio 6 speed best at 13/50 gearing which is not so good for dual sport.

Try to get a ride on a TE449.
Click to expand...
I'd agree, bit light and gearing them down will rob them of their power.
Great bike though, forest track weapon and only used 4.5L on 80klms,great on fuel.
80klms of single trail at the weekend, no arm pump, couldn't have asked for a better bike.
I'd rather a bigger bore for dual sport to cart gear.
 
310 doesn't like street or gravel much. I always hunted for 7 gear while running 13/48 gearing. 13/50 was worse. Decent fuel economy around 45 MPG. I went to a 501 which handles the duties much better but may be out of your price range. I agree on the 449/511 choice if you can find one left.
 
With regard to the 310R there are few bikes better off road and even fewer that are worse on road.

Boogie's description, "(off road) race bike with plate" is exactly right.

If your on road riding will involve highways, Interstates, or sustained speeds above 50 MPH you'll be much safer and better off going larger displacement.

On the other hand, if you live 5 miles from your favorite trailhead and value off road capabilities and racing performance above all else the 310R is a fantastic choice. Good luck.
 
+1 to all said above. My TE310 (to me) is a race bike. I hv ridden 15 or so miles to meet up w a friend at the trails but it was all Backroads, and above 50 gets a bit squirrly, along with the engine singing at 7k rpm (13/48 gearing)

It is no dual-sport. Trailer it to the woods then flog it.
 
Hey All! Ok, my 2 cents worth. I have a 2011 TE310. When I bought the bike used, it came with a 2nd set of rims (warp 9) and Metzler Karoo Dual Sport Tires. Also has a road sproket and chain set up. Been healing from a fall accident, and totally needing to ride. So since I have been trying to limit the dirt time, I have been riding back roads and some light trail work. I am up 1 tooth on the front sproket, and running a 40 tooth rear.

Yes this takes some the punch out of the bike (still will wheelie in 1st and 2nd), but can do highway speeds. When running dirt tires, at about 55mph I start to get a good wag out of the front end. With this set up, I don't get it till later. Have not hit the rev limiter, but had it on GPS at 76mph for a while. A steering damper would make a world of difference. 65 on the highway was between 6300 and 6800 rpm.

I did a DS ride this past weekend (80 or so miles) that was going to have more trails and we have had a wet stretch here in NH, so I put my dirt tires back on, but with the street gearing. That would keep me from getting into too much trouble. Had to rev it a bit more than usual in 1st and 2nd gear work, but still worked just fine. I have used the Karoo's in the woods and they work OK, just don't have any side bite.
 
number six said:
Figured I'd post this here as well as the intro section.
All the differing iterations has me a bit flummoxed ; Ita designed/built, then BMW, SE Asia ....
Are the modern huskys ( 2011 on ? ) better or less so than the older ones ?
Just want something I can dual sport reasonably, race occasionally & doesn't weigh 300 LBS
Being able to treat it like a rented mule would be a nice bonus.

Hello all, just registered.
Been riding dirt for, geez, 40 years now ( & still wad it up regularly, dammit )
Have had many bikes since the 70's ; elsinores, hodaka, yams, Suzy, kawi's, even a CZ.
Never a husky, although I did lust after the 390 auto for a bit.
Anyway ... most of my riding buddies are getting into dual sport type riding, short rides of 80% gravel or narrow pavement & 20% two track or single track non technical stuff. Typically 50 to 150 miles a day.
Most are on Japanese DS bikes.
The thing is ; I still like to ride some local enduros & cannot imagine doing that on a DRZ or equivalent lead pig of a bike.
I'd kill myself.
A modern K$M is not in the budget as a dirt oriented DS bike so I'm considering a used husky TE 310 or 250.
Hoping to gain some knowledge about the differing model years of these bikes to make a good decision.
Suggestions, tips appreciated.
Thanks !
Click to expand...

I'm a 250 rider now, not really a true DS rider but I do have to log miles on the hardtop and open dirt roads most days ... I've just made the decision that I am not gonna toast my dirt bikes on the hardtop stuff by running the engine at too high a RPM, for too long ... This here is probably your biggest decision for your bike choice and how you might need to ride it ... So if my friends have to wait for me at the turn to the dirt stuff, Ok ...then the waiting is over for the Husky when we go on the dirt ..

I have to say the 6speed trannys do very well with a 14T FS on the open hardtop ... That 1 tooth bumpup stretches that CR gear set out to the point it feels just like a ~normal 5speed ... with more topend and still a low 1st gear for trails... You'll still be limited here to some degree on topend, but a good enough takeoff possibility ... You might could go under 50T on the rear to maybe a 47 and be even faster ...

Either of these bikes can be raced ... Seems most need injector \ EFI updates or something to get the engines performing at high HPs so beware of that also.

150 miles is alot for me ... 100 is alot for me ... These bikes are not overly comfy (seats) for high mileage so that might be another downer on DS riding ... I just tolerate and use the DS miles to rest and save gas till I get into the dirt ...

Good luck with your bike...

PS -- I still crash my bike too often and am still learning to ride at 56 yrs old ... It a long slow process for some of us :)

PSS -- Forget about bwm unless you have a streeter bike or the 450\511 models with the CTS rear suspension... They did nothing really to the 250\310 models except some head work and EFI changes from Mikuni to Keihin ... Changed the fork and shock manufactures .... whoopie.
 
Bad idea for any stint about 45mph... My te511 was screaming and allover the road trying to maintain 65mph in california on the freeway. I was about run off the road by every car in existence even a vw vanagon.

With 17" wheels street tires and suspension 15/44 gearing it is much better but still terrible, good cruising speed is 55mph.
 
Well been using te250meo for duel sport riding since new. Found that best gearing is 13/40 on the longer rides. Enjoy 13/45 on the shorter rides or trail rides. Doing North Star trailride 26/27 July witch is fast and open going to try 13/40. Put new rubber on today using Donlop 606 set hopeing to get better use on road.IMAG1060.jpg IMAG1060.jpg
 

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2012 and 2013 310s have the X-Lite motor. Do a Search of CH threads on the X-lite before you buy. They (once sorted) run strong, but they also run hot. The one quart oil capacity and the thermostat are the prime suspects. The older huskys carry more oil and tend to be pretty durable. Some owners of the newer ones have suffered main bearing failures from sustain high RPM (i.e. road work). If you go with a 2012, 13, or 14, read theads from ZipTy racing (Timken) They have some recommendations that will help and they know because they have fielded race teams on these bikes. Things like running Moble 1 0W-40 and Maxi-Lube may make the difference between another good day of riding and expensive frustration. They also have some mods of interest. And frequent are required.
 
Look for a 449 or 511. So close in weight it's totally worth it for the power. Much better suited (when properly geared) for real DS adventure work. Throw an IMS tank on it and it's got plenty of range.
 
I am still in the early stages of running in my 13 TE310R after having the full Zip Ty treatment. If the bike is in the back of the garage I often take it to morning coffee with the other local riders and run it at 55mph with 13/47. Occasionally I'll jump up to 65 or so and the bike is solid at that speed. It's a light bike, but never a wobble on the pavement. Our good riding season here in Arizona starts later when it cools off a bit and I intend to do some half and all day dual sporting here, including maybe 50 miles of pavement for each ride. If the crank oiling mods are successful my goal is to do the Tour of Idaho on the 310R. Yep, maybe a bit crazy, but If I can figure a way to carry enough gas and change oil once a day, it might work.
 
I once run my 2010 TE250 down to .6 qts on nasty sloppy enduro, I've also run it on the road and change my oil about every 200mi and its still tight.

I've taken two hi mile x-lite motors apart and both looked good on the rod and crank bearings.
 
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