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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Calling all 2013 TE449 owners - Would you buy it again?

When BMW sold the company dealers got an opportunity to help clear out the warehouse by buying whatever was there at steep discount. Finding those bikes at dealers is pretty random, and dwindling. Its hard to say if you can find another one at the lowest prices you see quoted here.
 
oregonsage said:
When BMW sold the company dealers got an opportunity to help clear out the warehouse by buying whatever was there at steep discount. Finding those bikes at dealers is pretty random, and dwindling. Its hard to say if you can find another one at the lowest prices you see quoted here.
Click to expand...

Well,if I don't get a great deal on it, I just won't buy it; other than price, I don't really see an advantage to buying one. Ill buy a KTM or Beta or wait out the change and buy a 2014.The extra cost will probably be saved in depreciation, hassle and uncertainty. Or maybe ill just put a 290 kit on a WRR. The only reason the TE449 got on my radar was the great price and my lifelong history with owning huskys.

What do you all think?
 
JeffV said:
What do you all think?
Click to expand...
You list a KLR650 as your only bike, which is way different than a TE449.

Only you can decide how much you want to ride places where the TE449 excels, and the KLR650 does not.

Personally I do not buy very many things without a firm reason for buying them (usually multiple reasons), then generally hang onto those things for a long time.
 
I think you can get a deal, maybe just not at the lowest prices quoted here.

I paid around $8k for my TXC511 in 2011 as an early adopter, and I got a bike that was worth every penny more than the $6k I paid for my last CRF450X Honda. Then I picked up an '11 TXC449 on a closeout sale last year for about $6.5k and fitted it with full Baja Designs light package, Trailtech Voyager (wGPS), Seat Concepts seat, etc....So I have a 'TE' with the TXC ECU and TXC suspension; street or dirt worthy.

I got a good deal on the first one and a fantastic deal on the second one.....If you're on the west coast you could talk me out of the barely used 449 for about $6500...only because I dont really need both of them. Or if you dont need lights the 511 is competition ready for $4700. I will be happy with whichever one I keep and I wont really mind if I keep them both (though my wife may disagree :D ) .

Ive let several KTM guys ride the 511 and the general response is that its far better than they thought....especially if they come across a gnarly, whooped out uphill. Havent had anyone say its inferior to their KTM. In my neck of the woods, Betas are exotic figments of the imagination....sightings of Saquatch are more frequent...they may be great bikes, but I dont know anyone to ask.

It may be in your situation that the window of opportunity has passed, I dont know.
 
I buy what I want, you should too...If your not sure, don't buy anything until you know...
These are SO different than the KLR/DRZ etc...really if I did not do the dirt thing obsessively,
I would not own one.
 
Sounds to me that you are buying it for the name, regardless of the performance. Maybe you should purchase a KTM and put a Husky sticker on it.
 
Tinken said:
Sounds to me that you are buying it for the name, regardless of the performance. Maybe you should purchase a KTM and put a Husky sticker on it.
Click to expand...

LOL. Isn't that whats going to happen in 2014? And I don't understand what you mean "regardless of the performance." I see it as an opportunity to own a quality motorcycle for the price of a toy bike. I do like the design and engineering of the TE 449/511 and have been longing for one since I first saw a 2012 at the motorcycle show. Im sure any of these bikes will probably be more capable than anything I need. Remember I'm 44 years old.

It just seems to me, for the prices i've been seeing, that I could get much more bike in the Husky TE than anything else out there. I love the rear suspension with the concentric output shaft/swing arm pivot. And we are talking almost $4k less than a KTM. However, the full list price is just too close to a KTM or Beta to risk buying a last year model of a bike who's factory has been shuttered, probably permanently.

Like most of you all, I've own tons of European and Japanese dirt bikes in my life(too many to list) , though I currently only have a KLR650, which doesn't get ridden much as it is really just a street bike capable of fire roads.

I want a bike that is not just capable of riding up trails but also FROM trail to trail and designated riding area to area without having to look out for rangers/sheriffs/CHP. And if I feel like taking it easy, just ride the fire roads from Upper Lake over the mountain and not get hassled. I haven't ridden off road in years, but even back when I did, we would always get hassled by the rangers on the trail or in camp in the evening.

Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time in my life to devote to tinkering with hobbies. The lack of dealers is an issue. There just aren't any in my area, except for Monroe Motors and they are really a street only shop, so problems requiring dealer attention will take days out of my life. Also, the "get on it and ride" temperment of the lesser bikes is attractive to me.

If the world were a perfect place I think I'd go down to my LOCAL Yamaha dealer and buy a WR450R, but alas, they only exist in Australia.
 
+1 MotoXotica can handle all your Husky needs and you don't even have to live close by. Just call and they'll ship it to your
front door.
 
JeffV said:
It just seems to me, for the prices i've been seeing, that I could get much more bike in the Husky TE than anything else out there. I love the rear suspension with the concentric output shaft/swing arm pivot. And we are talking almost $4k less than a KTM. However, the full list price is just too close to a KTM or Beta to risk buying a last year model of a bike who's factory has been shuttered, probably permanently.

Like most of you all, I've own tons of European and Japanese dirt bikes in my life(too many to list) , though I currently only have a KLR650, which doesn't get ridden much as it is really just a street bike capable of fire roads.

I want a bike that is not just capable of riding up trails but also FROM trail to trail and designated riding area to area without having to look out for rangers/sheriffs/CHP. And if I feel like taking it easy, just ride the fire roads from Upper Lake over the mountain and not get hassled. I haven't ridden off road in years, but even back when I did, we would always get hassled by the rangers on the trail or in camp in the evening.

Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time in my life to devote to tinkering with hobbies...
Click to expand...
If it were me, I would buy a 449/511. Seems perfect. That is why I bought my first Husqvarna in 2006 - but for Stonyford.

While many owners do several things to those bikes, I'm not sure how many are necessary for casual riding.
 
Good post. Here are my thoughts, for what they're worth...

JeffV said:
I see it as an opportunity to own a quality motorcycle for the price of a toy bike...
Yep. If you can find one.

Remember I'm 44 years old...
WTF??? I'm 47, but can't figure your meaning here? A certain age requires a certain bike?

...risk buying a last year model of a bike who's factory has been shuttered, probably permanently...
True, dat...

...I currently only have a KLR650, which doesn't get ridden much as it is really just a street bike capable of fire roads...
This tells me you already know what a KLR, DRZ, BMW F, etc. are all about and want something more aggressive like Husqvarna, KTM, Berg, Beta... Although, I've seen guys do some pretty gnarly stuff on KLRs.

I want a bike that is not just capable of riding up trails but also FROM trail to trail and designated riding area to area without having to look out for rangers/sheriffs/CHP. And if I feel like taking it easy, just ride the fire roads from Upper Lake over the mountain and not get hassled...
Your KLR will do that. This is where I get confused. You are "44 years old" and don't mention aggressive riding on tough trails/single track, so the need/desire for something more than a "toy bike" seems ill defined.

Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time in my life to devote to tinkering with hobbies.
But you want a high-strung dirt bike?

The lack of dealers is an issue. There just aren't any in my area, except for Monroe Motors and they are really a street only shop, so problems requiring dealer attention will take days out of my life.
Mail order is your friend, along with a shop manual, this site, and a good set of tools.

Also, the "get on it and ride" temperment of the lesser bikes is attractive to me.
Then you have your bike - KLR650. Perfect for a 44 year old guy who wants to ride to easy going trails without hassle on a bike that needs little attention.
Click to expand...

Hope my analysis isn't taken the wrong way. Just trying to help.


Cheers!
 
If you don't want something high strung the DRZ or WRR would be the best bet. I had both in SM trim, I preferred the WR. 24k mile valve checks, fuel injection was awesome, and it felt quite a bit lighter. It was a little down on power in comparison but that was more about torque. If you get either, it will be just like here, you'll want to mod them to open them up. They are almost no maintenance though.
 
The biggest thing the 449/511 has against it in my opinion is the Chinese knockoff BMW street engine. Now that BMW no longer owns Husky, its kind of a bastard child of a bastard child.
 
Mike-AK said:
Chinese knockoff BMW street engine. its kind of a bastard child of a bastard child.
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate on this ? BMW street engine ?? Mike, with all do respect I think I know where this came from and let me just say anything that
dude types(HuskyRipps) comes from a bitter,dark,resentful place and should not be taken seriously.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top