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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

getting back into riding

R

randal jung

Husqvarna
Sorry for the Newb question. I'm getting back into riding for the first time in 10 years. Mainly because my 7yo wants a bike and we got him a 70 for xmas. I will mainly be riding with him around the property flat ground, and light trails. I want a street legal bike for occasional grocery getting. My budget puts me into '05-'07 era bike. I found two husky 510te's.

First one is 2007 around 9k miles, supposedly well maintained originally used as a commuter, occasional trail riding.

Second one is a 2005 listed at just under 200 hours. Well maintained used as an all around bike.

My question is assuming these were well maintained bikes and well taken care of what kind of longevity can I expect out of these. I know there are many variables to be exact so i'm looking for general answers? What should I be looking for for signs of wear or failures? What should I do first to the bike if I get one?
 
I had an '06 TE510 that had previously been raced - hours and miles were unknown. But I still could not kill that bike - I think the years you are looking at are very durable (which is good, because parts are getting harder to find). However, the clutch slave cylinder is a common failure. The 510s have a little tendency to overheat, especially if going slow with a big desert tank or air-flow-restrictive radiator guards. I assume you'll be going slow frequently with your son an 70cc bike.

I recently got a super-low hours '07 TE450. No overheating yet and all the power I will ever need. I expect it to run for a very long time with nothing needed but good maintenance (and probably a clutch slave at some point).

Looking at your description of how you intend to ride it, the 510 doesn't seem like a great choice. Maybe a same vintage TE250 or TE310. One that you could keep for a while till your son grows into it - then when he does, you get yourself a 450 or 510. Alternatively, if you really want a grocery-getter dirt-bike, maybe you should be looking at something like a Suzuki DR400s. Husqvarnas are race-bikes with license plates.

If you get one, just take your time and go through it. Change the fluids if you are not certain about the prior maintenance. Set the suspension for your weight and riding style. Check the valves clearances, change the air filter, lube everything... all the basic maintenance. Just give yourself a fresh start with the bike so you know what's been done (and when).

+1 on the protective gear. Wear everything that you want your son to wear.
 
Find an XR100/crf150f even better to ride with your kid. See how much you use it and hand it down/up to him when he is ready. If you are craving more, buy something else too. Your punching way over your needs with a now vintage Husqvarna 510.
 
Best thing I've learned about the smaller CRF Honda's besides being rock solid in engineering is the fact that if taken care of they hold their value. Nice when it comes time to sell for bigger. I see nothing wrong with buying the Husky, and with the amount of riding you'll likely be doing, the maintenance would be minimal vs. if you ride the snot out of it. I assume it'll have a battery, keep it on a tender, change the oil, lube it, keep it inside, check valves on time, I think you'll be fine.
 
I agree with old3. if you want to hang with your kid, get something small to tool around on. trying to ride a big bike slow gets old quickly
 
CRF 230 would be awesome too. Depending on where you live it's possible to plate them. You could do the bigger bike, but it's true the 510s run hot. My friend has one and while we were sweeping and cleaning up a race loop, his was starting to spit out coolant and it was in the 70s. He had to shut it down, then go ride it faster to cool it off.

While we always want more Husky converts, we don't want you to end up hating your bike choice. As previously mentioned, if you really want a Husky to check all the boxes on the list, get a 310.
 
Thanks for the replies. I should clarify this bike will get plenty of use in the woods when I'm not with my son. I meant to say that when I'm with my son it will mainly see flat riding and light trails/fire roads.
Are there any mods for the heating issues?
We already have all of the protective gear. I'm a stickler about that. The reason I got out of riding 10 years ago was because I had to hike by best friend off a mountain on a backboard 2 miles to a helicopter. He broke his neck in a freak accident. It has been hard to ride since then. But I think it is time to get back into and I want to be there with my son to teach him as much as I can. I don't want him learning "on his own".
 
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