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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Kouba Link or Not

newtohusky

newtohusky

Husqvarna
I ride a 2012 TE 310 mostly single track , I am 5'8" verticaly challanged . I was woundering if any one had a Koubal Link on there bike and what they thought ? The husky handles great and I don't want to lose that but it would be more user friendly it I could get a boot down when needed . I have shaved the seat a bit and modifyed the sub frame but that 30" inseam still woun't get my feet to the ground in rocky & rough ground. Any Help ?
 
I dont know much about lowering bikes but I would imagine if you used the Koubal link you would just need to raised the forks in the clamp to keep the same amount of weight on the front tire and keep a similar geometry.
 
I am 5'7" and ride them just fine. Shave your seat a little if need be. I would not start messing with suspension geometry and travel. How often do you put both feet flat on the glad while at speed greater than 0 MPH?
 
I'm 5 ft 6 and just took my bike out for it's first "legal" ride since purchasing. Yup...I have to side straddle to touch with one foot at a light. I've been racing mt bikes for years and have a saddle height that also doesn't enable toe touch so.....I plan on riding with the rig containing all of the travel it was meant to have and go from there :D
 
Radar said:
http://racetech.com/html_files/LOWER_PHOTO.html

Check this out
Click to expand...

I think that is the best solution as well though many have used the Kouba link with good results. They have a point in their statement "WE DO NOT RECOMMEND LOWERING LINKS! They do nothing to decrease the travel. This means the tire can bottom out through the fender! This has the likely potential to stop the rear wheel from turning and if this happens, it is our belief, can cause a crash". Of course you can adjust your shocks a bit stiffer but then you're not getting the most from your suspension.
 
I had the H-2 lower link and lowered the forks in triple clamps. Was not good. Front still too high and bike always pushed in turns. Have the bike lowered in the fork and shock. Best money you will ever spend on your bike. Not much more than Kouba link. Can Adjust spring rate and valves at same time. My suspension by ZipTy perfect.
 
I was prompted to check out a Kuoba link and found out that when I adjusted the shock to the correct sag in the instructions, my ride height was back up where it was with the stock dog bone. I didn't tighten the bolts and was able to return it.
 
I had a Kouba Link, but while it worked, I don't recommend it. I ended up having the suspension professionally lowered. You don't say how long your legs are, but at 5'8" you shouldn't have too much trouble. I'm 5'5" with a 28" inseam! If you need the bike shorter, cut the seat FIRST. And lower the bars to match (there are spacers on the 2010 you can remove, I think your bike still has them).
My thread here shows how to cut the seat and lower the bars:
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/2010-te250-power-up-and-protection-and-my-introduction.17845/page-2

And here is a pic of my bike after professional lowering:
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/lowered-2010-te250.22280/
 
I'm 5-7 and 30" inseam. I installed Koubalink drop and lowered the forks. I like the results much better than falling over more frequently at stock height. Haven't noticed any significant difference in handling on my 2009 TXC250. I figure its a cheaper interim solution for a couple seasons then step up to professionally lowered forks and rear spring while getting improved suspension components tailored to my riding style.
 
I use the one inch link and shaved the seat it worked out well. The bike is much easier to ride and i don.t tip it when it stalls a huge plus for me.
 
vintageveloce said:
I had a Kouba Link, but while it worked, I don't recommend it. I ended up having the suspension professionally lowered. You don't say how long your legs are, but at 5'8" you shouldn't have too much trouble. I'm 5'5" with a 28" inseam! If you need the bike shorter, cut the seat FIRST. And lower the bars to match (there are spacers on the 2010 you can remove, I think your bike still has them).
My thread here shows how to cut the seat and lower the bars:
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/2010-te250-power-up-and-protection-and-my-introduction.17845/page-2

And here is a pic of my bike after professional lowering:
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/lowered-2010-te250.22280/
Click to expand...

How do you like the seat after the cutting? Looks very well done. I'm planning on doing that to my '06 TC250. I have the same height and inseam as you. Sending the suspension off tomorrow actually to get lowered 1" and revalved/sprung for me. It's severely stiff for my weight.
 
I just bought an 08 TE510 with a Koubalink in it. It rode great with it, but I pulled it last night to put on the stock one. I'm 6' and I want the bike to be the stock height. So far as I can tell on the street it rides the same.
 
shilo020 said:
I had the H-2 lower link and lowered the forks in triple clamps. Was not good. Front still too high and bike always pushed in turns. Have the bike lowered in the fork and shock. Best money you will ever spend on your bike. Not much more than Kouba link. Can Adjust spring rate and valves at same time. My suspension by ZipTy perfect.
Click to expand...

This is something that I am interested in. How much did that end up costing you?
 
Like others have said have a suspension guy lower it. Then both ends will be the right height and balanced front to back. I really think lots of modern bikes have to much suspension travel for some applications. I believe about 10.5" is perfect for woods riders. The slight drop can dramatically increase handling and adds confidence for shorter or newer riders. I have ridden several modern bikes that were lowered and always liked them. Got to watch your toes a little more though.
 
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