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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Loving my 2013 TC 250

Smooth and easy works for me also ... Not sure why the kick needs to start at the TDC region ... I just tap the kicker a couple times after TDC to ensure no binding also ...Sometimes the bike starts with the kicker 1\2 down, sometimes the stroke has to be 100% complete against the peg... Easy against the peg not a 2t-come-off-the-top-rope kick down.

At times, the kicker just goes down and you can ~feel the engine did not turn-over correctly internally or something and it was a wasted kick ... Its like the decompressor activated or something ....

RickyDZero said:
I was contemplating buying a new TC 250 2T, but after hearing some of the horror stories with the forks, I have decided to keep my 13 tc 250 R. Maybe I am just lucky, but I have had zero trouble with starting this bike. They kick over so easy and most of the time first or second kick. You don't have to kick very hard to get these bikes to light up. Just be smooth and make sure the kick starter is on the down side of the stroke and you wont have trouble with it binding up on you.
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Norman Foley said:
No doubt they handle well. I worry more about the '13-'14 X-Lites, as I think BMW sought to cut costs and used some cheaper suppliers. Fred Hoess blew up, one of his '13 TC250 demo bikes, in 6 miles. If anyone knows how to take care of a 250 4T better than Fred, let me know.
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Fred took the bike out of the crate and raced a hare scramble with it the next day. No break in time. I know it shouldn't have blown up but got to give the bike a little run time before racing it.

Also at the delaware enduro he started on the row behind me. Caught and passed me in every section. He was on a 310 wide open.
 
joedirt said:
Fred took the bike out of the crate and raced a hare scramble with it the next day. No break in time. I know it shouldn't have blown up but got to give the bike a little run time before racing it.

Also at the delaware enduro he started on the row behind me. Caught and passed me in every section. He was on a 310 wide open.
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Well, Fred told me it was new, but didn't tell me he didn't break it in. :busted:

I actually tried to buy the bike from KTM/Husky, but they wanted too much for it. I was going to try and put my '00 WR250 motor in it.
 
Just like every single bike I've ever owned, I never ride it until I've checked every single nut and bolt. Granted, not possible to easily check inside components. What cost cutting while under BMW ownership have you heard about. I've heard no facts but I'm all ears.
 
My dealer still has some new 2012 Tc250's left over for $3,999 plus fees. I've owned a 10 Tc250 and really loved the bike. I also have a 12 Cr144. My first concern is parts. Which is why I don't know if I would go for another Italian Husky.
 
High Society said:
My dealer still has some new 2012 Tc250's left over for $3,999 plus fees. I've owned a 10 Tc250 and really loved the bike. I also have a 12 Cr144. My first concern is parts. Which is why I don't know if I would go for another Italian Husky.
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What a sweet deal that is. But I have to agree with you. Scared to death about if parts will really be available for the next 5 years, or more.
 
These ITL bikes are probably just gonna turn into vintage-ITL-bikes or whatever and just age on out to pasture. I was really surprised to see anyone buy one now. Had one of my bikes about 5yrs and no real issues ...I think I have the parts issues under control for my other bikes unless we get into dropping valves or some other catastrophic failure. Looking at the chinese cloned pics, it was really apparent to me that after the frame and engines, most parts on these bikes can found other places or customized. In any event, that list of bikes I have is not gonna change anytime soon I hope.
 
ridemore said:
What a sweet deal that is. But I have to agree with you. Scared to death about if parts will really be available for the next 5 years, or more.
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Don't worry there are companies out there gearing up to produce parts. We just going thru pains till they get there.
Kinda dumb move on Ktm's part cause they are going to loose money where the money is. It's not in bike sales, it the part sales/service to dealers. How would you like to be a dealer that guy brings in his bike for a valve and it's not available. He loses the parts sales, machining and labor! If I was dealer. Wouldn't be too happy.
They did some dumb moves like discounting bikes real cheap so guys that paid $7k for bike dropped there values over night to $3500. So they screwed themselves out of a new Husky sale for trade in. So I just wait till value stabilizes out. Then try to treat us like sheet cause taking forever on some back order parts. So I am gonna ride the crap out of mine, cause it is the best bike I've ever owned and once you get the Kyb's revalved. They are proven some of the best forks.
Think there are some exciting times ahead in next two years to see some brand options pop!
If you really sit back and think about it? The issue stems from the take over and egos? But who is paying for it? We the customer? Kinda like GM dropping Pontiac! But they still have parts available because they know if they don't take care of you. You will switch brands.
My son bought the 14 Tc 250 and I think I'm faster on it than my 13 310. Wouldn't mind getting one!
 
I just bought the last TXC310R that our local shop had. I brought it home yesterday. He had 12 of them in stock last year at this time and I panicked when he was down to only one. I realized how much I really wanted one. I am well aware of the issues and have taken action like others here. I started it and rode it to my trailer when I picked it up at the dealership. They already did the starter gear recall and installed a gel battery because the original one was shot from sitting. Here is the state she is in now.
IMG_3936.JPG

Wiped up some tank spacers too.
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FabOneUp said:
I just bought the last TXC310R that our local shop had. I brought it home yesterday. He had 12 of them in stock last year at this time and I panicked when he was down to only one. I realized how much I really wanted one. I am well aware of the issues and have taken action like others here. I started it and rode it to my trailer when I picked it up at the dealership. They already did the starter gear recall and installed a gel battery because the original one was shot from sitting. Here is the state she is in now.
View attachment 49959

Wiped up some tank spacers too.
View attachment 49960
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Looks a lot different now lol
 
Norman Foley said:
Well, Fred told me it was new, but didn't tell me he didn't break it in. :busted:

I actually tried to buy the bike from KTM/Husky, but they wanted too much for it. I was going to try and put my '00 WR250 motor in it.
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Come on Norm, these are great bikes that need a few small things sorted. ALL bikes have issues. I ride with piles of KTM guys and could go on for days... just like any brand. Crap forks, carbs dripping out the overflows to the bike only goes 20 miles on a tank, 4 stroke oil issues, over heating, broken subframes, recalled forks, lost PDS top shock mount bolts, crap E-starts, pop and stalling KTM350's, plugged injectors, bad fuel pumps, crap fuel caps... Lets just say all bikes need a little something. That said the TC250 is IMHO one of the finest handling bikes ever. Get whatever brand / model speaks to you and sort the issues and enjoy.
 
Motosportz said:
Come on Norm, these are great bikes that need a few small things sorted. ALL bikes have issues. I ride with piles of KTM guys and could go on for days... just like any brand. Crap forks, carbs dripping out the overflows to the bike only goes 20 miles on a tank, 4 stroke oil issues, over heating, broken subframes, recalled forks, lost PDS top shock mount bolts, crap E-starts, pop and stalling KTM350's, plugged injectors, bad fuel pumps, crap fuel caps... Lets just say all bikes need a little something. That said the TC250 is IMHO one of the finest handling bikes ever. Get whatever brand / model speaks to you and sort the issues and enjoy.
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I said earlier they all have problems, no matter the brand. We'll probably even see a few AJP problems as they come along. I know they handle great, that's why I wanted to put my '00 WR250 in one and build the bike BMW should have! Good friend I race with, has had a pile of misery with his '13 TC250... This has colored my opinion very much. I have three friends, who have had multiple catastrophic failures, with Red Headed X-Lites, so I can't stay totally silent.
 
Let's hear the horror stories Norm. Honestly it will enable us to better bulletproof or just be aware of a potential issue. I only need one dirt bike and it's the 310. I am happy to take care of it with it's warts and potential issues so highlighting the problems will help us all tremendously in preparedness or to get fixed before running into trouble.
 
Johnrg said:
Let's hear the horror stories Norm. Honestly it will enable us to better bulletproof or just be aware of a potential issue. I only need one dirt bike and it's the 310. I am happy to take care of it with it's warts and potential issues so highlighting the problems will help us all tremendously in preparedness or to get fixed before running into trouble.
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Three Red Head X-Lites I know of... One AA and two A riders... Fred Hoess' TC250R: Engine failure. Fred never took it apart, so we don't know what broke. Joe says he didn't break it in properly. I don't really know? A rider TC250R: Two broken kick start shafts and broken oil pump gear, ending with intake camshaft seizure. A rider TXC310: Clutch basket bushing failure, broken oil pump gears and seizure.

Kick start lever has been updated, Zip-Ty can improve clutch oiling, but no updated oil pump gears.
So make sure you update your kicker and follow Tinken's oil recommendations, so oil flows well in the engine.
 
Thanks Norm:thumbsup: I wonder if the oil pump gear issue cascaded from a broken piece of the kickstarter jamming the works and possibly w/clutch as well. It's all close and exposed under that right case cover. In any case any and all reports are helpful.
 
Great info Norm. I have heard stories. I think they are much like the CRF250's were. If you trail ride them they last a long time. If you race at a high level you might see issues. My buddy completely neglects his 2011 TE310 and it runs hard and is a nice bike at 6000 miles. Never even looked at the valves. But, he is a medium speed trail rider and not a rev'er. Starter is funky. Bike is quite fast. Little tiny light weight motors tend to be fragile. Good tips.
 
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