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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Short, Old, NooB needs "Which bike" advice

K

kenw

Husqvarna
A Class
So, I'm a Son-B who's been lurking for a long time, and finally signed up.

I'm 47 years old, 5"8" with a 30" inseam. I learned to ride on dirt bikes, and switched to street in high school. A couple years ago, I did a northern Baja loop with one of the companies and reminded myself why I started riding motorcycles in the first place. Now I just have to add to my stable of toys.

It has taken a while for me to narrow down what I want/need. I don't really "know" what kind of riding I'll be doing, but primarily trail riding, prairie, single track, typical midwest terrain. I read so many good things about the TE 310, and it sorta fits my inseam, so I've basically decided. Recently I saw an ad for a new '10 TE 250 available that "includes 2012 spec cdi & 12 port injector". Now, I can't say I know exactly what that means, but I get the general idea.

So first is there a big enough difference in the 250 vs a new 310 for a rider with questionable abilities? And second, am I going to kick myself for not getting a 450 or 511 and dealing with my comfort zone of toe touching.
Any advice you can give would be appreciated.
Ken
 
Welcome back to the offroad world! :applause: My 2 cents say that you should get whatever bike you are most comfortable on right now. That means physical size and performance as well. No sense getting a bike that fits what you think you might need in the future vs on that fits what you need right now. The great thing is that there are millions of dirt bikes out there. If you get a smaller 250 or 310 and outgrow it then you can always sell it and go bigger if needed. It would be a shame to get a bike that may be a little bigger than you are comfortable with only to have it ruin the enjoyment of riding. Also, there are things one can do to lower the seat height of a bike if needed. Cutting down the seat foam is free and easy, I have used this method. The suspension can also be lowered as much as you like if you want to go that direction.
 
I say get the te310. I think the extra torque would help out a little more. What's also nice is that you have to rev it in order to get the real power which means you can avoid it if you'd like. Have fun, quit shopping, riding is more fun lol
 
The 2013 TE449 has almost exactly the same seat height as a stock TE310 or TE250.

The prairie is kind of wide open, so I'm thinking the 449 might be a better choice. But if I'm wrong and your speeds would be say... 35mph and lower and twisty and/or technical, then the 310 would be a better choice.

I have a '11 TE310 and a 30" inseam and I need the bike lowered. It's almost impossible for me to get on the bike without tipping it over the other direction. I usually just get on using help. Either a step, rock, bench, grab the side of my truck and step on the peg, etc... But once I got stuck in a wide, flat area and remounting was really tough! I need to work on my pony express mount (step on and get up while the bike is in motion).
 
I have heard nothing but rave reviews from everyone that has tested or owns a 449. Lowering will probably be a MUST and any good suspension shop can do that. Front and rear. Otherwise and off camber situation may result in a flop. Find a place (examplke Halls had a test day awhile back) where you can drive the bikes you think you may like. You are spending a good deal of money and the second you load it in your truck a guy loses $1,500 bucks. So do your research and pick the right bike!!! Also stay away from orange or you will get REAL sick. Good luck!!!
 
I have ridden many a 310 and own a 511 (like a 449) and find the 449/551 more versatile but also bigger heavier. If you are looking for a do it all versatile bike the 449/511 is hard to beat. If you want a tight woods bike and not much for open the 250/310 is better as it feels somewhat smaller and lighter. I rode the newly revamped 2013 TE310R and that was a really impressive bike.
 
Yeah, I really need to ride them. I'll keep my eyes open for an event.
Thanks for the info and advice. I sat on a te511 and it was pretty tall. Really like the 449/511 style.
I think I just confused the situation... okay back to the drawing board.
KW
 
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