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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

TE450 high speed shudder

hotducati

hotducati

Husqvarna
B Class
Hello Folks. Loving the new 08 TE450. Has about every option imaginable. I posted about the buy a week ago. Got alot of good response about the great deal. Everything seems pretty good so far.

However, at around 60 mph i get a pretty bad shudder on the front end. side to side wobble. It does have a stabilizer installed but doesnt seem to correct the problem. Does anyone else experience this? Im running supermoto by the way on 17 wheels and new tires.

Im concerned cause at my local track theres a pretty long high speed stretch. I dont want to be turning at speed with this wobble. Any suggestions would be great. thanks

chris
 
hmm, Im not running a damper on my SMR, and it tracks straight at 90+ mph without a wobble.
make sure your wheels are true and your tires are properly balanced. (tho I dont balance my tires and they run smooth)

someone may know for sure, but I would think the TE uses a different offset triple clamp than the SMR. an offset meant for the dirt could be too twitchy for the supermoto setup.
 
I think I read somewhere that this could be caused by the fork tubes being too high in the clamps. That may be worth looking into.
 
I have mine fairly high, .625" from the top of cap to top of triple clamp is exposed and I dont have that problem ^
(my front end is about 3.5mm lower than stock)
 
my frame says TE on the head tube, but Im pretty sure the SMR has different offset triples.
I know for a fact it also has shorter suspension and a shorter swingarm too.
 
hey "mx rider" are those specs on a te supermoto? If so i will try adjusting to that. I def doesnt feel right. Some of my buddies say its because the front end is so light. I dont think that has anything to do with it. It really shudders.
 
Make sure your wheels are balanced and get a dampner if the first one doesnt work.
I had the wheels balanced on my 510txc and it makes a huge difference at high speeds :) (mines geared to go 160klm hr and will be going 200 soon with the 15/40
setup :O)
 
Lower the forks all the way in the triple clamps to get stability for high speed riding.
 
Dampers are wonderful things and can make riding less tiring and more enjoyable but they shouldn't be used to mask problem.
Start by checking the mechanical things that can cause this. This list is not in any particular order as they are all important and should be checked periodically even if you aren't experiencing any particular problems.


1. Check that the spokes are all tight (torqued is even better).
2. Check that the rim run out is good in both planes.
3. Check that the steering head bearings are good and properly tightened.
4. Balance the wheels.
5. Move the forks all the way down in the triple clamps. Don't just shove them down until they are even, you need to check that the stanchion tubes are the same length, if not then one of them is going to sit higher in the triple clamp then the other. That might not look correct but it is the right way to do this because one side of the suspension could be preloaded more that the other if you just use a visual reference.
6. Check the tires for flat spots or bubbles.
7. Set the sag to the correct spec.
8. Check to make sure that the wheel bearing are good and properly tightened.
9. This one is more anecdotal than the other things but I've heard some people say that changing from a MX front fender to SM front fender can make a bit of a difference in how the bike feels at high speeds.

If all that checks out then think about you're riding style.

1. What's you're seating/standing position when then problems occurs and does changing that position make it better or worse?
2. Do you have the handle bars in a death grip at the time the wobble appears? A more relaxed grip on the bars is usually better.
3. As you get up further forward on the bike remember to keep you're elbows elbows bent and slightly elevated so that you aren't inducing any tension into the steering and you can absorb some of the road vibration. This Kind of goes back to the more relaxed grip thing.
 
if i losen up on the grip its very violent. I prefer to barely hold on the handlegrips. especially on track. Im gonna go through the front end today and see what i can find. Ill keep you guys posted.
 
pictures of front end now..

here some pics i just took of the current configuration. no numbers yet. waiting for a set of calipers later... do they atleast look way off?


on another note...i took a picture of the rear axle. Do they make sliders that can fit with that axle rod welded in there. or should i cut it out?
 

Attachments

  • 001.jpg
    001.jpg
    88.9 KB · Views: 47
  • 002.jpg
    002.jpg
    88.8 KB · Views: 47
  • 003.jpg
    003.jpg
    86.3 KB · Views: 45
  • 004.jpg
    004.jpg
    87 KB · Views: 38
  • 005.jpg
    005.jpg
    84.6 KB · Views: 41
One more thing to check is that the rear wheel is set in correct alignment, don't go by the marks on the swing arm as they can often be off a little bit.
Most of the things that I outlined are off small consequence by themselves but if you get a few of them stacked on top of one another they can add up to some pretty funcky handling.
 
hotducati;104417 said:
here some pics i just took of the current configuration. no numbers yet. waiting for a set of calipers later... do they atleast look way off?


on another note...i took a picture of the rear axle. Do they make sliders that can fit with that axle rod welded in there. or should i cut it out?
Click to expand...

I would push the forks down until they are almost flush with the the top of the triple clamp but like I sad earlier the best way is not go by the marks on the fork tubes. Remove you're front axle and front tire (obviously suspend the bike first). Then check to see if the axle slides in easily into both pinch points. If it doesn't then one of the fork assemblies is a bit linger than the other and you need to adjust for that difference. I've seen some off by as much as 1/4" and this can make a difference in how smooth the fork action is.
BTW this isn't an issue exclusive to Husky, all bike should be set up this way.
 
When my forks were positioned as yours in the photos I was scared to run the freeway at 70mph because it was so twitchy. Lowered them down flush and checked the rear sag and now 80 mph on pavement is fine. The bike just won't have that knife sharp handling for the single track when they are lowered all the way.
 
please, Ive run my forks with the same gap at 90+ mph on a track, and it doesnt wobble.
if you run the forks all the way down in the clamps, the only thing you will create is a bike that doesnt turn in worth a damn.

forks.jpg
 
MXRider;104540 said:
please, Ive run my forks with the same gap at 90+ mph on a track, and it doesnt wobble.
if you run the forks all the way down in the clamps, the only thing you will create is a bike that doesnt turn in worth a damn.

forks.jpg
Click to expand...

We're not saying that is the ultimate solution and the problem is likely more than one thing but you have to start somewhere and that is an easy place to start. Remember I'm asking him to square up the pinch points in the fork tubes not just shove his forks down and since he is doing SM stuff and not tight turning single track he may like the forks pushed further down.
 
MXRider;104540 said:
please, Ive run my forks with the same gap at 90+ mph on a track, and it doesnt wobble.
if you run the forks all the way down in the clamps, the only thing you will create is a bike that doesnt turn in worth a damn.
Click to expand...

So have I in the dirt but the pavement is a different story with any offroad worthy knob.
 
ive lowered the forks. about a 3/16th from the top. still no luck. the suspension was re-valved from original owner, but i have no idea what they were set at. i weigh 155. Not sure about previous owner.

The front axle seemed to slide in and out pretty smoothly. before and after i lowered the tubes.

I have race weekend july 17th. I will be putting on slicks. Maybe its a crappy tire? Its a brand new continental. I ride on bridgestones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top