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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.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

Unsolicited Praise for Red Husky...

Johnrg

Johnrg

Husqvarna
Pro Class
I was surprised to get some candid comments two days ago during a test ride after installing some mousses. Kawasaki is holding I believe a dealer demo this week in town and I parked nearby halfway through my ride. Two guys walk by with helmets on their way back to the motel across the road. One stopped to discuss my bike and said he had a TE 250 a few years ago and really liked the 310s. He was not so fond of the BMW models (meaning the 449/511). He seemed quite aware of the models, changes and tradeoffs.

His point was the bikes were excellent and at a compelling price point, about 2k less than KTM at msrp. I told him there were many who were down on the bikes and willing to pay the 10-14k and he said he was recommending buyers to pick up one of the 310s for their value and performance. All this from what I assume was a Kawasaki Dealer or employee.

So there you go... Unbiased reporting in the field. Real world people/bike enthusiasts/industry folks.. recommend the red Husky even 2 yrs. since the absorption of the brand. :thumbsup:
 
Unfortunately... there is a flip side to this. I just rode a riding school and one of the riders, who was now riding a 2014 KTM 350EXC, told me his tale of woe with his 2014 Husky TE310R. He's a middle age, novice rider and didn't have the experience to work through the problems. Starter woes and fuel injection problems, just made it too hard for him, so he traded at a loss. Too bad as I think the 310 would be a better bike for him, as it's physically smaller. Great bikes, if you can sort them out. This guy isn't recommending an X-Lite to anyone....
 
Blame Husky USA... I never blame the bikes. Was designed and engineered to function. IMO was a matter of sorting issues and then re-setup. Every distributor preps their bikes for their markets. If the just ignore feedback and feign ignorance all buyers suffer. Still not the bikes but those people that got lazy. Too bad. Australia apparently was more aggressive and forthcoming in addressing initial fitment and setup once the issues were clear.
 
Norman Foley said:
Unfortunately... there is a flip side to this. I just rode a riding school and one of the riders, who was now riding a 2014 KTM 350EXC, told me his tale of woe with his 2014 Husky TE310R. He's a middle age, novice rider and didn't have the experience to work through the problems. Starter woes and fuel injection problems, just made it too hard for him, so he traded at a loss. Too bad as I think the 310 would be a better bike for him, as it's physically smaller. Great bikes, if you can sort them out. This guy isn't recommending an X-Lite to anyone....
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So now he deals with overheating, crappy fueling and harsh forks. All bike shave something to sort through.
 
Motosportz said:
So now he deals with overheating, crappy fueling and harsh forks. All bike shave something to sort through.
Click to expand...
All bikes have issues yes, but he's a happy camper now, because the KTM starts and goes. This guy would probably be happy, with a DS version of a PR4. At 25F overheating wasn't an issue, bike seemed to run okay and open chamber WP's are fine.
 
A buddy has the KTM 350 and he roasts his rear turn signal as it's in line from the exhaust. Assorted other gremlins as well but his bike is not free from issues. Not sure the answer since today we have a culture of get products out the door first and cover your ass with the warranty. Even then it's painful for a customer to deal with and will sell to ease the frustration and move on, probably finding alternate issues just as frustrating. There is little pride in manufacturing today, little craftsmanship. There are excellent dealers who get it and can help out customers to set the bikes up well. Then there are those that flip them from inventory and have little stake in getting them right. Maybe since they do such volume and they don't make money when a warranty issue keeps reappearing with an uncooperative distributor. Why knowing your bike is and has always been the way to own a bike. Never depend on a dealer for knowledge since models change but if you can get the info and assist the dealer, you have created a better solution for yourself and every other owner. Knowledge is key but companies that shove it under the rug are just hurting themselves in the long run.
 
Johnrg said:
Blame Husky USA... I never blame the bikes. Was designed and engineered to function. IMO was a matter of sorting issues and then re-setup. Every distributor preps their bikes for their markets. If the just ignore feedback and feign ignorance all buyers suffer. Still not the bikes but those people that got lazy. Too bad. Australia apparently was more aggressive and forthcoming in addressing initial fitment and setup once the issues were clear.
Click to expand...
Starter issue is design, supplier and assembly problem. Bikes have to start in all markets. Updating parts under warranty, falls to Husky USA and the dealers, but that doesn't make it their fault.
 
ALL BRANDS have problems and to be honest as an ex dealer and parts manager at many dealers that a lot of these problems can and should be handled by a GOOD and KNOWLEDGEABLE dealers service/parts dept....

As a parts manager I kept on top of the bikes that I sold and got in front of handling the problems.... The Jap brands and canam were horrible at even admitting there was a problem... I cant even name how many times I called KTM and notified them that parts were labeled wrong or made wrong.... Thats having good parts guys at the manufacturer also....

On the rider side, I never waited on the dealer or the Manufacturer to fix or come up with the problem.... I usually could figure it out and fix much faster and easier than they can or will.... plus I wont trust my bike at just any dealer....

Just my 2 cents....

BTW a KTM 350 has a ton of FI problems that he will run into soon.... then he will be unhappy there too
 
To be honest, I considered a 250F and I wouldn't buy any brand, because I don't want the @$$ ache of the EFI. I don't even want a Keihin FCR, that has more parts than my 125 engine! I'll stay 2 stroke for now!

My riding buddy has a '10 TXC250 and other than, he's never gotten the EFI perfect in his eyes... the thing is bullet proof.
 
would buying a yamaha be the answer?

--

If I went to the yamaha site, and started talking bad about a Husky, would those people start talking positive about a husky? It's so f'ing confusing reading here.
 
I think over half had problems....

Yamaha is not the answer for me.... the handling is very uninspiring to me..... and thats half the reason of riding....

and yes EFI and fuel pumps scare me.... gets a lot closer to me not fixing it....
 
Well it's all in personal experience. Heck I'm gonna go race a 2011 BMWavarna this weekend and have no doubts about it's ability to finish. My bike is dialed and ready to rock!
 
Huskynoobee said:
Well it's all in personal experience. Heck I'm gonna go race a 2011 BMWavarna this weekend and have no doubts about it's ability to finish. My bike is dialed and ready to rock!
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What!!! thats one of the ten worst bikes, I read in on the interwebs. Good luck there fella :)
 
Yep me too, was linked from a blog sayin them terrorists are fake and it's all a govt cover up.
 
The only reason I responded to this thread, was the "Unsolicited" part....

I pulled into Rich's driveway and this guy was the first one parked, with a KTM on his hitch rack. I park behind him and get out of the van, walk up to say hello and introduce myself. He spots my Husky knit hat and proceeds to give me his "Unsolicited" opinion of Red Huskys. I listened politely, excused myself and then got ready to ride. Sad, but there it is. As I said before, after riding with this novice rider for the day, he'd probably would be better off riding the 310 or better yet a PR4....
 
My buddy gave up his nice bikes and now pimps a CRF230 with CRF150 forks and shock.... I can fly on that thing
 
Well, I think every brand and every bike has its own ups and downs. In my personal experience, Husky is a great brand, mine is a '11 TE250 and the bike is a war tank, it has survived rivers with water level at seat height, mud till you get two wheels bonded to the ground, rocks, sand, dust, street miles, enduro events, enduro rides, gravel, and much more. As per my calculations, it could have more than 250 hrs on it, and it is powerful as the first day I rode it. Changed oil frequently and no engine issues.
The only thing I can complain about, is some leaks, but thats nothing. Suspension is soft but strong enough, handling is unbeatable, traction(she is a tractor) is great, electronics are good, never had an issue, injection is incredible, the only thing that is not good with Huskys, is when they are brand new LOL. Once you address any little issue they show, you can trust them
 
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