• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

  • 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 The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

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What's a good bike for a vintage newbie?

Vintage cross country races are dead engine start, gonna be tough for a 5'6" 145 person (male or female) to get a 430 started consistently. Being 5'7" 155lbs myself I can tell you its a serious problem. The 250s start easy enough that someone that size can start them on the bike with the left leg, the 430 requires standing to the side, on a stool. That year, or any year '78-'83, in a 250 would be ideal IMO.
 
Ron said:
Husky's are all pretty tall bikes as compared to most, but based on what you have been riding, I'd suggest any 125cc or 250cc pre 1979 and preferably a 77-78 for the post vintage class. The 77-78 bikes have approx. 9" travel and are very competitive with other makes. In 79 and later the suspension travel increased and the bikes got even taller.

The 390's and larger motors can be very difficult to start and take a pretty good boot to get them going sometimes. The 125cc's in 77-78 and later are just 125's in the same frame as the larger bikes and were always consider a little under powered, compared to the big 4 in the 125 class. Your light enough for a 125, but I wouldn't recommend the 125 Husky.

IMO, most vintage tracks cater to post vintage bikes and the classic vintage bike with 4 inches of travel on the rear and 7 inches on the front, just wear you out to fast. I believe the 75-76 bikes only had round 7 inches of travel, but will still race with the post vintage bikes. Anything pre 75 would be classic vintage 4" and 7" and would sit much lower.

Here is a pic of my 77 250CR, it sits about as high as your CRF 250X.
Ron

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What is the front and rear travel on this bike. Shock and Fork Length? Beautiful bike!Thanks!
 
KDX 200 is an ideal bike but not a husky.. great motor, relatively light but poor brakes.

Also for real lightweights, the xr 200 was a great choice. Very easy to ride. (im looking at pre 85s here) and not too tall in the seat.

But if your upwards of 5'10, you should be able to manage a husky ok and the suspension and handling is a great package for newer riders giving a plush ride as well as that inbuilt husky "gyroscope" that somehow keeps the bike upright when your sure your "gone for all money"

If your used to jap bikes, make sure you get a long ride on the older husky's as they feel real funny at first and a 10 minute spin can put you off.
Took me about an hour to have that light bulb moment when i realized it was actually a great bike to ride.:eek:
 
I agree with suprize. The XR200R is hard to go wrong with, lost of them around for cheap, easy to start, not fast but super reliable, lots of Experts race them in CC. I also agree if you have never ridden one and only modern bikes, an old Husky is going to feel very odd at first.
 
I believe he is asking about owning a classic as well as riding and racing it. As Husqvrna fans the obvious answer is???????
Other wise I would say ride a Penton Berkshire 100 or Six day 125 or Jackpiner 175. It will keep its value and give you plenty of fun.
That is for endure. As for moto I would own the 78 and later cr390. Power and some better suspenders. Bultoco 350 has got the power too.
I am just an old man still dreaming about the wins. Go to a ISDE qualifier you will see all types of bikes. Then you realize its the attitude and the rider that brings home the medals
If I was younger I would buy the 310 or a a hopped up 125 in a 144 or 165 configuration.
Husqvarna is not only a great machine but a great community of riders. When your broke down in the pits you will see that.
 
I am sorry read this post form the beginning. You are a women who is looking for vintage bike. The only thing different I would say is that depending on your abilities go smaller cc and as light as you can find it. Sorry I wasn't paying attention. The old bikes are not old to me until I strap myself on the new stuff and go for the triples.
Now riding street with new tr 650 strada. If I lived out West I would buy a new 310.
 
pentonpro said:
I am sorry read this post form the beginning. You are a women who is looking for vintage bike. The only thing different I would say is that depending on your abilities go smaller cc and as light as you can find it. Sorry I wasn't paying attention. The old bikes are not old to me until I strap myself on the new stuff and go for the triples.
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LOL, no sweat man. I think you basically came to the same conclusion several of us did, '78-'84 Husky 250, smooth power, ultra reliable, relatively light, plentiful parts, easy to start...if you are only going to have one vintage/PV bike, its hard to beat, a true do-it-all bike. Since she is not very interested in MX, I would urge her to get a WR, its far better for CC, I think the Husky CRs are too close ratio for regular CC use, and if she is not an MX specialists the wide ratio trans will not be a problem if she does do some MX races.

I would recommend a Husky 175 except the '75-'76s are dog slow, and the '82-'83 are super-rare and pistons are impossible to find. I think in the long run, a '78-'84 Husky 250 would serve her well, but there is a good reason why you see XR200Rs making up 1/3rd the bikes at a vintage CC race.
 
James Fannon said:
What is the front and rear travel on this bike. Shock and Fork Length? Beautiful bike!Thanks!
Click to expand...

James, the forks are stock 77 250CR with Race Tech emulators and springs, travel is 9.5". On the rear I have 16.5" Works Performance and get the same 9.5" travel maybe 10" depending on how much the bumper compresses.
You might have noticed my lower rear shock mount sits further back than a CR swing arm, it does.
The dimensions are the same as the OR swing arm in 78, which used 16.5" Curnutts.
The guy I bought the bike from said he bought it new from a dealer and that's the way it came, with the WP shocks?
 
I just raced my first Vintage Race with my early 80's full travel Bike. The Vintage Track I went to was all Corners and Straights and was smooth as could be. There were no whoop sections and the few jumps were such that nobody jumped them. If this is a typical Vintage track I would be temped to go with a bike with less heigth if it helped me with cornering speed. I know other people who race Vintage and make the same choice for the same reason.
 
Hey Phoenix, any progress on getting a vintage bike going? I'm interested in what you're going to pick, because I talked to a few women at a recent vintage race, and they all said they've learned to enjoy vintage more than the current stuff because the bikes aren't so darned tall. Had not thought about that, but they said it's a perfect sport for the ladies who like to race. Keep us posted, eh?
 
I haven't gotten anything yet, but I have been keeping my eye out. The more I talk about it with other folks, the more excited I get about trying it out and you guys have all given such great advice. I'm hoping to happen across a late 70s 250 WR. I've seen some XRs on Craigslist for cheap, though, and have been tempted just to get something to try the vintage thing out on something that I might be less upset if I messed up. I have until the end of August before our race season starts back up. I really need [but don't want] to sell our two street bikes first before I put another bike in the garage, though. :cry:
 
check with the governing bodies but late model XR 200's are the same as 82 models with drum brakes all round.

I have had it locally in Aus that they would be eligible for our Vinduro due to that setup. other controlling bodies in the US may say no.

just gives u the option of getting a tight bike for your first ride without having to rebuild it from the ground up.

then if you enjoy the vintage rides, you can upgrade to a husky;)
 
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