2001 501FE as a Dual Sport

i'm no expert on old 501s but two guys i ride with have had them (post 2000 models) and said apart from crap stators they require a lot more top end maintenance than most enduro bikes. they said they only put up with it because if they trailered to the tracks and just did typical 70 mile dirt rides at least they would get quite a few rides in before the rebuilds.

bradt390 said:

I have searched the site looking for the answer and I apologize if this has been covered.
I'm trying to use this bike as camp off of Dual sport and was looking for an opinion of what I should be most concerned about? I have read the Owners Doc cover to cover, I have already done all upgrades minus the rewind of the SEM stator and do not know if the balancer bearing was changed. I do alot or riding alone so was wondering if my biggest concern of being stranded is the stator or is it going to be mechancal?
all opinions welcome since this is the first Husaberg for me switching from a KTM 525.
I use a KTM 990 adventure for cross country out of the way camping but want to use the 501 to get into more remote areas.
Thank you for the help.

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We're you at the Ktm rally last year? Seeing as how you already have a 990 and we're in bend.

But on another note you should call Rick in Portland @ boss offroad he's quite the berg guru he has dual sported many a berg More then most people would have considered think he went to Colorado from OR for a ride.

how many hours are on it? when you say all of the mods what exactly do you mean? cam bearings and followers? dual valve springs?

bradt390 said:

Yes I was at the KTM event this last summer, I ride the Black GL (Giant Loop) bike 990 adventure.
I have talked with Rick but wanted to get a little more opinion from the crew. My goal is to have a newer version but need to have more fuel range and cant find anyone who makes a tank for the newer bergs. I have a 4 gallan clarke tank for the one I have now and used a 6.6 on the 525 when needed. Just trying to see if I can get away with the bike I have now or if I should be looking in a different direction. I don't mind maintanence etc since I'm pretty anal about my stuff and know if you take care of it, it will take care of you. just looking for a realistic view to make an educated decision, like the bike but not married to it.

Thanks for the help,
Brad

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Have you looked at the safari tanks? Not cheep but they have options for the newer bergs...

I'm sure I ran into you at the rally looking forward to next years also..I have a 07 990 with upgraded s suspension from regular height

one of the guys i know just had his fourth stator go and is fed up with it, will either part the bike out or get it rewound and sell it off. i can't remember how many my brother went through but it was a few...

i think there are two guys on this forum who do stator rewinds and think they'll last longer than normal, shouldn't be hard to find them under the electrics section. one is in the UK from memory and you can post your old one in and he mails out a refurbished one.

thats funny i thought the older ones like mine had more problems with the stator, i just took the original out last summer (i had 100 hours on it, original owner had an unknown amount of hours supposedly 5000 offroad miles worth of hours) because i thought it finally starting to fail, turned out to be something different and tht stator is good, the used replacment i have put on 15+hours too and no problems. pretty sure 99+ got the new style. if yours it that new inside i wouldnt worry about it mechanically unless you start to notice problems, what more can you de besides ride it?? maybe keep a backup stator in your emergency pack and the few tools needed to change it.....its a risk to take anything way out in the bush but in your case with the info i have i would be taking that risk untill something showed some signs, the stator just may not show you any signs before complete failure...

or a tow rope. the guy i mentioned who had his fourth stator go, it failed completely but i had a tow rope and managed to get him up and down a series of gravelly hills for around 15km and to a main road for collection.

that's how my brother summed it up. he loved his 501 apart from the electrics. he liked fiddling so the top end maintenance schedule didn't worry him.

FWIW,

Send the stator to UHE member Sparks for a rewind of the ignition part of the stator, that is the part that goes bad.

The power supply or alternator aspect of the stator seems to be pretty good.

Since your bike is an 01, it uses just a small portion of the stator/alternator output in rectified to DC for battery charging, the rest is for running the lights.

The advice I got from Sparks was to tie the two outputs of the alternator together (check with him to make sure of wiring ) and use a Trail Tech universal regulator/rectifier to feed not only the battery, but to run all the electrics off of DC rather than AC.

The big difference here is that if you are running your lights with the AC side, and its night time, and you kill the motor the lights go out!

I converted my 04 550 to all DC. The big problem people were having in........I believe 06, is that with the redesigned tank, one could now install a radiator fan, and the same AC/DC split was true on these bikes with the new Kokusan ignition. So if you were riding slow technical stuff and the fan was on all the time, when you hit the electric start the battery was dead b/c the fan drew more power than the rectified AC to DC conversion.

I had Sparks rewind the Kokusan ignition completely for more power output at a lower voltage for the regulator to handle. A lot of guys were just floating the neutral, as that was the easy way, but, you ended up with roughly 120 VAC that had to be regulated down to 14.5 volts before it hit the rectifier.

With Sparks winding set up it put out 60 VAC that was then regulated down to 14.5 VAC and then, in my case, it hit my TT universal rectifier to deliver 120 watts of power to the battery.

So in the end, I could have all the lights on, fan running all day, and it was not even stressing the alternator.

Besides that, it seems like you upgraded to the 2003 rocker arms which was essential, as well as the swivel foot valve adjuster stem. Since you have gone to the newer head as well, if you just put some sort of filter on the breather tubes of the carb, your valve clearance check/adjust intervals should be greatly extended. The super fine grit that gets pulled into the carb through the vent tubes acts like lapping compound to the valves and the valve seats.

There was also an upgrade on the cam chain tensioner as well. It has the "elephant" foot on the end, and I believe that one could put a later model cam chain slider in as well.

If you ever hear a knocking noise check the primary nut on the crank. Never had the problem myself, but, some reported to have it come loose.

Your bike has the single counter balancer bearing that was changed to a double bearing in 02. However, if you keep the oil changed this will greatly increase the life of the whole bike as well as the CB bearing. Use good oil too.

I put a lot of racing miles on my 01 501 in the desert. Had one stator go bad that I sent to Sparks and no more issues after that. Never had a problem with the CB bearing though.

If you have any questions feel free to ask........I still have my 01 501.