First Ride 2004 FE550E

Hi All,

Just thought I'd drop a quick report on my first ride of my 2004 FE550E. I put 3 hours and about 65 miles on it this weekend. My riding was done in the Red Mountain area (California), at the Los Coyotes Dual European Scrambles. My friends' son and I rode the race courses after the racers had taken off. It was about 80 in the morning and about 98 or 100 in the afternoon. Humidity was pretty high as there was lot's of thunder storms in the area. The courses were sandy/silty, some areas had lotls of rocks. In fact I dropped it in a rock section and put a nice big fat scratch right down the clutch cover! I told myself, well, it's broken in now. Nothing came loose, and the Odometer, trip master thingie is really great.


My experience is quite similar to another report filed here on an 04 FE550. The motor seemed very tight initially, but still started instantly with the electric start. I had a bit of trouble with the kick starter hanging up on the foot peg, so, darn, I just had to use the button.

My first impression of the suspension was, "Wow, this thing is really plush!". This without andjusting anything, I just made sure the clickers were where the book said they should be. The rear end had/has allot of stiction, and I did not check the static sag before I went riding. The bike handles well all around, pretty stable yet relatively nimble. As time went by over the weekend I could tell that bike was picking up a push but not too bad. The rear end does not have quite as much stiction as before I can tell that there is a bit too much sag in the rear and this would explain the push. Other than that, the overall action of the suspension was well balanced, albeit too soft for me. I am sure that I will go to .43 springs in the front, and will have to do some investigation with the rear in regards to replacing that spring.

I did install the non green jetting before riding the bike, so I can't make a comparison for all of you on this, however, I can tell you that the bike ran great. I didn't open the throttle more than 30% over the weekend. But, my goodness does this motor make allot of torque. After about an hour the valves had loosened up noticably, but the bike was still running and starting great. I had a similar experience with my 2001 501 when I upgraded the rocker arms, in that the lash, and axial play increased within the first few hours of operation. As I said before, it was about 100 in the afternoon, and since I was running in the motor I was riding rather slowly and not bogging but not revving the motor, and had no problems with the bike over heating. The bike never hiccupped once the whole weekend.

The only problem other than the kick starter sticking down, was the front tire hitting the right side header on full compression. It was slight but still noticable. I have reviewed a couple other threads talking about 04's and this seems to be a known problem. One post by a guy in Germany (I think) talked about this problem. He called Husaberg in Sweden and they told him they knew about it and sent him a new header, or exhaust system straight away so I'm not worried about it.

In closing I would say that I am a very Happy Husaberg owner!

Hi All,

Tried to mount a Soott's under bar mount for my steering stabilizer, that didn't work out too well. The front brake line is too short to handle the 1" (25mm) rise in bar height. It's too bad really, it looks as though it would be really sano, but I don't feel like spending the money on a brake line for a brand new bike. Maybe later. I think for now, I'll just make up a pro taper pad to cover the stabilizer. I'll just have to ventilate it well to keep from over heating the stabilizer.

It appears that I'll be able to leave the throttle cables where they are stock, but will have to route the clutch line and manual decompressor cable behind the cylinder and bring them up on the left side. It doesn't appear that there will be any problem with this as there is ample length in both lines.

Hi All,

I ended up routing the clutch and decompressor lines behind the motor and up the left side without any drama other than having to take the levers off so they'd fit. And, I must say it is a cleaner layout than stock.

One thing I have come to realize though is that the front brake line is too short by about 2". I think if it were 2" longer I would've been able to use the under bar mount. I'm going to have to have another one made so I can raise the bars some anyway. But for now it will do nicely

I adjusted the axial play, of the rocker arm's and valve lash yesterday. I only needed to adjust two of the valves. One intake was loose, and one Exhaust was a little tight. I see that the valve lash has been increased by the factory to .005" from .004". Anyone have any input on this? Dale? Both rocker arms had pretty excessive axial play, and I set them to .10mm or .004". .004" is the maximum clearance and .002 is the minimum according to the book. And just for clarity I adjusted the axial play of the rocker arms first then the valve lash. I did not check the valve lash before I adjusted the rocker arms so I have no referrence as to where they were. The valve train was making a fair amount of noise by the end of my breakin ride, so I don't know how much that noise will be reduced. I am a little confused in that in the workshop manual for the 04 models, it show's a three bolt valve cover, but my bike only has two?? :?

Today I'm going to install some Acerbis wrap around style hand guards, and finish checking the rest of the nuts and bolts. I sure wish they would have put a spoke wrench in the tool kit instead of the bottle opener. I mean the bottle opener is a nice touch, but I sure could use a spoke wrench!!

I discovered that my new steed had a considerable exhaust leak at the junction of the 2 into one collector and the muffler that was blowing hot gasses right at the shock and battery box. Upon closer examination I discovered that the slots in the frame bracket were not elongated enough to let the muffler section seat fully on the collector. I elongated the holes about 3/16" of an inch and it now seats all the way. This should have solved that problem.

Still waiting for Jedi to get back to me on the front tire rubbing on the header problem.

Hi All,

Went out to the Shamrocks Hare & Hound at Teagle wash this weekend. Since I still only had 3 hours on the bike I took it very easy for this race. So much so, that when the banner dropped I stayed put until the dust had settled then took off.

I didn't go very far and came upon a guy that I was talking to on the line who had wiped out at a pretty good clip, he was a bit banged up but not seriously. There were a couple of women amateurs there before me, once I got there I let them continue with their race and I stayed with him till he got up and I got his bike going for him.

The course was laid out pretty good, making good use of the available space in this area. Albeit pretty choppy. One thing I did discover is that the stock suspension settings are not too good for the western desert riding here. Initially I thought the suspension was really plush, but as I started to push the speed up a bit I found the setting to be a bit confused. The rear under power would start to hop, and swap when I got into the whoops. I had the settings set at stock. And overall, it was harsh once the speeds increased. It also did not do very good in the rocks, it tended to deflect instead of absorbing. I'll have Steve Searcy at Clean Racing work them over this week and I'm sure that the suspension will be great then.

It was really hot (100+ degrees), and I got hung up on one uphill, and the bike never over heated, even though I had to abuse the clutch a bit. The motor makes awesome power, smooth on the bottom, and petty damn ferocious on the upper end. The bike started witout a hitch on the button.

Hi All,

Well, went out to the 100's National Hare & Hound yesterday. It was my first ride on the revamped suspension. My suspension tuner went to .44kg springs on the front, and a PDS 8 on the rear with a re-valve on both ends. Man! What a difference!! There is no way that I could have rode the bike as fast with the stock suspension, now the bike really handles well.

My plan was to take it easy in the beginning as I knew the course would be very demanding, and it was. I haven't been riding but three times in the last six months, and my training regimine has consisted of speed vision and papa john's pizza!! I had a good jump off the line, but let the pack kind of go and ended up getting a mid pack start. The course quickly went into tight single track shortly after the bomb. And since it had rained last week the dust was not too heavy. The rest of the first loop had some technical sections but was relatively fast. I was quickly getting used to the new suspension, and was able to start riding more and more aggresively as the miles ticked by. Got to the pits after the first 40 miles and my club provided a great pit stop and it was off onto the second loop for the next 40 miles. 1/4 mile out of the pits was a huge uphill with two 90 degreee turns in it. The 550 has such great torque that negotiating the hill was no problem. As the hours have been building on the motor, all of 6 at the start, the bike has been running better and better. I was definitely using the motor more aggressively during the course of the race. The rest of the second loop was very technical, lot's of steep up hills and down hills with lot's and lot's of loose rocks. During the race there were mile markers along the way every 5 or 10 miles. When I saw the 70 mile mark, I thought wooo hooo! , I'm feeling good and kicked it up a notch for what I thought would be the last 10 miles. As I was riding and the miles were ticking off, I started to realize that something was not right. Especially when I saw the 80 mile marker, and realized I was still a long way from the finish. Turns out the race was 90 miles and not 80. I had pretty much shot my wad by the 80 mark, and was struggling a bit for the last 10. On the last rocky down hill I was on the brakes hard going slow when I felt a thunk on the front end, at which time the front brake lever came back to the bars and I accelerated like a rocket down the hill. I managed to get the bike turned across the hill and stopped. I looked at the front brake caliper and realized that I had hit the banjo fitting of the brake line and had bent the banjo bolt which caused a leak, and loss of front brake. I'm glad it was the end of the technical section!! It was another 4 miles to the finish.

I ended up 111th overall out of about 400 or 450 I think. I'll update with the correct numbers, and my finish in my class when I get them. It took me 3hrs and 20 minutes to finish the race. It was allot of fun and the course was marked good.

The bike ran fantastic and I had a great time.

Update: 11-15-04 Official results showed me 111th overall out of 168 finishers with 26 DNF's. 8th in class out of 14 finishers, with 16 starters.

And as far as the front brake goes..... The rock actually hit the banjo bolt and managed to unscrew it enough to allow the leak!!

Hi All,

I was out riding with friends yesterday in the desert, perfect weather, about 62, and clear blue skies.

By the end of the day I had finally got enough hours on the 550 to let it stretch it's legs on one of the dry lake beds. The max speed feature on the odometer/speedometer recorded 96MPH!!!

A little earlier in the day we decided to climb a big sand hill, my best friend who rides a 250 yamaha made it about half way before running out of juice. I was happy to blow past him in 4th gear giving him the single finger salute on my way over the top.

On our second ride we did 67 miles with an average speed of 28mph, lot's of technical first gear stuff with some valley crossings. I had about 1 litre of fuel left in the tank, according to the graduations on the tank.

Hi All,

Thought I'd make another installment about my 2004 550.

So far, I have 27 hours on the bike, and 539 miles. Other than the first valve adjustment at 3 hours, I have only had to adjust them one other time, today. But, have checked them in between that time.

I found that the front brake line that came with the bike was not standard, and was too short. I bought another from Dan @ motoxotica, and have not had any other issues with that. I do think that the Scott's under bar mount would now work, as the front brake line wouldn't permit it before.

As I had mentioned early on, I got the shop I bought it from, Eric's in Pasadena, to install the "closed course" jetting before I took delivery. During a couple of races, I noticed that there was a slight hesitation that occurred just as the throttle was opened. I would notitce allot in slow deep sand whoops, and slow technical sections where precise throttle control is required. The hesitation would never lead to a cough and die, but, it still was annoying. I tried rasing the needle one clip to see if this would help. I thought it had as the bike seemed more responsive on the stand, and when I raced the taft GP, but, at the last desert race I rode, I started noticing it again, and this time it was a bit worse. So, today I put the DVR needle back at postion 5, and thought I would try and adjust the accelertor pump according to what I've read here and at TT. At TT JD had said to set the pump at .75 mm of lift, or one second. So, I adjusted the lift to about 1.5 mm, roughly half of what it was, started the bike and let it warm up. The bike would totally bog, and die if I even opened the throttle half way, let alone, whacking it open. So, it was obvious that, that was the wrong direction to go. I reset the acclerator pump back to where it was and took careful note as to when the pump started to actuate. What I found was that the throttle was already opening before the pump was engaging. So, I adjusted the linkage so that the pump actuated as the throttle began to open, about a 1/2 a turn on the screw, and WHA-LA. The bike is super responsive, more so than it has ever been. At least on the stand, I'll have a chance soon to test it out in real world conditions. But, I feel that I have probably solved that hesistation problem.

And just for the record: I'm running a 42 pilot, and the DVR needle at pos #5. The plug read is good with a very slight tan color, and about 3 threads of heat. All the other jetting is stock. From cold, I turn on the gas, turn on the choke, and push the kick starter through once, and then kick. It has been starting on the first kick every time with that routine, my friends are amazed!! And, even though my bike might start on the button, I always kick start it when cold. And when I'm lined up for a dead engine start, when keeping the bike warmed up I always use the kicker so as not to take anything away from the battery. I have also found that when I'm doing a dead engine start, I put the bike in 2cnd, pull in the clutch and use the kicker to cycle the motor through to TDC. Pull in the man. decompressor and take it just past TDC. I have found this system to work great.

Overall I'm super happy with my bike. With Steve Cearcy's help at Clean Racing with the susupension, I have the bike handling great. It will turn under allot of bikes, yet is still really stable at speed.

Update on my carb fiddling:

Okay, increasing the amount of squirt from the acclerator pump might have been good here at the house, but was definitely not the right way too go. It was way worse.

So, I put it back where it was stock, and then went riding again. This hesitation would only show up when I the bike was really up to operating temps. So it occured to me that this hesitation was being caused by a rich condition when opening the throttle. DUH! The pilot circuit is too rich, I am currently running 42 pilot and DVR needle on pos #5. I re adjusted the pilot screw while the bike was running, this resulted in it being one turn out. I didn't have the opportunity to go riding with my friends across the desert, so I just putted around in some really slow tight and technical sections to get engine temp up, and then would ride through a little bit of terrain that would normally cause the hesitation, deep whoops, tight tech, small throttle opening type stuff. It would appear that the problem, she is solv--ed. I'll let you know if that fixed it or not.

An Update 6-20-05.

From my last post I was trying to get rid of an 8 stroking problem at low revs with repeated small throttle openings. Got it fixed by backing off the squirt 1/2 turn. Bike is running great.

I now have about 45 hours on it, and 1000 miles. Still on original sprokets and chain, and chain sliders. Bottom slider has taken some rock hits but is still in fine working condition. Still on original grips too. Brake pads original, but starting to get thin. I did replace the fork slider guards as I had broken one a while back. I replaced them with some blue ones I had for my 01, and like the look allot better.

I just recently had the suspension serviced, although I think I waited a bit too long. So this is the first service since re-spring/valve.

I checked the valves at about 41 hours and it's really quite unbelievable. Although the intakes were a tad tight, that is I could still get the .005" feeler gauge in, but, the .004" was still loose. One exhaust, the right side was a bit loose, I'd say about a thousandth. I am very impressed at the lack of wear in the valve train area. And the axial play was where I set it originally. And the bike starts on the button, but, it takes a bit. Most of the time I just turn on the gas, choke, push it through slowly once then kick it to life on one kick. Simply awesome.