FS dirtability?

Iceberg85 · Sep 14, 2011

Hi so im in the market for another bike. and the husabergs have struck my interest. im looking at 06-07 bike, and the way im planing to use the bike is about 70% street 30% offroad. however I will probably be using the bike in the winter time so there will probably be dirt tires on it over the winter months. and keep in mind that I already have a superbike for the summer season so the street use might be even less.

so after doing some reading on the forum here (even though there wasnt any precise info to get on this subject), I had come to a decision of grabbing a 650FE model and just put on supermoto wheels for street use, however the bike got sold before I could buy it so now im looking again

now there arent too many husabergs up for grabs around these parts, but the one with the best price is a 650FS, so how do these bikes perform with dirt wheels? and are they a pain to put on because of the larger break disk? and how much worse is the ride on trails compared to an FE bike? has anyone done this?

secondly I found another bike, a 450FE with the larger brembo breaks and supermoto wheels and tires. but the owner does not have the original breaks. so does anyone know how much a used caliper, master cylinder and dirt wheels generally go for?

any input on this would be much appreciated

helithumper · Sep 15, 2011

I have a 2005 fs650e and I do both on and off road with it. I don't have any problems with it off road. I have a 21" front and a 19" rear. I run the same gearing from the street to the dirt just so I don't need to extend the chain everytime I switch the wheels. I don't have any problems with the low gearing! what I do have problems with is the front brakes are OVERKILL. you have to be careful when breaking or the front will lockup. I had to have a plate fabricated to fit the 310mm front disc on to the dirt wheel. And my other problem is the suspension. It's fine on trails but I do alot of track riding and I find it hard to dial in the suspension for that. other than that It takes me half an hour to swap the wheels and I'm ready to go.

Idle · Sep 16, 2011

Helithumper, did i read that correctly? You have a 21"front with FS forks, and the large beringer caliper, and 320mm rotor.
Can you post a picture of the grinding you had to do on the caliper and/or what spacers or shims you ended up with? How much offset does the front wheel have?

Id thought only a 19" front would work with the big brake. Please enlighten me.

I ride my fs650e with 17's on dirt often. I have distanzias on it and with 20psi they work better than you would think in the dirt, The front slips occaisionally. I think with some grooving on the front it would be better though. Im checking on that.

Honestly, It stuck pretty well with the pilot powers too.

I am working on my dirt skills with it. I need more slidiing, and i need to get more air under it.

helithumper · Sep 17, 2011

Yup I wrote that correctly. It's a front rim from a 2001 yz250, 21". I had a spacer made to fit the 320mm disc on the hub and at the same time it offset the rim so it lined up the disc in the caliper. I made some spacers so that I can fit the 20mm axle of the YZ to fit in the 26mm forks. the tire is offset a bit but not enough for me to notice. If I figure how to download pictures I'll post some up. by using the same front disc, my speedo and gauges still work offroading.

Iceberg85 · Sep 24, 2011

I ended up with a 450 FE on street wheels and tires and the big breaks. and im loving it it a blast!!!!

helithumper · Sep 26, 2011

cool enjoy!

carbonberg · Oct 3, 2011

Iceberg85 said:
I ended up with a 450 FE on street wheels and tires and the big breaks. and im loving it it a blast!!!!

ive got a 04 450fe converted to 17 inch wheels and beringer 6pot and big disc used to race supermoto with it and use it on the road and do a bit of light green lanin and yeah its a blast!!!! mainly ran michalin wets they work well off road

Idle · Oct 5, 2011

You can air down your 17" tires to 20 psi or even less if you are skinny and it will behave fine on the street. Much better grip for the front with lower pressure in the dirt.

Edit: I guess I wrote that ^ already...

bergbro · Oct 6, 2011

I was running Dunlop dirttrack tyres for awhile, wicked grip on road, and surprisingly good offroad if treated with respect as long as conditions were dry.... the downside was having to replace the rear every 1500km's (and that was being careful) the upside was they were as cheap as knobblies and alot cheaper than motard tyres. Just had to scrub the NHS off the sidewalls in case anybody looked.

FS dirtability?

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