Looking at buying an FE

funny enough im from andover aswell.i have ridden with few guys from bstk the other month but thought there was to much roadwork & makes me relise how lucky we are to have the plaines on the doorstep.if your are doing a fair few miles on tarmac then probly 570 is best for you,depends what you are looking for in a bike,i like the fun factor the 450 gives so thats why i chose that.
i do sometimes go out with a guy on the 570 but hes injured at the mo otherwise im sure he would of let you have a spin.not sure when im out next as im in the middle of doing up my pad but hopefully out in the newt 2-3 wks so maybe go for a spin then.
i bought mine new from ams when they first came out & they even knocked £300 off & threw in couple of bits n peices & done the first valve check,but like you say i had to get a van,but to be honest i would do the same if i had to take it to midwest.

I have heard a lot of good things about the 09/10 Husabergs. I have an 05 that I really like and may end up
getting a new model within a year or so. I have followed up on some race and ride reports and for the the most
part am pleased with what I have heard.
One thing though that I am a little uncertain with and as Code Monkey has stated is the attitude of the bike at
steep inclines. For all that may care, Dirt Bike had an off road shootout with 8 bikes including the new FEs.
They didn't rate it at the top which I don't care and said that the suspension was unballanced among other things.
I have my suspension redone anyway to suit my weight and abilities.
But they said that the wheel comes up too easy on inclines. That's what concerned me most. With the centralized
weight , the handling and turning seems improved. But has the lack of weight on the front end created a problem
with keeping the front end down on steep uphills?
I have ridden many steep hills in the past and if anyone knows about Jawbone canyon in the Mojave desert you
know what I mean.
Are the new FEs not for Hill climbs?
And if it is a problem, do we want to make sure we put extra fuel up front on the main tank instead of in subframe
where it might make the problem even worse.

Pollo

Both times I looped my bike I was not particularly surprised that it happened. In retrospect was pushing the envelope. I was not riding up on the pegs, I was sitting down and I did not have my weight forward. I have had the front wheel come up a little from time to time on very technical trails when the bike suddenly grabbed traction, but I was prepared for it each time.

Bear in mind, the bike is not yet setup for me - it needs to be resprung as I am 80 pounds over the target weight. I have not even changed any of suspension settings from the day I bought it.

pollo said:

But they said that the wheel comes up too easy on inclines. That's what concerned me most. With the centralized
weight , the handling and turning seems improved. But has the lack of weight on the front end created a problem
with keeping the front end down on steep uphills?
I have ridden many steep hills in the past and if anyone knows about Jawbone canyon in the Mojave desert you
know what I mean.
Are the new FEs not for Hill climbs?

Pollo

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Can I answer that question as a no?

I booked a tour ride over here in Australia with Sunny Corner Trail Tours on the weekend. The trip was from Zig Zag Railway to Capertee Pub where 16 of my mates plus 5 tour guides and 5 mates as trailer drivers rode/drove for a good drink.
The tour guides took us on some great tracks with plenty of hard stuff and plenty of falls.
There was one hill that was so steep less than half made it up. It had also been raining so it got slipperier as each rider went up. Some having 4 goes at it and still not making it up. Some riders that I would have easily bet money on making it up never made it. We had to push them and even that was a struggle. WR450's, TE450, KTM450's, WR250's, Old school FE450's, KTM 530's XR650. The lead rider on a Sherco straight up followed by a 08 FE450 and a WR450 and a couple of KTM's. After that is was carnage and only a DRZ400 made it up cleanly on the first attempt.

I was the slowest rider and rode with Coxey the tour guide sweep rider all the way. Coincidentally he had a 2010 FE570 and was a real good bloke. He was in the last lot of people in the carnage but bang straight up. I could not see as there was a tight right hander about 20 Metres from the bottom where I was waiting, and after that you could only vaguely see through the trees. You could hear Coxey’s FE570 on song and the 24 year old 130Kg boy did it easy.
It was my turn, as I let the clutch out and cracked as much throttle as I could handle I knew I was not long for this hill, slipping and untidy around the corner, feet now off the pegs, I made it about another 30 Metres which was about half way, then the rear wheel just slid sideways and bike and I went off into the scrub. I could see Coxey the young sweep rider watching, I called out, "Coxey how much beer have I got to buy you tonight to ride mine up?" He calmly said, "I'll have a go."
My bike has not even had the sag set on the suspension and I have never turned a clicker.

I walked a bit more up the hill and could hear him wind the bike out and pull second gear, round the corner he came into view a little untidy but fast, he was on the pegs and on and off the throttle not holding back. The front wheel was coming up only a little as it hit roots and bumps, he was unbelievable to watch. I wished I set the Map switch from Soft to Aggressive before he took off. Watching my bike smash that hill was worth the money I paid for the tour.

If there was any problem with new bikes on steep inclines that was the hill to identify it. It just got steeper the further you went up. I watched a Honda 650 come unstuck, wheel straight up in the air.
I was out of breath puffing like a billy goat just walking up the final bit it was so steep.

allrite pete,did you make your mind yet

Ahhhh, good question - I never got around to posting about it did I? :mrgreen:

Well, I'm now the proud owner of a 2010 FE450! :cheers:

In the end Midwest decided they didn't want to take the Husky in part-ex as they thought they'd have difficulty selling it due to the new BMW-engined Husky coming out shortly. I had one possible private buyer who wanted my exact Husky (09 TE450) but he had to sell his Husky 310 first to get the money, and it had already been on Fleabay for a while with the price gradually getting lower so it wasn't looking promising. In the end I went to AMS and they were prepared to take my Husky - not a great price for it, but by then I'd realised just how much value it had lost in a year. Ironically, just after I bought the FE the guy with the 310 messaged me to say he'd just realised that since I was now prepared to take less for the Husky he could afford to buy it now then wait to sell the 310 later! It's a shame as I would probably have got a slightly better deal on the FE for what would then have been a cash sale, but there you go.

Anyway, AMS didn't have a 570 but they did have a 450 and at this stage with the 2011s due soon they were prepared to do a deal on that to get it out of the shop rather than having to order up a 570 from the factory - there was a deal on the 570 too, but not as good and I knew I liked the 450 from the test ride I had, so the decision was made for me. When the time comes round for the next change of bike I'll try to make sure I've ridden all three so I know which one I prefer, but I know I'm going to be happy with the 450 at the moment anyway.

A friend took my Husky up to AMS on his trailer, and I rode the new FE around for 1 hour then 2 hours so they could do the 1h and 3h services that day as it would be awkward to get them done otherwise with the dealer being nearly 80 miles away. It had the small sprocket on at that stage and felt over-geared, but other than that (and the seat!) it felt good even on the road. Once the 3h service was done (just before the workshop closed for the day) I rode it home, so about 4h 30m riding that day all sitting down and severe Husabutt despite using an Airhawk for the ride home. :roll:

I got a low seat to help with my short legs, mapping switch, radiator fan, Zeta handguards, and a few other odd bits. I've since had the wheels balanced, and it now runs smooth as silk on the road (AMS had "balanced" them, but only partially as they didn't have the right weights, which was better than nothing but not good enough for my liking). The engine's much smoother than the Husky and doesn't feel stressed at typical road speeds even now the larger sprocket's on, so I can now keep up with traffic flow and I'm less likely to get mown down.

The 70 Degree sub-frame tank is on order, but I actually got better mileage than I expected on the two trail rides I've done so far (56mpg on the first one and slightly better on the second, so that would be around 100 miles to empty in theory but as it was only around half a tank used I'm not going to rely on that until I actually run it right through a full tank). I still want the extra tank anyway just to make sure I have enough for the longer days - at the moment I'd probably do a fill in the middle of some rides where I wouldn't really want to.

I've also had heavier shock and fork springs fitted and the sag adjusted to 105mm (it was 130mm before!) but that was only yesterday as the springs had to be ordered in, so I won't know what difference that's made until Sunday.

Had the cough-stop once during deceleration on a closed throttle and I've since upped the tick-over a little - so far it's not happened again.

Oh, did I mention I love this bike? We'll see what the suspension's like with the new springs but I didn't think it was too bad before even with way too much sag. Maybe a little harsh at times on fast compression, but it was still new and sitting further through the stroke than it should have been. Having changed the clickers to the comfort settings it seemed much better last time out. No problems with instability so far, though we haven't done much high speed stuff since I've had it - this Sunday should be a more testing trail so we'll see how that goes now the new springs are fitted and I can start working on a setup I like. I haven't done a rock field yet to see how well it stays on line which is something the Husky was excellent at, but hopefully we'll be doing a couple of those on Sunday.

I love how flickable it is - it really does feel so much smaller and lighter than it actually is. Most of all though I LOVE that engine. It's so easy to use and gentle when you want it, but wind the throttle on and wooosh, off you go. I mentioned in another thread that there's one big hill we do which you can't get a run at and the Husky wouldn't do it in 2nd gear without a lot of clutch slip and in 1st it would spin the wheel so it was a pain either way. The FE also spins the wheel in 1st, but in 2nd it just drove right up with very little wheel spin and felt like it wasn't even working hard and had plenty of grunt in reserve, in fact it was even accelerating quite nicely and without any clutch at all (apart from to keep the front wheel down in a couple of places after a spin-grip scenario going over tree roots). I'm also impressed how much easier it is to wheelie than the Husky, even standing up which used to require a lot of clutch but doesn't on this puppy, and it will do it from such low revs that you don't need to change down in preparation and when the front does come up you're not instantly changing gear or running out of revs. Can't wait to get to a fallen tree or a step somewhere as it should be a lot more fun now being able to pop the wheel up onto it with no fuss. Also makes it easier to do jumps with the bike at an angle of your choosing.

So, color me blue - but it's a very happy blue! :bounce3:

glad to hear you got one,fantastic bikes & spect you will enjoy.i take it ams looked after you ok then hence the deal,sofar they have been top notch for me.
if your up for a spin sometime let me know 8)

fakesy said:

glad to hear you got one,fantastic bikes & spect you will enjoy.i take it ams looked after you ok then hence the deal,sofar they have been top notch for me.
if your up for a spin sometime let me know 8)

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Apart from having to chase James a couple of times to do things for me as he always seems to be busy, AMS have been fine. Midwest will probably pick up most of my business now I have the bike though, as they're only half the distance away. Mind you, Midwest fitted the new springs, and I discovered late on Saturday afternoon (first chance I had to do anything to the bike since) that the rebound clicker on the left fork didn't work. I know it did before the springs were fitted, but now it would just turn and turn clockwise without ever coming to a stop. After a lot of faffing about as I don't have things like the tool for taking off the fork cap and I know nothing whatsoever about the internals of the fork, I worked out with the aid of the repair manual and some postings on this forum that the fluid barrier hadn't been screwed down all the way before attaching the top cap. There's a specific warning in the manual that if you don't do that the rebound adjustment won't work. I managed to screw it down then reattach everything and hey presto I had a working clicker. And one badly scratched top cap (the right tool is now on order so I can torque it down properly and not do any more damage). I'll be speaking to Midwest about this as you may imagine (I did get a very brief call in on Saturday just before they closed but we didn't know what the problem was at that point).

After that I was just pleased to get out on Sunday to see how things would go with the new springs. Then about half an hour into the ride I heard a cracking sound and saw something whirl away at head height over the hedge to my left into a field full of crops. When I stopped I found the number plate and the lower part of the plastic frame it bolts to lying 50 yards back on the trail, but the indicators and the plastic that goes between them was what had shot over the hedge and we never did find that! I didn't like them being as low as they were and I'd already ordered some smaller LED ones, planning to mount them higher up along with the number plate and remove the lower part of the bracket so it's not a tragedy, but as I've seen it mentioned here that this has happened to others it's obviously not the best design. Some duck tape and a few cable ties later we were on our way again!

On the plus side, while I still have to get fully used to the different handling after the Husky (and now that it's just changed again), the new springs have definitely had a positive effect. It sits higher in the stroke and doesn't dive through it as quickly, which has improved things noticeably. It's maybe just a tiny tad harsher than I'd like on high speed damping, but nothing I'd worry about and it actually seemed to get better during the ride so I'll leave it to break in for a while longer before I think about adjusting it. We did some rock fields and it went through those absolutely fine, probably as well as the Husky did and that was very stable. Of course I'm on tiptoes putting my feet down now but c'est la vie.

I go out riding with friends almost every weekend, usually on the Sunday, and you're welcome to join in with that group if you want to though that's mostly riding in the Basingstoke area so it would mean a fair bit of road work to get there as you know (just occasionally one or two of the guys come this way on the Sunday instead and we ride from here). I could also ride on Saturday most weeks and I work flexi-time so I can arrange to take a day off during the week now and then. Let me know when you're free and we can have a crack at the plains if they're open, or maybe the Stockbridge-Salisbury-Shaftesbury route or anything else in the area you fancy for that matter - gotta make sure the FE doesn't rust up from underuse!

petem said:

Then about half an hour into the ride I heard a cracking sound and saw something whirl away at head height over the hedge to my left into a field full of crops. When I stopped I found the number plate and the lower part of the plastic frame it bolts to lying 50 yards back on the trail, but the indicators and the plastic that goes between them was what had shot over the hedge and we never did find that! I didn't like them being as low as they were and I'd already ordered some smaller LED ones, planning to mount them higher up along with the number plate and remove the lower part of the bracket so it's not a tragedy, but as I've seen it mentioned here that this has happened to others it's obviously not the best design. Some duck tape and a few cable ties later we were on our way again!

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When my number plate, plastic bracket, and indicators broke off they got jammed in between the swingarm and the rear tyre. It felt like like the engine had siezed.
The knobby chewed everything up pretty bad. Sutto's came to the rescue and mounted some LEDs.
I think mine fell off on the second ride, and I had not even dropped the bike for the first time yet.
I think the same Husaberg R&D fella who designed the number plate holder also designed the Map Switch and the new Husaberg race shirt.

Davo said:

When my number plate, plastic bracket, and indicators broke off they got jammed in between the swingarm and the rear tyre. It felt like like the engine had siezed.

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Ouch! 8O Guess mine could have been worse then...

I think the same Husaberg R&D fella who designed the number plate holder also designed the Map Switch and the new Husaberg race shirt.

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Should I detect a faint hint of sarcasm creeping in there? :mrgreen:

Still, at least they got rid of him. Last I heard he was designing antennas for Apple.

Hopefully mine will end up looking something like yours when the new bits arrive tomorrow, though not with such a wraparound plate as mine's flexible plastic and if it stayed in that shape it would mean it was broken. Come to think of it, if it was a rigid standard plate no doubt it would have broken while playing its part in yesterday's recreation of a shuttle launch.

Davo said:

When my number plate, plastic bracket, and indicators broke off they got jammed in between the swingarm and the rear tyre. It felt like like the engine had siezed.
The knobby chewed everything up pretty bad. Sutto's came to the rescue and mounted some LEDs.
I think mine fell off on the second ride, and I had not even dropped the bike for the first time yet.
I think the same Husaberg R&D fella who designed the number plate holder also designed the Map Switch and the new Husaberg race shirt.

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This is fairly typical. You can't really blame the person who designed it - he/she had to work within FMVSS (in your case VSS I think it is) guidelines for making the bike street legal.

I took mine off before I rode it on the trail. I eventually replaced it with this from Enduro Engineering:

Otherwise your plate will eventually get ripped off or bent up.

CodeMonkey said:

This is fairly typical. You can't really blame the person who designed it - he/she had to work within FMVSS (in your case VSS I think it is) guidelines for making the bike street legal.

I took mine off before I rode it on the trail. I eventually replaced it with this from Enduro Engineering:
Otherwise your plate will eventually get ripped off or bent up.

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I can't speak about whatever's supplied elsewhere as it could be different to meet different regulations, but in the UK I've just ridden a Husky for a year with the standard indicators/number plate holder and nothing fell off despite numerous crashes over the period, so it's certainly possible to design something which should hold up to everyday use. The indicators were attached high up on the main part of the fender next to the tail light, pretty much where Davo's are except these were on short flexible stalks, and the plate didn't sit as low as the FE one and was on a mount made of plastic which felt more flexible than the FE one so it tended to just spring back into shape if bent. My FE had only been down a couple of times in very low speed incidents where as far as I could tell the indicators and number plate hadn't taken a hit, and Davo hadn't dropped his bike at all before his snapped off, which points to it being weak.

Like I said, I already intended to move everything up because it was obvious that sooner or later it would take a big hit and get smashed (and it just looks wrong) so it's not the end of the world, but there's nothing in the UK regulations at least to say it had to be designed that low and vulnerable. Husky sell in a lot of different countries, and even designing to suit all of them they still found a way to make it more robust.

Actually I was assuming the tail unit was a KTM design rather than Husaberg anyway as I'm sure I've seen pictures of a very similar arrangement on orange bikes?

petem said:

so it's certainly possible to design something which should hold up to everyday use.

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I don't necessarily disagree. I don't know about over there, but here I think the practice is that the bike doesn't come from the factory with those bits - the dealer fits them for the buyer and yes, they probably use KTM parts.

I think one of the reason they don't put a lot of thought or effort into the design is that they know most people remove those bits anyway - even on street bikes.

CodeMonkey said:

they probably use KTM parts.

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I remembered where I'd seen them before when I went out to work on the 'berg just now. That would be on my 690 Enduro which is sitting next to it - identical two-part tail piece with indicators and plate holder! Luckily on the 690 the frames for my Metal Mule panniers have a strut that runs across the back behind the plate holder and reinforces it, otherwise I might not have had a plate on that by now either.

In the UK at least I understood that the FE does come with everything and it's not a case of the dealer throwing bits in (it may be different elsewhere of course, but it's ready for road use registration here as standard). As you say, most people probably ask for the indicators not to be fitted and use the upper mount to hold the plate, removing the lower part. Still, the fact that it's used on the 690 (and possibly other KTMs) ought to imply that it's designed to be strong enough for regular use so maybe the problem is that it's mounted closer to the wheel on the berg and more likely to catch on the tyre (my 690 has been off-roaded quite a few times with knobblies fitted, and I've never had a problem so far).

Anyway I guess it's all academic now that the indicators are lying in a field somewhere! Once the parts arrive I should have a much neater and less damage-prone setup, plus I'll be removing the front indicators and using the LED inserts in the Zeta handguards, so there's a weight saving too.