Trading 02 KTM SM for 04 Husa SM.

rockape · May 29, 2004

G'day guys,

As the subject line says I currently own a 02 Estart 640 SM and I am thinking of trading it in for a 04 640 Husa SM.

I currently do about 12000K's a year on my Katoom. I ride the bike to work about 2 days per week which is a 14k round trip per day and do about 150-250 K's on the weekend. I do all my own serviceing on my bike except for rear shock and front forks.

I rode a 02 Husa SM back couple of years ago and fell in love

.
I haved studied the service manual for the Husa Sm and understand that the seviceing is a lot more thorough than my Katoom.

What I would like to no from the more learned people on this site is will the Husa SM stand up to this kind of mileage. I don't race my KTM at all as I just do road riding up in the hinterland of the Gold Coast.
My local dealer says to just stick to the seviceing regime and ride it and others have told me they are basically a race bike with lights so they can be a bit fragile.
I am totally confusssssed.
Any help muchos appreciated from a new (hopefully) Husa SM owner.

Simon.

44014 · May 30, 2004

hey simon
from my personal exsperiance proper dirt bikes aren't suitable for daily tranport the husaberg does not have a cush drive in the rear hub whitch is very harsh on the transmission with all that traction on the road and you do have to service the husaberg alot as they only hold 1 litre of oil. When i had no other choice i rode my 99 fe600 for about 1 month on the road while it does easy enough i found the fuel capacity a bit annoying i was filling up at no more than 80km and doing short runs destroyed my battery. I would not suggest it any way i think maybe you should look at maybe something like a ktm LC640 .How much off road stuff do you do?

cheers doug

rockape · May 30, 2004

44014 said:
hey simon
from my personal exsperiance proper dirt bikes aren't suitable for daily tranport the husaberg does not have a cush drive in the rear hub whitch is very harsh on the transmission with all that traction on the road and you do have to service the husaberg alot as they only hold 1 litre of oil. When i had no other choice i rode my 99 fe600 for about 1 month on the road while it does easy enough i found the fuel capacity a bit annoying i was filling up at no more than 80km and doing short runs destroyed my battery. I would not suggest it any way i think maybe you should look at maybe something like a ktm LC640 .How much off road stuff do you do?

cheers doug

Thanks Doug for the reply,
I already own a 02 KTM 640 SM which is the road based version and I am hopefully trading up to the 04 Husaberg 640 SM which is the road based version with a cush drive.
I am not so worried about doing the maintenance its wether the motor can last the distance over a five year period as by that time it would have 50-60000K's on the Husa motor.

Simon · May 30, 2004

44014 said:
hey simon
husaberg does not have a cush drive in the rear hub

Errr, yes, I think you'll find the sm very clearly does have a rear cush drive............ :wink:

Cheers,
Simon

Simon · May 30, 2004

Hi Simon,

The good news is that these bikes and new engines are getting better and better all the time, both power wise and reliability wise. The early 04s seemed to suffer from some pretty bad QA on assembly at the factory but that seems to have been ironed out.

All the 04s I've seen recently are running very well and fire up with one prod on the button even when cold.

If you are willing to adhere to the maintenance schedule, I see no reason why the bike shouldn't be capable of doing your 14k journey into work and a good run at 100-150 miles at the weekends. Yes, you will spend a considerable amount of money on replacement parts, consumables and oil and a not inconsiderable amount of time on maintenance, but hey, you should get a return well worth that in smiles :wink:

I suppose, in Australia, your importer is also standing behind the product with a very good long term warranty which, to some extent eases many worries because any niggles should be found and sorted within that period.

As an example of how these bikes can behave, I have a 2003 FS650c that is nearing 18months old and I have only had the clutch cover off once to replace a woodruff key. It has only devoured many liters of oil and asked for a couple of valve adjustments.

The only thing that will be really sore is your arse - these seats are not made for sitting !!!!

Here's the caveat - yes some bikes have come from the factory with problems and they've blown up. BUT, so have KTMs and Husqvarnas and Hondas and Yamahas. However, many of the Husabergs solds are also trouble free and give their owners a bloody good fulfilling life.

Hope this helps,
Simon

t-jet-tim · May 30, 2004

The KTM RFS motors and the Husaberg motors do not have
the oil capacity of a LC4 based motor.I don't believe long
term they will hold up as well.No light weight dirt bike engine
will.We change the oil every 5 hours and check the valves
every 20 hours.How would this fit into your riding schedule?
Husabergs are designed as competition motorcycles.To
outperform other four stroke singles is their primary goal.
To this they have succeded.But they are not a BMW.Prep
it like a race bike,they won't tolerate much neglect.

bergdaddy · May 31, 2004

i just took a 04 550fe on a 300 mile dual sport trip this weekend .other than my ass being sore i would not have any problem riding this bike short trips to work or doing 150 mile days on it ..started great on the button all weekend and ran flawlessly ..bergdaddy

t-jet-tim · May 31, 2004

How does the bike do if you have to ride it 100 miles in the rain?

44014 · May 31, 2004

i had to ride my 99 fe600 in the rain once only thing that stopped was my blinkers cause the flasher unit filled up with water and it did cough a few times

cheers doug

Trading 02 KTM SM for 04 Husa SM.

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rockape

44014

rockape

Simon

Simon

t-jet-tim

bergdaddy

t-jet-tim

44014

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