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First ride on TE450

By rstrauss3,
in Husqvarna 4 Stroke

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rstrauss3

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9Lives, LTK300 and a couple other guys took me out yesterday for my first real ride on a new TE450. I'm coming from a heavily modified DRZ400S (suspension, steering damper, 3 x 3 mod, better gearing, etc).

In short, there was no comparison but I didn't really expect there to be one. The Husky is far more of a dirt bike than I'd ever be able to get the DRZ to be, though I did have the DRZ set up very well. The biggest difference, and one that I'm hoping I don't have to spend any real money on, is the suspension. My DRZ suspension, by ESP, was very, very sweet for trail riding but the bike did begin to show it's weight in high speed whoops, sand washes, etc. Over the course of the ride I think I went down 10 clicks on the forks and the ride was still very harsh. Between this, no damper, and generally not yet relaxed on the bike my wrists and forearms were pretty worked at the end of the ride. 9Lives says to give it about 300-500 miles to break in, then change the fork oil. I'm really hoping I can make the stock suspension work, and I'm sure I can, just don't prefer to enter another money chasing tail exercise.

But the engine...holy crap that thing is strong and I have the stock jetting on. Very lean, fires and pops on roll-off, but I can't imagine too many situations where I'll need more than it already has. My JD arrived yesterday so I'm looking forward to cleaning up the carb and having it run more smoothly. Pretty sure I don't need more power than this thing already has :censored:

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rstrauss3

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Oh, first ride casualties are:

Bent front rotor. Not "too" bad, certainly rideable, but there you go.

Turn signals are all jacked up. I think I'll keep them on there for a while, just to give me something to do on the trail: bend them back in place :censored:

Missing bolt on throttle housing.

Speedo wire is broken, or at least I broke the plastic tab and now the speedo won't stay connected for very long.

Things that 9Lives said the dealer tried to get past me:

I have $20 MSR bars on the bike vs the Tomasellis(?)

Non-stock handgrips

Missing left crash guard.

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Rising Star

rollyCA

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Oh, first ride casualties are:

Bent front rotor. Not "too" bad, certainly rideable, but there you go.

Turn signals are all jacked up. I think I'll keep them on there for a while, just to give me something to do on the trail: bend them back in place :censored:

Missing bolt on throttle housing.

Speedo wire is broken, or at least I broke the plastic tab and now the speedo won't stay connected for very long.

Things that 9Lives said the dealer tried to get past me:

I have $20 MSR bars on the bike vs the Tomasellis(?)

Non-stock handgrips

Missing left crash guard.

looks like you are doing a good job !!!!!!!!!!! :ride:

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Grand Master

Ride

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Things that 9Lives said the dealer tried to get past me:

I have $20 MSR bars on the bike vs the Tomasellis(?)

That's a load of BS. Go to the dealer and demand those parts. The bars and grip are both top shelf items and you paid for them. Wonder what happened that they needed to change them out?

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Grand Master

PMAUST

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That's a load of BS. Go to the dealer and demand those parts. The bars and grip are both top shelf items and you paid for them. Wonder what happened that they needed to change them out?

Yeah,,,,this is all very confusing???? :censored:

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bigbob 901

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ridermannow:

your posts are making no sense. First you want to run your TE on an MX track and can't understand why it isn't like a jap MXer then you get pissy about fuel gauges and tank fuel level.

either make some sense or stop playing hookey go back to grade school.

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ridermannow

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sorry I have just been hearing so many different things, I should probably not listen to the dealership, one minute they are telling me I can race MX with the thing, next second they say drive it to work, next minute they say race enduro/hair scrambles... I just don't see how this is all possible in one bike. I am just confused because they said the TE and the TC are the same exact bike, just the TC is called an MX bike an the TE an enduro, so that's what's confusing me..

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Grand Master

bigbob 901

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sorry I have just been hearing so many different things, I should probably not listen to the dealership, one minute they are telling me I can race MX with the thing, next second they say drive it to work, next minute they say race enduro/hair scrambles... I just don't see how this is all possible in one bike. I am just confused because they said the TE and the TC are the same exact bike, just the TC is called an MX bike an the TE an enduro, so that's what's confusing me..

it's ok I asked many many newbie questions on TT 3 years ago.

Read the threads, listen learn and yes it's ok to ask anything, the guys here will lead you down the right path.

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rstrauss3

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barely street legal.

That's exactly what this bike is, a dirt bike with blinkers. I don't think I would consider this bike for anything involving pavement, unless is is merely to connect trails. That's not to say it can't do pavement and in the short time I've had it I've been 70+mph on the LA freeway. But it sucked, the mirrors sucked, seat sucked, buzzing sucked, but I expected it to suck and wasn't disappointed :censored: Personally, I'd rather save my tires and maintenance for dirt miles and not burn them on the street.

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Grand Master

bigbob 901

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yes tires are the big deal, if Cop stops you on the street and he knows his stuff, he will look to the tires to see if they are DOT

your bike's front tire is probably a Pierlli Scorpion the best off road/DOT street legal tire you can buy IMO

For a rear tire ask the guys here, I know that Kenda Track master II is a good aggressive DOT rear tire. I do not recomend the other DOT tires MT21 or Dunlops they suck in muddy off road trails. I would rather run a real good dirt rear tire and just accept / hope the cop dont stop you on road. DOT tire ratings are for your safety at high speed 55mph +. running around town on dirt tires is safe under 50 mph just they do get worned out fast.

get heavy duty tubes installed when you change out those stock tires- keep trail flats to a minimum

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Grand Master

coffee

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sorry I have just been hearing so many different things, I should probably not listen to the dealership, one minute they are telling me I can race MX with the thing, next second they say drive it to work, next minute they say race enduro/hair scrambles... I just don't see how this is all possible in one bike. I am just confused because they said the TE and the TC are the same exact bike, just the TC is called an MX bike an the TE an enduro, so that's what's confusing me..

TE & TC's are different. In CA the TC is an MX targeted bike that comes with a green sticker - which means it can be ridden year round in all the same places any other off road bikes can be ridden. A red sticker in CA means there are limitations and cannot be ridden certain times of the year in certain places.

But you probably don't care about that in your state.

The TE comes with a 50 state factory license plate the TC does not.

To me - the biggest difference between a TC and TE is the gearbox - the gears are much closer together on the TC. The TC is about like the 450R, and the TE is slightly closer together than the 450x.

There are many other differences but that is the big one - to me.

thank you Bob and to all the others for your help, this forum alone is what made me swing to Husky after first leaning towards KTM..

Me too. You could also insert any other brand in place of KTM IMHO. This is an excellent section of TT.

Both the TC & TE have standard gas tanks with a reserve - run the petcock in the "on" position and if you run out switch to the "reserve" position. Works great! My impression is that some bikes - mostly road oriented bike with fuel injection care about running out of gas as in bad things happen. Not my TE250. My bike was much much less buzzy after the wheels were balanced.

The only real way to know is to ride one and see if you like it. :censored:

.

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jr50kid

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The Huskys are excellent dirt bikes, not so good street bikes. It would be best to keep road use to a minimum, like connecting trails. The TEs come with DOT approved Michelin tires. What little road use my bike sees, I can tell the tires will not last long on the street.

They won't.....

But even just about bald last fall before I replaced them, they still hooked up surprisingly well in most stuff, except sand and mud of course.

paul

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