Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Dale Brown There are a few things that should be known about Husqvama's new 360 WR cross country /enduro bike : it's fast, light, handles well and is terribl y expensive. Do first three ite ms justify the fou rth? For what it's worth, every person wh o rode the WR 360 liked it. Most loved it. A few didn't even want to go back to their old mounts. When we first re ceiv ed the Husky , the first im p ression we go t was th at it was j e tt ed so rich that we co uldn't get the bike to clean out. A 125 would have blown its doors o ff. But fortunatelv for us, a famo us Eastern free -lan ce ~iter familiar wi th Huskys (he o wn s a 360) hear d of our problem s and helped us ou t. He simply w hisked off the air clean cover and t he bike ran much better. It was still jetted a little too rich on the bottom en d, but the bike wo uld pull the fro nt end up in the first fo ur gears, eve n with th e rider seated in a fo rw ard position . The cu lp ri t was a little me tal flan ge across the air ope ning . Probably design ed to fend o ff water, it su cceeded in choking off the engine . We put a hammer to ours , dr illin g a lot of ho les in yours would look m ore sanitary. A li ttle du ct tap e m ay be necessary to keep wa ter thrown up by th e rear w heel away from th e airbox shou ld you rem ove the offending piece of metal. Wit h free breathing restored, o ur riders bl asted o ff into the waste and came b ack with the same co m me nt : "Boy it sure goes straight." Not one o f the riders , r an ging from Amat eurs to Experts, co uld ge t th e 360 to hop sideways. They co uld hi t th e wo rst garbage wh oo ps straight o n an d co m e o u t straight with n ary a hop in be tw een. The Hu sky wasn 't a sit-down hang o n b ike like a monoshocker, but much more precise. T o get this kind o f performan ce thro ugh the wh oo ps , powe r mu st be kept o n. Don 't ever think of backing o ff the throttle in a section of wh oopdies. Use the brakes , bu t keep th e engine powering ove r t he bumps. If you should back o ff the thro ttle, th e b ike won' t go sidew ays, but it w ill do a seve re imitation of a b erserk hobby ho rse . Part of this behavior can be tr aced to the springs. T he gas Gir lings are stiff fo r the first fo ur or five m iles, th en th ey h eat up and work we ll over the garbage. But w he n slowing down in the m idst of a gnarly san dw ash, or setting up for a turn th ey are too stiff . Pro gressive sp rings The m igh t be on e answer. fac tory-spon so red Husky desert riders like Mit ch Mayes an d Lar ry Roeseler use five-inch t ravel Cu rn utts on the ir WR 360s. Otherwise, th e Girlings never gave a moment o f tr ouble. It is at the o ther end th at th e Husky really shines ove r its most popular co mpetition, th e _ Yamaha 400 Mon oshock. Husky's h ome-grown forks offer 7.5 inches of precise, well -damped tra vel. A rider can easil y loft the fro n t end over ditch es and still have it stic k like glue and stay acc ura te du ring turns. We co uld detect no presence o f fro n t end flex . T he bi ke can turn under almost any t hing in th e desert. Riders are not always go ing w ide open , sometimes the y may be found pi ck ing their w ay up rocky hillsides, or through canyons wh ere the bould er s m ay n ot be as far apart as th e footpegs are w ide. The Hu sky was a deli ght in th ese sec t io ns. Enduro riders ma y take notes here . The WR features a good low first gea r , ligh t weight (cla imed 212 dry) and low cen ter of grav ity . Just stick it in first , point i t where you wa nt to go and go . There are n o su dden surges in the power band, but remember there are 360ccs a t the other end of the throttle. The reed-valved motor w ill n o t lo ad up o n yo u. Should you ha ve to pick up your feet in o rde r to get be tween things, and th e foo tpegs ge t pu lled back, do n ' t worry about it for this year they're sp rin g loaded. Unlike some p ast Husqvarna efforts, th e pegs grip th e boo t wel l. T he 36 0 WR produces en oug h us able ho rsep ow er for an y rider. It pulls we ll at lo w RPMs, th en revs to it s pe ak withou t any big, unexpecte d power j umps. A nice even power band. So me people might want to p ut a CR motocross p ipe on the bike because it's ligh ter , but we urge yo u n o t to . The sto ck p ipe , wh ich is double-wa lled an d comes with a fine Skyw ay silen cer/spark arr esto r , makes th e bike n ice and quiet wi th out sti fling po wer. When a Mono or a CZ was nearby, the Hu sky could barely be heard. In the next ye ar, that's going to get critical - especially in the National Forests. T his year Husk y pulled a switch in car bure ti o n . Th e WR comes with a 38m m Gurtner. Made in France, which looks suspici ou sly lik e a Bing, and works jus t fin e. Un like th e Bing, it co mes with a choke fo r aid in g cold weather s tarting . Spending some time with the jetting will m ake t he Husky perf o rm crisp ly and should also m ak e the bike start a little easier. The WR is not an easy start er, at best. Part of th e problem lies in the kickstarter itse lf. It's located high on the engine, and is awkward to kic k. When th e bike w as co ld we u su ally just pushe d it down a co nvenient hill and b ump started it. When warm, it would . usually start within four kicks. But a suc cessful desert bomb run de mands a first-kick start. First kick star ts will m ost lik ely be a resu lt of clean jetting an d developing a strong, ed uca te d left leg. Also, tak e a tip fr om Husky ride r Rol f Tibb lin who shortened the lever. That way, at th e bo ttom of th e stro ke, your fo o t will be in a posi tio n to slam th e gearbox into firs t an d get underway in less time. Seco nds lost on the star t line are hard to make up. Fo r a bike tha t carr ies a $19 50 suggested retail price tag, starti ng sh ould be a lo t eas ier. Odds 'n ends The Husky comes lo ad ed with q ual ity i tems. Magu ra con tr o ls, incl uding th e dog-leg lever s, are n eat. Baru rn knobbies are th e in dustry standard. The 4 . 75 X 18 rear tire was ridden ten miles flat withou t doing an y damage to the cas ing K IN G OF THE COUNTRY z ~ a: III UJ ~ III

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