Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• inside of the d ru m . When. the cen trifical clu tch begi ns to engage, th e b ike b egins to m o ve . Fro m a stopped p osit io n a t 18·1 90 0 RP:\l, a free wheeling device disengages a n d t h e firs t gear clutch engages smoothly. As speed of th e bik e picks up and engi ne RPM reach es a limi t, th e secon d gear clutch will ope n up and eng age sec o n d gear , a nd so o n . T he transmi ssio n dow n shifts in th e sa m e manner , acco rding to engi ne RPM and sp eed o f the b ike. T he A utoma tic is poten t ially mo re reliabl e than a standa rd transmiss io n b i k e, be cau se t here is no shifti ng me chanism and all four gears rem ain c o n s t a n tly in m esh . There are n o enga gin g dog s on th e gears an d the y d on 't slide back an d fo r th o n the sh afts. Eac h gear has its o wn freewheeling device to let the nex t gear ta ke ove r t he driving cho res wh en the next gear's I aysha ft begin s t urn ing at a hi gh er speed . T he dia gram will show yo u ho w th e A uto matic 's m a in p a r ts are arranged . You'll notice that the lay shaft is mad e up of a number of shafts (das hed lines) ru nning - iIiSide of each other to connect their respect ive gears to clutches. T his requires a lo t of expe nsive mach ine wo rk an d acco unts for most of th e Automatic 's high $ 249 5 pri ce tag. The low production vol ume, so me 7 00 u n its f or 1 9 76 , also c o n trib u tes to the price. It hardl y matters, though , be caus e ind icat ions are th at Hu sky will sell every one of them . Because it has mo re internal ro ta tin g mass t han a st andard transmission , the Automatic wo rks best with a slower reving big bo re engi ne like the 360 where the differen ce in ro tating mass ca n ' t b e no ticed. If any t hing, th e Autom atic gets m ore ferocio us tractio n because o f this than its b rothe rs . Also , the Au t om atic will upsh if t and put mo re to rque to th e rear wheel if there is too m uch wheel spin o n acceleration . lis tenacity for tractio n is the logi cal reaso n for the A utomatic b eing offered in end uro WR form initially. R umors exist that the Automat ic will put the hurt o n its six-spe ed G P bro th er , bu t in reali ty it will lose a b i ke len gth o r tw o in a star ting lin e ty pe d rag race . Ou t on a t rack full o f turn s, j umps , hill s durin g the co urse o f a 4 5·minu te m oto , it could be an en ti rely di ff erent story. Hu sqvarna p lans to rac e a few CR versions of the Automatic in European International even ts th is seaso n , an d if th e bikes perform well en ough they could appea r on the Grand Prix circuit The Husky Automatic blasts through a set of rough whoopdies just like its manual transmission kin except that it 's always in the correct gear. Don't you wish you could say that? next ye ar. No d o ub t , a num ber of the WR Au to matics will find th eir way to motocross track s th is ye ar an d would pro ve high ly co m pet iti ve wit h th e right riders o n board. Look Ma, no shifts ! Lo cated up o n th e handleb ar o f th e Au to ma tic is a cabl e op erate d lever used to di sengage a gear fo r st artin g. It allows the engine to be revved up w itho u t the bike taki ng off. Once you're read y to As th e drawing shows, it 's not quite as complicated as it all seems. On the othe r hand, it ain't exactly simple, either. .. . -., . - "'f r--lJt 1st gear clutch crankshaft , " r- I- ""-- ..-- 4-speed gearbox ...-- .-..-- t= 1= ~======= ~- - - - -- I- =~= == = I-- I--- I-ll- 2nd,3rd & 4th gear clutches I- '-- '--- layshaft l- r-- - f I- '-- /" counter- IJ" l,., shaft ~ IU sprocket ~~ - o/~••a"- V n go, rel ease the lever , mak ing sure th at the en gine is at idle speed wh en yo u do it. If th e engi ne is t urning ove r too fast , the gear co uld be da maged . Once th e engine speed hits 18·190 0 RPM with the idle lever ou t , the bike will be gin mo ving. It 's a weird feeling at first, not having a cl utc h o r shift lever. m o re we liked it, an d the m ore we fe lt it co uld out perfo rm any co nve n tio n al tr ansmi ssion b ike. When a rider doesn't h ave to think abo ut shift ing his b ike , b e it in th e tight wood s o r o n a track, he can chan nel m ore of h is concen tr a tio n on riding faster. It only takes a few m in utes to get use t o the Au to matic, letting the bike ups hift or downsh ift b y itsel f like it has some kind o f magical b rai n . . .alway s in the right gear wh en yo u turn the throt t le on o ut of a turn . . .lug up a steep hill fro m a dead stop at th e b otto m . . .sna pp ing up the fron t wheel to cle ar a di tch or log . The four-speed Wide Ra tio gea rb o x is ideal ly suited to th e 360's broad powe rband and th e bike resp o nds inst an tly to th e throttle to d o anyt hi ng tha t y o u want. Wan t the b ack end to slide o u t aro und this tum ? Easy , j ust slide up o n th e tank and pu nch the t h r o t t le Hkey ounOrm ally would. Wheelies? Sure , j ust slide b ack off th e tan k a little, When yo u shut o ff the throttle to slo w for a t urn or to st op , at speeds under about 35 mile s an hour the engine be g in s t o f reewheel. . .no engine b rakin g . The effe c t s e e ms very unset tl ing to so me people who claim it to be a real d isadvan tage on d ownhill s. I n al m o s t a ll i nstan ces t h o ugh, freewheeling is a distin ct ad van tage in th at the bik e will st op much quicker because the b rak es d on ' t have to slow the engine's rotational m om en tum as well. T he fact th at the Automatic doesn 't have to b e down shifted is an addi ti o na l ad van tage . To find o ut how well fr eewheeling works whe n braking, fir st try s t o p p i n g a conventional transmi ss ion b ike with the clutch engaged, then wi th th e clutch lever pu lled in . The di ffer en ce will amaze yo u. On st eep downhill sections, a certain am o unt of skill needs to be dev eloped for d ragging t he rear brak e ef fect ively without allow ing it to lock up. The fact t hat the Automatic can st op faster than any o th er di rt bike , esp ecially with the exc ellen t Husk y b rak es, certainly offsets any disad van tage it w ould suffer in the 360 G P. acc elera ti on agains t T he m ore we rode th e Automat ic, th e You've probab ly rea d enough tes ts o n the GP Hu skys to know how they h a n dl e if y ou haven ' t ridden on e yo urself. The · 19 76 Wk b ikes n o w feat ure the sam e ca n tilev er frames and othe r components as the GP b ikes. With t he exception that they h ave th e large r t hree gallon fuel tan k and a fu ll width hub front b rake wh ich will acc ept a speedometer d rive . Improvements on all the 1976 Hu skys incl ude new lower end ro d bearings to ta ke care of be aring problems the CRs had last year. Ch ain gu ides are the new twin roller ty pe . The steering hea d bearings are m uch h ef tier an d won ' t loosen up . Fro nt fo rk tr avel has been inc reased fro m 7 to 7 1/2 inches o f travel by leavin g o ut th e to pout sp ri ngs an d modify ing the d ampen ing ro d s so the y provi de a hy draul ic t op o ut act io n. And guess what else is new On the Automatic , m aintenance will be a breeze if it ever b ecom es nec essary . The side s of the engi ne cases can b e rem o ved with the en gine in the fram e o f th e b ike, an d th e entire au to mat ic transmission assemb ly can b e re p laced in te n minutes ti me . The Automa tic r equires a very special trans mi ssio n fluid, not oil, th at yo u 'll h ave to buy fro m yo ur Husk y dealer. Where's it all going? Th e Hu s k y A uto ma t ic i s v cry defini tely the dirt bi ke of th e fut ure . The trend of lo ng travel suspen sio n is neari ng its lim its (no pun intend ed ) an d em phasis will no w be shi fti ng (or not shifting as th e case may b e) to putt ing m o re usabl e power to the ground. Husky 's Automa tic accomplishes this wi tho ut absorb ing any m ore p ower th an a stan dard transmission . If' s an easi er m o to rcy cle to ride fast , or slow, o ver any type of terr ain. In another year it will p robably be the b ike to o wn o n Grand Prix circuit, but this year it will be th e bike to ow n on th e Nati o nal En d uro circuit. Just keep an ey e on Dick Burleson . • 19

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