Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126245
' on flat ground. H ills wer e something They proved Bob's "You 'll learn th rottle cont rol." statement to be ab o ' solutely true . As we'd discovered ou t on the pavem ent , t he Automatic fre ewh eels when you shut off the gas. The same l thing would happen , in cidently, iftht; motor should seize ; a handy built -in safety featu re . On flat ground , par· ; ticularly on pavem ent , th e charac.'teristic presents no problem. Leafcovered hills are another sit uation en•tirely. Here's what happened . We were chargi ng up a fa irl y ste ep , root and rock covered hill . Halfway up th ere were two trees close together on an angle and , like you' d do on a sta nt d a rd transmission bike, I backed off the gas in prep arati on fo r maneu vering between t hem. Backin g off on th e gas with the Automati c ren rders the same effec t as pulling in the clutch on a sta n dard b ike _. if you're on a hill , you stop . Right ? And once you lose momentum on a snotty hill , you' re d one for . Trying to get rolling usuall y results in some non-movingtire-spinning action. And that 's exactl y wh a t h a pp en ed . Na turall y, Burleson had no problem at all. In fact , he made it look easy -- b ut he has a way of do ing things like th at with a motor cycle . Makes ya nuts. The trick, and it does tak e some practice before you 'll be full y com-: pet ent , is to only part ially shu t off th e throttle . That way , th e m a chin e doesn' t freewheel. T he re's still some _ power go ing to th e rear wh eel , an d you don 't lose all momentum . What it boils down to is this; You don't ha ve to think a bout clu tch con ,tro l. You d on 't have to th ink abou t sh ifting or even kn ow wh ich gea r you're in . You d o , however , have to cha n nel some of th at energy form erl y used for clutch in g and sh ifting into precise throttle co ntrol. It 's a two-toon e tra de off where you st ill come , out ahead . The freewheeling ~((eC! )s , a lso Eelse . noti ceable in a couple other area s. Ri d ing thos e steep twisting downhills is on e ; th ere's no en gine braking. We had absolutely no problem s durin g our test ride, however , since th e Husqvarna brakes worked so well . It see ms logical that by using th e brakes more, you 'll have to give them more attention and pe rhaps replace worn shoes more often . Aga in , it's a trade off , and again we think it's a fa ir on e. Playing in a muddy field exernplified another id iosyncracy of the fr eewh eeling Hu sky; the rear wheel is easie r to lock up when entering a turn . The la ck of engine braking and flywh eel effect makes it a more sensitiv e sit ua tio n than it would be on a standard machine. Obviously, we found th e Husky 360 Automatic to ou r liking. W e view it as a cr oss cou nt ry machine as opposed to being used in motocross , The transmissio n , by its design , appea rs to use enough power in its own fu nction tha t it would give up an edge to sta nd a rd transmission bikes. The 354c c m otor is no slou ch . - it 's excell ent for cross country work .. but a standard gear · box mod el would be fast er. Updates and changes As you know , th e' Husky Automatic is not a new m ach in e. As ear ly as 1973 , Am eri can Husqvarna deal ers h ad a cha nce to ride one of th e models th at .,./as in p roduct ion whil e on a Husky deal er trip to Sweden. T he ea rly model was aimed at bei ng marketed to th e Swedi sh Army; a goa l that has sin ce become reality.There wer e a few m inor development- p rob lems wh ich have been sorted out now , and th ey've po lished up the detai ls. One of the most im po rt a nt cha nges that's fou nd on th e new bikes is that th e first gear clutch weigh ts have been enlarged to make th e un it engage soone r. An ea rly problem in volved the motor revvin g too high before th e bike started moving . Likew ise , t he 'fou rt h gear weights hav e been widen ed so tha! !~ will u'p'W!~ int2 fOllrth ~q,q,ner. It's hard to understand these two cha nges without first understanding how th e transmission operates so , although it's been done before , we've in cluded a "H ow it works " sectio n in this article. (See pg. 18) A " b ra ke shoe" arrangement ha s been added to stop or slow the first gear clutch drum . Without it , the momentum would keep the drum mo ving, and when the rider would release th e handlebar lever to enga~e the gearbox , it would grind. It stili will , b ut on ly if you rev th e m ot or. Always let it return to idl e before engagmg t h e gea rb ox. The lever d isen gages the transmission for starting . A new 36mm Bing carburetor has been added . It 's rubber mounted to insul at e it from engine heat , and it ha s a "fuel enrichen ing" lever for starting. Not a true ch oke, the lever opens a no the r jet. The forks hav e been given a good once over. The sliders are now grav ity cast instead of pressure ca st to prevent a porosity sometimes found in pressu re cast pa r ts. Both fork legs and damping rods hav e been lengthened 10mm for more travel. The valving has b een reworked to gi ve softe r action in th e first 3-4 inch es of travel , a progressi ve system . Oil damper s keep th e units from topping or bottom ing instead of using spri ng stops . . T he swingarm bu shin gs , formerly rubbe r, ha ve been replaced by needle bearings, a sta nda rd feature on a ll th e '77 Huskys. New fenders re place th e older ones which ha d a tendency to rip . T he new ones are to ugher, wid er , lon ger and hol d their co lor better. Burleson even went as fa r as to cla im the m unbreak able , but was p ro ven wro!lg during ou r ride. They ca n be broken , but it's not easy . W e accomplishe d th e fea t by d ropp ing the fro nt wheel off a th ree foot she lf into a muddy cre ek bed. The fr ont wheel stuc k, and th e Husky d id a ---- ...... ..... slow motion endo sheari ng the fender off right at the numberplate. " I can't believe you did that!" Dick exclaimed as he stood there holding the muddy stu b in his hand, "I've hit a thousand trees with mine and it never brokel" It ca n be done. It just takes tal ent -- or lack thereof. Other Stuff A complet e tool kit for working on th e transmi ssion is included with the bike. Using the kit , Dick and Bob 'tore the unit completely down in a matter of about fifteen minutes. And they wer en't hurrying. The neatest part about it was that th e motor stayed in th e fram e, the top end was left intact and it wasn't necessary to split the, ca ses. The transmission is com pletely accessibl e by pulling off th e side co vers . Only two th ings wear ou t, and on e of th ose onl y fails through misuse. The first gea r (i npu t) , the one that the handleba r lever cont rols, will be damaged if the lever is moved to the "e ngage" position re pea ted ly with the motor running at too high a n RPM . T he error b ecomes insta n tly ob vious , signalled by an ir rita ting gear grinding sou nd , and the owner will likel y break himself of the habit in a hurry . The ot he r pa rt s th at wear are th e working su rfaces of th e clutches. The brass clutch shoes (they expand like brak e sho es insid e a drum) are grooved on th e ou tside surfaces. After being used for approximately 1000 mi les, th e high spots will mush room over int o th e grooves. When that happens, oil is no lo nger effici ently ch a n neled aw ay fro m be twee n th e shoes and th e clut ch dru ms, and th e clutch es slip. Mainten a nce p rocedure involves removing the clu tc h shoes and clearing the grooves with a ha cksaw blade. Husqv arna sells a special au to matic transmi ssion flu id , and it's th e onl y th in g an owner shou ld use. There is an Exxon prod uc t th at a lso is suitabl e, bu t it's ha rd er to find than th e Husky stu ff. 9