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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126922
rhe Cross Country (above) has 11.8 and 13.7 inches of front and rear wheel travel. (Below) Slim seat and tank junction. but bulgey side panels. these add-ons came from Husky Products and are available to the public. Starting the big-bore, four-stroke Husky is simple, as long as the rider follows the starting ritual every time. When the engine is cold, you must ture the idle conrrol screw in a few turns, apply the choke and find top dead center with the piston on the compression stroke. Without giving any throllle (Husky recommends getting in the habit of keeping your right hand on the seat as you kick), give the Husky a moderate kick on the starter, and it'll fire right up. Once it's warmed up, turn off the choke and reset the idle screw. Starting the hot motor is sim pIe, as well. Find TDC, give it no gas, kick, and it fires. You don't even have to kick it hard, compared to most Japanese big-bore four-strokes. If you accidently give it gas while kicking it over, you'll pay the price by having to kick and kick and kick (with no gas) until its cleaned OUl. Throughout our testing, the Husky started on the first kick 99% of the time. The Husky can easily be started silling on the seat or standing 0(( to the side of the bike. The Husky's new engine has stronger low-end, is smoother and has more overall power than before. In fact, the powerband is so smooth that it feels slow. You don't realize how fast the bike is until you start braking for turns. The Husky can be ridden on fast, wide-open or extremely tight trails very easily because of its managable powerband. In tight sections, the torquey Husky pulls hard out of the turns, and doesn't have the tendency to stall at low rpm as much as last year's bike. When the trails are extremely tight, we did stall the motor once or twice, so we bumped up the idle to help remedy the problem. On faster trails, the Husky hooks up and plainly hauls. The motor is very versatile - it works well at highand low-speed situations. The Husky is very controllable, thanks to the smooth, torquey motor and stable chassis. The Husky doesn't really feel like a stereotypical bigbore four-stroke - it's not overly heavy, it's suspended well and it goes where it's pointed. The rear suspension is a lillie soft but we rarely bottomed out, and the forks handled all the jolts smoothly. TheHuskyhelda straight line in the rough stu£( at speed, and was good in tight woods trails. The Husky is a good turner, able to zig-zag through the trees as well as most smaller-size enduro bikes. The Cross Country model is a little tall for these situations, where the Enduro would be a lillIe beller. The brakes on the Husky gave us absolutely no problems. The front disc brake provided strong action as did the rear drum. Only one or two fingers are needed when pulling in the front brake lever. Deep water crossings didn't faze the front disc but did cause the rear drum to lose a lillie power. The new Husky has a very comfortable riding position, a narrow and Husqvarna 510 Cross Country Engine type Liquid-cooled. SOHC. single Bore x stroke 91.5 x 76.5mm Displacement 503cc Compression ratio N/A Carburetor 40mm Dell'Orto Horsepower N/A Torque N/A Valves,per cylinder . . . . . . . . . .. 4 Intake valve size 33mm Exhaust valve size 35mm Intake lift NI A Exhaust lift. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. NI A Included valve angle . . . . . .. N1A Intake valve timing . . . . . . .. N 1 A Exhaust valve timing NI A (measuring point) NI A Starting system Primary kick Ignition COl Lubrication Wet sump Primary drive Straight-cut gear Final drive #520 chain Gear ratios Primary 76/33; 2.303:1 Final. 48/14; 3.428:1 6th 20/27; 0.740:1 5th 22/25; 0.880:1 4th 24/23; 1.043:1 3rd 26/19; 1.368:1 2nd 1st Frame 29/16; 1.813:1 34/14; 2.429:1 Single downtube. split double cradle Rake ............•........ 27" Trail 4.7 in. Front suspension type 1 elescopic fork Fork tube diameter 41 mm Front wheel travel 11.8 in. Rear suspension type . . .. Singleshock swingarm Rear wheel travel 13.7 in. Front brakes 9.05-in disc Rear brakes 6.3-in. drum Front wheel 1.6Ox21 in. 2.5Ox18 in. Rear wheel Front tire 3.00-21 Metzeler Rear tire. . . . . .. 4.50-18 Metzeler Claimed dry weight 251.3Ibs. Overall length 86.6 in. Overall width 31.5 in. 50.9 in. Overall height Wheelbase 59.0 in. Fuel capacity 2.4 gal. Ground clearance 13.5 in. Seat height " 37.0 in. Colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. White Retail price Approx. $3600 firm seat, and the blk ts. relatively easy to throw around 4 It's an okay jumper but riding wheelies is hard to do. It feels lighter than last year's four-stroke, which really comes in handy when bouncing over rocks and logs. There are a few things we didn't like. The clutch is hard to use with a hard pull; it doesn't fully disengage until the lever is nearly touching the handlebar. That caused us to stall sometimes in tight switchbacks. The side panels bulge out quite a bit over the exhaust pipes and can be felt when leaning back on the bike. The kickstarter is a little tall and is sometimes difficult to get a leg on, and it's almost impossible to find neutral when the bike is idling. Despite these flaws, the 1987 watercooled, four-stroke Husky has a smooth and wide powerband, it's easy to start, has good suspension and turns well. The new Husky has definitely set the standard in the offroad, big-bore four-stroke wars - a standard that's going to be tough to beal. - 23