Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GNEW BIKES 1992Hus valll3S ~ Gettin'serious a gain O"l . By Kit P almer VARESE, ITALY, JULY22·23 ta ly is not one of m y favorite pl aces. Pushy peo ple. diese l fumes, maniacal drive rs and four-hou r meals do mem o Bu t on this particul ar occasion. I d idn 't mind th a t I was going to spend the next six da ys in nort hern Italy. In fact, I was ac tually lookin g forward to it. Wh y? Because I, as well as fou r o ther m o torcyclin g jou rna lis ts from the U.S ., had accep ted a n invi tation from Cagiva North Ame rica to eyeba ll and ride th e 1992 Husq varna o ff-road and MX mo torcycles. After more tha n I4 hours trav elli ng , we arrived Sunday afternoon a t the Villa Cas tiglioni (no rela tio nsh ip to th e Castiglion i b ro the rs who own Cagiva) near the northern Ital ian town o f Va rese, where the Cagiva fac tory is located. After a nig ht spe nt ca tch ing up o n some much needed sleep , th e foll owing morning we got o ur first loo k at th e new Cag iva-bu ilt Husqvar- I Showa invert ed forks a nd sh oc ks, excep t for th e WMX mod els which hav e Swedis h-made Ohlin shocks. Las t year, Husq varnas came with Dutchm ad e Wh i te P o wer sus p ensio n com ponents. Forks a nd shocks are n 't the only j apanese prod ucts found o n th e new H uskys. T hey also co me with easierto-tu ne Mikuni (ra ther than Ital ianmad e Dellorto ) carb uretors, Du nl op (ins tea d of Metzeler ) tires, a nd m ore pow erful Nissin (no lon ger Brembos ) disc br ak e cali pers . . All th e models fea tu re a slick quick release seat design. Located o n top of th e sea t, at th e back, there's a Zsus type fas te n er, so t he sea t ca n be removed in a matter o f seco nds witho ut using any tools. With th e seat removed, there's clea r access to the air filter; it too ca n be removed without a n y tool s, which wi ll ma ke trai lside maintena nce a breeze. (Above) 1£ you 're looking for a new 250cc enduro bike, definitel y ch eck out the '92 WXE250 Husk y. It's trick! (Left) The WXE360 should be a big hit in th e U.S, The motor's awesome. 22 n a s and · wer e n othin g less th an impressed with some o f th e obvio us cha nges, mech anically a nd cos me tica lly. Cagiva is offeri ng a full force 'o f o ffroad and mot ocross H usq varnas for '92. In th e motocross de partment, Ca giva wi ll offer 125, 250 a nd 360cc two stro ke mo de ls, as we ll as a 610cc fourstro ke, a ll ar e designat ed as WMX. The sa me range o f Huskys will be ava ilable in th e " enduro " line ca lled WX E, wi th the edition o f a 350ccfour-stroke. WXC - cross cou ntry - m od els will a lso be o ffered, which a re nothin g more tha n WXEs withou t ligh ts. The complete range of motorcycles share many o f the sam e changes and featu res. Perhaps the mos t significant cha nge is the swap from European to japanese-made suspension components. All th e mod els now incorpora te New ligh ter m ain fra mes and remo va ble alloy subfram es a re featured o n all th e Husq va rn as, excep t on th e fourstroke mod els. All th e two -stroke en g in es fea ture ra d ica l changes. You nam e it , it's d ifferent. New bore, lo nger stro ke, redesigned exha us t power-va lve, different p iston, reed design an d po rt in g . are most o f th e major cha nges fou nd o n all o f th e two-stro ke engines. A lot o f attentio n was focused o n the clu tch. Not o nly a re th e clu tch plate an d baske t sig nifi cantly lar ger o n all th e models this year, but the actua l grippi ng ma terial has been cha nged as we ll. Sof ter orga n ic. rat he r t ha n cint ered , ma terial is now used, wh ich has two advan tages: organic materia l ca n be a tta ched to lighter a luminum , rat her th an steel, clutch pl at es, and the re's less cont a mina tion to the o il as the organi c material wea rs down. But (there's always a bu t) o rga nic material expa nds mor e th an cin tered material wh en th e engine heats up, so the re' s more cha nce o f th e cl u tc h dr aggi ng as engine/ o il ' temperature ri ses. A lo nger ac tua ti ng lever o n the eng ine cases is designed to lighten pull o n the clu tch lever. New "l ow -bo y" exha ust pipes are fo und on th e two-strok es, as well as new alumin u m silencers. T he WM X a nd WX E 360s are per ha ps the - most exci ting units in th e 1992 Hu sqv arna' lin e, a nd acco rding to Ca giva engineer Tiziano T oschi, the 360 engi ne isn 't just a 250 with a lar ger bore. Althou gh th e overa ll desig n is sim ilar to the 250cc eng ine , the actua l 348.8cc mi ll is a ll new. The WMX 360 weighs a claimed 224.4 pou nds, whi le th e WXE is j us t a few po u nds more. All the two -stro ke H usqvarnas co me wi th 3.4 gallon gas tanks; four-strok es, . 2.4 ga llon. Optional 5.0 ga llon tanks ar e a vai lable for th e four-strokes, and sma lle r 2.2 ga llon o nes fo r th e two strokes. After swi tching from a two-pipe exha ust system to a si ng le-pipe design las t year. bo th th e '92 350 and 610cc four-strokes went back to th e quieter two-p ip e system . Cagiva cla ims th at bot h the WX E350 and 610 weigh 255.2 po u nds , wi tho u t gas. After visua lly checking o ut every in ch o f the new H usq varnas, th e bikes were eventua lly tru cked to th e near est mo tocro ss track where we sp ent the rest of the aftern oo n roosti ng aro u nd on the Ital ia n-made H usqv arnas, mos tly o n th e WMX s. By far - o f a ll the motocrossers th e WMX250 im p ressed me th e most. The motor sim p ly roos ts! It 's a fast bik e, Reall y. Husq varnas have never been kn o wn to be trench-diggers on th e mot ocro ss track, so I guess I was a little bit sur prised how stro ngly th e WMX p u lled through the gea rs. But , th en a gain, past Cagiva MXers were never kn o wn to be bu ses. : Nevertheless, th e WMX H usqv arna has a n im p ressive mo tor. It pull s okay o ff the bottom, th en hook s up like cra zy from midrange o n up, bordering on th e verge of being pip ey. Wh at keep s it from cross ing th e line is its smooth powerban d. T he transiti on fro m lo w-end to m idrange is quite noti ceabl e but not start ling. Mot or-wise, th e WMX is, simply put, as compet itive as a ny o f th e 1991 j a panese 250cc MX ers. We feel th is wi ll a lso be th e case in '92, as we ll. The suspension, o n the o ther hand, left a little to be desired. The 250 we rode seemed a lillie ha rsh in th e back a nd too sof t in the fron t. Co mpressio n and rebo u nd da mping needed adj usting in th e back , too, m ainl y th e rebound, wh ich seeme d too quick.

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