Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

The WXE125 (right) wasn't imported in to the U.S. las t year, but for '94 Hu sqvarna d ecid ed that Americans migh t like the liddler. The y were rig ht. Th e 125's clutch plates are made fro m a new material and exhaust exits thr ough a doubl e-wall ed pipe. Both the 125 and the WXE360 (below) received d ifferent suspension se tti ng s and fla tter- topped p istons. Price increases are mi ni mal on all of th e ne w Huskys. ... truth is, that policy doesn't always make for better products, and eve n the "bi g four" Japanese compa nies a re for the most part only updating exis ting models. Though there weren 't any earth-shattering cha nges to th e new two-stroke line up, Hu sky was p roud enough of its th ree ' 94 off-road m o dels th at th ey unveiled the m to severa l Ame r ic an mo torcycle publica tion s a t a two-d ay press introduction in Massachuse tts, at the ho me of form er Nationa l Enduro Cha mpio n Kevin Hines. The fou r-stroke m od el s h ad u n fo r t u na tely no t yet arrived in the States, and were thus not includ ed in th e in tro d uct ion . For '94, H us qva rna w ill be im por ting only a very limited number of mo tocross models into the Ll.S; so we weren 't able to ride those bikes either. The Husq vamas we rode we re actually pre-production units, bu t th e bik es that come off the asse mbly line shou ld be extremely close to what we we re riding. Are you sure tho se thi ngs are Huskys?!? While it may have no thing to d o with p erformance, th e mos t eye-catch ing mod ification to the new Husqvarna models is without a do ub t the sw itch in co lor, from the tr aditional refrigerator w h ite to a fla shy fl orescent yellow . Actu ally, only the radiator shrouds and number plate stickers spo rt the new tint, but it's definitely en ough to grab yo ur a tten tio n . A lso, t he sea t cover n o w sp orts a lighter blue color than last year, and the fork guards are blue as we ll. As us ual, with the new year co me higher p rices, but at least the incre ases are mini mal with Hu sqvama. At $4895, the suggested retail price of the WXE250 is $250 hig her than last year, while the 360's price was increased jus t $200 to $5150. In the case of the 125, which goes for $4050, the re is no actual "inc rease," as H u sky d idn 't imp o r t the tid d le r model a t all las t year. Husq varna also offers a WXC vers ion of all three bikes for $100 less . Th e o nly d ifferen ce between the two models is that the WXEs include a head ligh t, tail light and odometer, while the WXCs do not. Price used to be a prohibitive factor when buying a European-made motorcycle, and while the new H uskys are not exac tly inexpensive, the d eclining do llar-to-yen ratio has been beneficial to the "C ontinen tal" manu factu rers. Like th e . ' 94 KTM s, the p ri cin g of th e ne w Husq varnas is now ver y co m petit ive w ith the "big four ." Mos t o f the '9 4 Japanese mod els have undergone price increases of we ll over $300, and man y m odels th at are sim ila r to the WXEs n ow have hi ghe r pr ices tha n the Huskys. Th e price in c re a ses on th e ne w Hu sqv ama models are justified by more than just the Bold New Graphics, as the bikes have also undergone several performance updates. All three m odel s ha ve received the same inverted Showa fork, w ith different se t tings than last year . Th e Showa sh ock a lso g ot new dampin g se ttings, and the swi ngarms on all three models now undergo a d ifferent welding process. Hu sqvarna had a few problems with their chain tensioners being sligh tly misaligned last year, so steps were also taken during installation to make sure th at this trend was eliminated. Cf') rl H

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