Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RIDING IMPRESSION 1998 Husaberg FE400 I (Left ) The 1998 Husaberg FE400 proved to be a tun and reliable motorcycle to ride on a recent three-day, SOD-mile tra il ride through Baja California. (Below) . What a beau1y. Husaberg went for Increased durability in '97 by add ing oil pumps and oil fi llers to their four-stroke motors. For '98 , thay s l r - , _ up !he rocker arms and Improved lhs earn_In tensloner and guide in seerch of mora raliability. The transmission gol new shlfl shafts and Husaberg ....,.ac.d last yaar's Ohlins ahock with a White Power unit to match the WP SOmm Extreme conventional forks. • By Cameron Coatney Photo s Kinney Jones p o n bein g invited to a recen t three-d e y, SOO-mile tr ail rid e through some of the most rem ote parts of Baja Ca liforn ia, I wa s pr esent ed with a tough choice to make: Ou t of all the '98 off-road mo torcycles available to me, which one woul d I take? In order of im po rtance, it wuuld have to be de pendable, comfortable, able to carry a substantial qu an tity of gas, yet still per.. form . Well, my' cho ice was the Husaberg FE400 - and I' ll tell yo u why, because I , know you're scratching your head right r:.: now in disbelief, sayin g, "This spoiled magazine gu y could have taken ju st abo u t any bike he wanted down to Baja and hechose a 'Rerg?" The obvious choice wo uld have been r-, the venerable Honda XR400 or 600, with 0\ a larger fue l ta nk; a fter all , XRs have 0\ ,..... beco me the staple for motorcycle travel in Baja Perhaps little less 00 . obvious Ca liforn ia.been a sligahtly modiwould've [j fied Ka wa saki KLX300R, or a Suz u ki ..0 DR 3S0, or o ne of KTM ' s LC 4 four.B strokes, but I wa nted to ride some thing u different. How abou t a bike that has not y e t full y establish ed it self w ith th e America n off-road community - like a Hu saberg? U ~. a ~ o 32 Hu seb ergs go t a bad . rap when they were first imported int o America from Sweden se vera l yea rs a go becau se of a limited dealer-and -parts n e tw ork . Th ey w ere b lin ding ly fast, lig h tweight, race-bred fourstrokes tha t usually cost a t least a couple gra nd mo r e tha n comparable motorcycles. And I use "co m pa rab le" loosel y , be caus e n oth in g was reall y te chn ol og icall y co m pa ra b le th en a n d onl y a few manufa cturers (Ya ma ha, Kaw a saki and KTM ) have a ny th ing compa ra b le now . People a lso s hie d away from them be cause the motors d idn't have an oil pump or even an oil filter. They were h ig h-p er fo rman ce , race-bred , we-d on't-care-h ow-long- itlasts-a s-long-a s- w e-w in m otorcycles th at ha ve to this d ate won a t least 10 World End uro Championships and two 500cc World Motocros s Championships. They were built to win races, plain and simp le. Well, a lot of that has cha nged now that KTM o w ns Hu saberg and the mo tors have received engine-life- extendi ng oil pumps a nd filters for the '97 model year , am on g other numerous changes. The d ealer network has grown subs tantially an d is now we ll-supported. The only problem so me may have w ith Hu sabergs n ow is the price , because they s ti ll co s t a t le ast $2000 mo re than the competition. As for the changes to the enti re lineup in '98. Husa berg's main goa l was to Simplify everythi ng and make the bikes more d epend ab le a nd durable. As a resul t, the mo tors go t a m or e efficien t ca m -c hain tens io ner a nd ca m -c ha i n g ui de th at is now ma d e o f a m oredurable a n d less-noisy plastic . The transmissions received new shift shafts for s moo the r s hifting, and th e clu tchplate material ha s b ee n a lte re d for in crea sed life spa n a nd less d rag. Up top, the rocker arms ar e new and, due to a better hard ening p ro cess , s tro ng er. New gu ide d owe ls are used between the cylinder an d crankcase, and between the head and the cylinder for a more precise . fit. Finally, a redesi gned intake manifold rou nds out the cha nges to the motors. The fram es have been left alone after last year's red esign , bu t the chai n-guideroller materia l h a s been cha nged to quiet things up. (They d idn't succeed, t hough) , Th e suspension compo ne nts have been updated, as the Ohlins shocks of yore ha ve been repl a ced with the Whit e Power "Bleed Adj us t" shock to co m ple men t th e White Pow er SOmm Extreme conventio na l for ks that wer e implem ented last ye a r. Th e forks a re also updated wit h new valving to work in con junc tion wi th the n ew sh ock, and a re now lighter a nd have 20mm less und erhan g comp ared to last yea r. All of the mod els took on a new, simpler wiring harness and compe fit iontype kill switches. The FE enduro models re ce iv ed n e w comp etition-type headlight /taillight switches, while the FE enduro an d FX desert electric-start models recei ved new keyl ess ignition swi tches. All of the electri c-start mod els also come stock with new black-chromeplated battery boxes for enhanced corrosion protection. The control s received quite a bit of a tte ntion this year, showing that Husa be rg is indeed concerned a bou t th e sma ll details tha t ha ve mad e the bikes so mewha t co bby in the pa st . Th e FC (motocross) and FX (desert) models now co me stock w ith tapered -a lumin u m , crossba r les s h and leba rs, muc h li k e Answer' s popular Pro-Taper handlebars. The (FE) enduro and dual-sport bikes (FEs) will retain the use of the standa rd a lu mi nu m ha nd leba rs to more easily ac com mod a te r oll charts an d end u ro computers. New , quicker-turning Domino throt tle ass emblies and softer grips are now s ta nd a rd, a nd H usabcr g ha s fin all y dumped th e Ma gura cl u tc h levers tha t fit the hands of 7-foot-tall Swedes in favor of Domino clutch levers wi th the' qui ck-tum cable adjus ter . The th rottle coul d aclually s ta nd to reach fully open a little q uicker, but the Domino clu tch lever was a drastic improv ement, ma king the bik e mu ch easier to ride since yo u d on 't need to use yo ur

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