Y
know the off-road riding
is go ing to be good wh en ,
the night before , you're hav-
OU
ing dinner in a r oo m wi th
deer heads juttin g o ut fro m
the log-cab in walls and the re 's a presurnably once-living big cat - an d we don't
mean of the Morr is variety eit her • bal-
anced pr ecariously on a massive wooden
beam abo ve yo ur plate o f pasta . And
wh e n 10-t ime ISDE gold medalist Fred
Hoess walks in, we ll, you know you're in
for a true off-road e xper ienc e . And
that's e xactly w hat Husqvarna had in
mind when the once -Swed is h-now Ita lian -owned motorcycle company
invited members of the U.S. motorcycle
press to upper state New York for its
2005 launch of Husqvarna off-ro ad and
motocross bikes.
This intro, not much unlike the one
last year when Husqvarna flew us to its
home base in Italy, focused so lely on the
bikes that the company will this year
import to the United States - all fourstrokes. Last year ('04) , Husky brought
over a couple of two-stroke models, the
CRI25 (MX) and the WR250 (off-road),
but for 'OS, the only thing we'll be seeing from the company that, in its heyday
made riders like Dick Burleson, Terry
Cunningham , Kent Howerton and
Chuck Sun famous , is thumpers .
Husq varna was , however, qu ick to point
out t hat this is by no means an indicatio n
that the company is planning to faze out
or give up on its two-strokes anyt ime
~_"G';.I'II soon. No , Husky says, not at all. The
two-strokes are still available in Europe,
but for marketing and strategy reasons ,
Husqvarna will only import six Husky
four-strokes models to the United
States - for now.
AND THEY ARE?
T he Hus kys we'll be se e ing in 'OS are
based on three plat forms : 250cc , 450cc
an d 5 1Occ, each co ming in off-road an d
motocross t rim, the T Es o ff-road and
TCs mo tocross. Th e T Es, of course,
come equipped with all the usua l offroad good ies, such as a headlight an d
taillight, a co mpact digital readout, offroad -spec Michelin tires, an l Bvinch
rear wheel, a wider-ratio gearbox and a
spring-loaded kickstand . The TCs get
Pirelli tires and 19-inch rear wheels.
They both, however, again get electric
starters· yes , even the motocrossers . A
bac kup kick-start er kit is available for
the TCs , while the TEs come with both .
All of the bikes see ma jor cha nges
over their '04 predecessors , wh ich, to
us. comes as a bit of a surprise since
th e '045, wi th thei r ne w-gene ratio n
mo tors, to ok on major re con structi on
and were , fo r the mo st part , re mar kably cap abl e ma ch ine s.
18
NOVEMBER 3, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
40th Anniversary
