21J's New Husky 450 Project!

Husky FC450 Part One

I decided I wanted to go back to a 450 something about being lazy and all that horsepower doesn’t seem to go together. But who said dirt bike riders were smart.

I bought a well used 2017 Husky FC450, the price was right and I believed it was well maintained. No pictures of the new/used 450, why, because it looks basically like my 350, the 450 has the plastic off my 350. One item it did come with was brand new air forks. The previous owner had installed a KYBA front end. The rest of the bike was well broken in and this is my first foray into air forks. Just when every other manufacturer is going back to spring forks it appears KTM/Husky are all in on the system. We’ve all heard theirs really work well I’m finding out.

Well before I get to that, this is what I’ve done to make the bike comfortable for me.  The bike is light makes all the horsepower I could ever handle so I don’t need to invest $$ in any trick exhaust system. The stock Husky muffler has an almost spark arrestor screen in it. Unfortunately it’s in the middle of the muffler and those little rods they like to poke into the ends of mufflers to see if it has that little spark arrestor screen is beyond the length of those rods. I’m not planning on riding this thing anywhere other than MX track so I don’t care, but that little screen does rob the bike of some horsepower. (The screen was taken out by the previous owner)

I installed a steering stabilizer, this is a comfort thing for me I think you could simply tighten the steering head nut to accomplish the same thing. I installed a plastic skid plate (Works Connection) I don’t like metal skid plates, some believe they make noise and bind the frame and eliminate some flex. Manufacturers go to a lot trouble to get the proper amount of flex in their frames so it seems kind of counterproductive to put on a metal skid plate. I put a 49 tooth rear sprocket on it I think it will just work better for me. I also installed a Rekluse and it’s also a comfort thing. I could probably get along fine without it for MX but I just wanted it. Although Rekluse is really proud of them, the one that works on the Husky has a list price of one tick under a $1000. I’ve questioned my sanity in needing one of these.

The last thing I installed was my trusty Air Cells, those are the little round cylinders that mount on the fork tubes and replace the air bleeders. These tanks allow a measured amount of air to escape from the forks into these cylinders and back into the forks. The purpose of them is to help soften the initial first few inches of travel in the forks. I’ve installed them on all my bikes for many, many years. I just reinstall on each new bike. All forks build up air pressure that’s why they have air bleeders; air pressure in the forks can alter the way they function.

Actually I only installed one Air Cell on the right side fork, the one that controls compression and rebound. It’s sort of well known the big issue with most all stock forks is the spike (Feedback into your hands) in the initial part of the travel, in other words the small stuff. Most all forks do a good job of handling the big stuff it’s the small stuff that we complain mostly about. But I had no real idea if the Air Cell would work on a fork with no springs in it. I didn’t put the Air Cell on the left side which on the Husky is the one that holds the air no spring but acts as the spring. Varying air pressures is like changing spring rates. Based on the recommendations of Bucky at SBB I took 30cc of oil out of each fork and set the initial pressure at 129 lbs and opened the compression all the way He also had me speed up the rebound (Which seemed counter to what I would normally do) he says the air fork reacts differently to rebounding than standard forks, ok and remembering the compression and rebound are on one side with no fork spring who am I to argue.

My first ride was Sunday at the sand track (MMX) in Marysville. Riding a 350 Husky and a 450 Husky is different of course and I knew it would take a while to feel comfortable. But after a few laps I noticed how stiff the forks were even with all that I had done before hand. I also knew it was going to take time before they would break in. But then I started noticing that dreaded spike which was coming right back into my hands. After the initial ride I came back in and opened up the previously closed Air Cell wide open (10 turns) and went back out. Wow, no spiking, I’ve gotten used to riding with forks that don’t spike so when they did it was UN pleasant, now the forks were plain stiff, but no more spiking.

Fast forward to this past Wednesday and we (A bunch of friends) are at MMX again this time Bucky of SBB was there with Eric #33 who has a 2017 KTM 450SX he’s setting up to ride the Old Timer Nationals (In the near future) Eric has a resume as long as his arm and knows what he wants when setting up his suspension. Bucky has been working with Eric on his suspension like over the phone but Eric made the trip from his ghetto home in AZ to work with Bucky. So Wednesday was testing for Eric and Bucky. When they had it just about perfect for Eric I asked Eric to ride my bike to give me an idea of where my suspension was at. I have always liked the way Eric’s suspension settings work they seem to fit what I like, except his are always way to stiff for me, but how they work through the stroke etc I like. Well when Eric came off the track he was ecstatic he says that’s what is needed for his set up and that’s the spike hit in the initial part of the travel. And that was because of the Air Cell I had on the one side. So to test this out we installed my Air Cell on his bike and we both rode it and Walla it fixed it. So Bucky’s task now is to see if he can resolve that final piece by revalving the fork to take that out. If not Eric will no doubt be using an Air Cell to fix that one area? I’ve given Bucky my forks so we’ll see how mine works for my riding abilities along with the Air Cell.

We met at MMX on Sunday Eric and I both had our SBB revalved forks. I started out at 140 pounds and the Air Cell closed, the forks worked overall much better I didn’t notice any spike even with the Air Cell closed. The third time out I opened the Air Cell three turns and immediately noticed a much better feel in the initial part of the fork travel for me. The track got really sketchy in a few places, some G outs at the bottom of a couple of jump faces. Overall the track got a lot rougher than it had been there were lots of riders pounding laps out there. I rode the rest of the day and didn’t change anything else. Eric seemed to like his forks as well. (Without the Air Cell) Remembering how picky he is he still feels there’s room for a little improvement but when they are done SBB customers will benefit from all the testing they are doing. I know I’ve already benefitted from their work. More ridding at MMX and would like to get out to Prairie City as soon as they reopen after HangTown.

In the meantime I thought I’d express my thoughts about riding a 450 for the first time in about three years. First I picked the Husky after having had the chance to ride a couple of different bikes. I felt like the motor was the main reason and so far I’d have to say I was right. All the write up’s always say the Husky is down on power or a little soft or whatever. Well maybe it is for a pro but for us mere mortals any 450 has more power than we can safely handle. I like the easy to use Husky power, I was looking for easy and torque. I’ve had the chance to ride a 2017 KTM 450SXF back to back with mine and I definitely like the power delivery on the Husky, the KTM is more abrupt. The other thing I’ve noticed is the Husky doesn’t pull on my arms and it doesn’t vibrate enough to put my hands to sleep. It’s as easy to ride as my 350 was except the difference in torque. I can ride it in the same gears I did on my 350 but I don’t have to do it in the high RPM’s like the 350. To make sure I don’t whiskey throttle it say in woops I ride it in a taller gear and I’m still able to lift the front end whenever I want. The Rekluse helps a little with that, there’s always a little delay in the power delivery. So far I’m impressed, won’t know how riding it for a full moto will be until I do it.

I had the big air screw (On the air side of the fork) drilled, tapped and I’ve installed it along with the Air Cell. I’ve had people ask me if doing that lets all the air out and the answer is no the air for the fork pressure (And spring rate) is sealed. This is the air that builds up in all forks.  Not sure I’m going to get a chance to try it before practice on Friday (June 8^th) before the races Saturday and Sunday.

No chance to test the forks with both Air Cells installed before last weekend’s race. I rode the open practice on Friday and the only thing I adjusted on the bike was front tire pressure and the handle bar position. I started with the Air Cells open three turns and that’s where they stayed for two races on Saturday and Two on Sunday.

Obviously the more I rode the 450 the better I felt on it, it’s turning out to be exactly what I was looking for, the track was a challenge turning from mud to everything in between, you know a national caliber motocross track.

I’ll report on the FC450 again down the road.

Doug 21J

Doug’ latest project!

2017 Husky FC450

Let me set this up a little. I sold my Husky FC 350 so I could buy a 450, I had decided I wanted to go back to a 450, my flawed thinking is since I don’t have a lot of corner speed  with the 350 (Or with any bike for that matter) I need to rev it in order to try and jump some of the jumps. (Emphasis on some) So I figured with a 450 I can gas it at the last minute and fly over the jumps. (I see other people do it all the time, so why not me)

So I started looking for a KTM or Husky. I found a couple right away that were priced fair, but I wasn’t ready to pounce. (I didn’t have all my money lined up) and as a consequence I missed out. Then when I did have my money there weren’t any to be had.

I found out Yamaha had a deal on the 2018 YZ450F a brand new bike for this year with the priority of having a electric start. The deal was $8800 OTD and if you qualified, no down payment and 24 months no interest, that’s almost free. The people at Roseville Yamaha for some reason like me and gave me a brand new 450 to try.

I thanked them for providing me with a 450 to try that was above and beyond. So much so I couldn’t take it out and get it dirty. I know they  would have been ok with me actually riding and getting it dirty, but I thought In the back of my mind I would have felt obligated to buy it.(G the sale manager said “You should have gotten it dirty then”)

Our club had a ride day at Dixon on Saturday and as luck would have it a friend Brian who just purchased a 450 from Roseville was at Dixon and let me ride it. And another friend had just purchased a 2018 Husky FC450 and he let me ride it. So over the course of the day I got to ride these two bikes back to back. Both had a little over two hrs on them when the day was done. Both were totally stock not even the clickers had been touched it was about as fair as it could be. Both suspensions were naturally stiff but by the end of the day both were starting to break in a little. The Husky was a little softer than the YZ but I know when the YZ breaks in it will be great. They both did everything they were supposed to, neither did anything unexpected. I was pleasantly surprised how well the YZ felt in the air.

Both bikes are very good and I would recommend both, obviously the YZ is much less money. But for me it came down to one thing and that was the Husky’s motor was smoother, off idle. The YZ’s motor felt a little violent, even though it wasn’t, under way they both had 450 vibes. The YZ wasn’t any harder to modulate the power than the Husky’s it was just a personal feeling for me. It’s hard to explain the Husky motor just felt smoother, the Husky was more familiar no doubt because I have been riding one for a couple of years.

So on Monday I took the Yamaha back a little cleaner than when I picked it, thanked then again and snuck out the back door.

I found a 2017 Husky FC450 and bought it. It was very clean but has a lot of hours on it. The hours on a450 don’t bother me and the bike looks like it has been taken care of, my 350 had 76 hrs on it and I know it was ok. So I’m in the process of making the 450 set up for me. This will be my first foray into air forks, so we will see how it goes. I kept my Yamaha front end I had been using on my 350, so if doesn’t work I’ll put that front end on I know it works.

I’ll report on how it’s going later.

21J

Round 3 of 2018 IOTMX

The Sand Box International Old timers MX round 3 

The race was held at the sand track in Fernley NV this past weekend; Friday’s practice was a little windy, a little cold with a little blowing sand. By the time I got out there the track was pretty beat up. The track layout there is always pretty simple and all the jumps were very safe. (Except when) This year’s track was a little tighter than year’s past; they took out a couple of long straights and made turns out of them. The thing about sand tracks is they get rough so they don’t need to be tricky just surviving can be difficult enough. Like I said the jumps were all safe except all the faces of them became cupped and rutted which meant they could either kick the back end up or sideways. I wasn’t real comfortable and my confidence wasn’t great, so I started making excuses about things, you know just in case it didn’t go well on the weekend.

Saturday morning was sunny and warm. After a short riders meeting the racing started. I don’t know how many riders the club had but the turnout looked to be pretty decent. Saturday is always a long day because most of the riders have three motos. (I’m glad I’ve reached the status of not having to ride the third moto, I know how rough the tracks get for that third moto) My race was the second race of the day and after my first gate drop of the weekend we raced around and around and around, pretty soon I and everyone else in the race started thinking where is that white flag. You sort of have a timer in your head and have kind of a sense of when you should see a white flag. Well we didn’t and onetime I went by the flagger and scores and raised one hand in the air in a gesture of, hey where’s the white flag. Finally it came out, after the race I rode back to the flagger and asked how long was that race to which the scorer replied 15 minutes. It was actually 21 minutes. Turns out they were brand new at this particular task and were confused as to when they were to actually start timing the race. They soon figured it out and all was well after that. But they definitely kicked our ass in the first moto.  I don’t believe the ambulance moved all day, and the racing ended in time for the 4:30PM dinner bell. I thought the meal ticket was a little pricy. I didn’t pre enter but the meal was excellent and actually worth the price. 

Sunday was a little cooler and the wind was blowing just enough to make it annoying. The wind did help keep the oversized Fernley mosquitoes away for the most part. I did notice a few walking wounded wondering around the pits Sunday morning so a few riders had bit the dust on Saturday. Sunday’s racing was short sweet and to the point. In the second moto on Sunday I was catching a friend of mine on the last lap, he had to go off the side of a jump to avoid a rider who had drifted over into his path. He went down the side of the track and entered just at the beginning of a left hand bowl turn; he came across in front of me and almost took out my front wheel. Now Duane is a friend of mine but I started yelling at him, but I wasn’t cussing at him (Kind of weird) I remember yelling things like Duane you can’t do that, you can’t do that. I’m sure had that been someone else I would have been flinging all kinds cuss words at them. It was strange, in the middle of all this I realized I wasn’t cussing at him, very strange. But all down the long straight I became determined to pass him, so a few corners later I got on the inside of him in a slow berm turn and slammed into him knocking him out of the berm, almost taking us both down. That’s totally out of character for me, I don’t do things like that but I guess I was mad enough and determined enough to do that. After we got back to the pits we talked about it. All was well, he said he knew it was me he cut off in the corner because he recognized my voice yelling at him but not cussing.

When I came off the track at the end of the last race on Sunday there was short heavy set gentlemen pointing his finger at me motioning me to come forward to him? My first thought was oh shit someone saw the move I put on Duane and wanted to chew me out for it. But he turned out to be a reporter from some local newspaper wanting to do an interview, he asked me are you 83 and I said no I’m just 76.  He said oh, I’m looking for the 83 year old rider.  I said he has number 83 on his bike, he says thanks and I rode off.

I want to take a few lines here , well maybe more than a few and talk about something that I’ve noticed this year and it’s a bit disturbing to me and that’s riders riding out of class. I’ve been able to make the first three events this year and have seen a lot of it. I thought it was particularly bad in Arizona. I’ve had people tell me they’ve overheard some of these riders who are actually bragging about how they are kicking ass. It seems to me it’s mostly riders who are signing up and riding in the Novice classes who clearly don’t belong there. I don’t know if it’s the riders local clubs cutting them some slack or what. My guess is it’s because they belong to say an organization like the OTHG and ride in a higher level in that organization. Then come to these events and somehow are able to sign up in a lower level class. I see a lot of riders with yellow backgrounds with black numbers or even white backgrounds with black numbers with green Novice tape or yellow Intermediate tape all around their numbers. That indicates to me that they are riding at something other than a novice or intermediate level wherever they come from.  

Most of the riders in those classes, especially in the Novice classes don’t complain to anyone about it so most of the cheaters get away with it. The clubs need to adhere to the rules which mean club reps need to be watching motos and recommending those who need to be advanced. I don’t know if when these riders initially join to race the clubs are letting them sign up in say the Novice class when the rules state a new rider will automatically be signed up in at least the Intermediate class. I think any rider who shows up on the line with the wrong color background and numbers with some tape around the edges should be double checked and scrutinized. The Old Timers certainly encourage riders from other organizations to ride their events by letting them run their numbers and background colors and providing colored tape to indicate a different class other than what their bikes have on them. And at the first three events I’ve seen a lot of bikes with the wrong colors with tape on the starting lines.

That’s my rant and my two cents worth.

Overall it was a good weekend for most everyone I think. I won’t be going to the Montana race so my next Old Timer race will be at Prairie City June 9^th and 10^th.

Doug 21J

1.7 Cleaning Solution Formula 4

Hard parts dressing by Matrix Concepts

Art who always becomes my best friend when he gives me free stuff to try. Gave me a bottle of 1.7 Cleaning Solutions with a 4.0 formula; I have no real idea what that means, the good people at Matrix could no doubt shed light on this.

It says “Spray Shine & Protection for Frames, Wheels, Suspension and Components” It’s also “Earth Friendly” and “Non Toxic Biodegradable” which are all good things.

Art knows I’m anal when it comes to keeping my bikes clean and looking good, but he gave the bottle to me anyway. I have my methods and stock piles of the goodies I need to keep my bikes looking as new and fresh as possible. And quite frankly thought I’m sure I won’t really need this product it would just add to the products I already use.

I’m getting my 2016 Husky FC350 ready for this weekend’s International Old Timer race being held at Glen Helen so I thought after I’ve done all my normal prep I would try this stuff on the engine covers. So per the instructions I sprayed it on the covers the muffler brake and shift levers and waited for a minute then wiped it off. (And this is where the only complaint I have comes in, the spray nozzle has two settings it will shoot a strait stream or a fan spray. The fan spray kind of dribbles out in a fan spray, I think the fan spray needs to be much finer almost like a mist) Shoot I was very surprised, it worked and it worked well. Normally I would use the show and shine or shine and show products which are really for plastics on the engine covers etc. and it does a good job but always feels like it leaves a film. The Matrix dressing didn’t do that, after wiping it off it felt like it left a hard coating and it was brighter. So I sprayed it on the frame the fork tubes, the swing arm etc. I even sprayed it on parts of the engine just see if it made them look better, it did.

So for anal guys like me it helps those hard parts look even better. But there are a lot of guys out there that aren’t as anal and don’t care as much about appearance as guys like me do, but when they get ready to sell that bike they may want to make it look as good as possible, this stuff really works and will no doubt make those parts look much better, even if they have been neglected.

I have a 2012 KTM 500EXC that I bought a few years ago and I spent many hours trying to make it look as good as possible. The guy I bought it from looked after the mechanical part of the bike but didn’t care about the looks of it (That’s one of the reasons I was able to purchase it for much less money than I normally would have) I’m now anxious to use this stuff on the 500 to see if I can help those hard parts look better. I also want to see how this product holds up on my Husky after I’ve race it and cleaned it up again. So I’ll wait to finish this latter.

As I had hoped when I cleaned my bike after last weekend’s races the hard parts I had treated still looked great. The water actually beaded up on those parts and dried looking just as good as before, which means I won’t have to use it every time I wash the bike, unlike the show and shine products for the plastics.

The question now is how many times can I wash it before I have to reapply it?

I’m sold.

Doug 21J

21J's Husky FC350 update number 3

Husky FC350 update number 3

It’s been awhile since I updated the progress or lack thereof on my Husky, so here it is.

Actually about all I’ve been doing with it is ride it on MX tracks, exactly why I have it. It still works as well as it did the last time I wrote something on it. The KYBA (Yamaha) front end works very well for me. The only thing I’ve changed is the material I use to make up the difference in the fork diameter and the lower triple clamp. I started out using number plate graphics material but found I had to constantly check the lower triple clamp bolts as they would loosen. I now use soda can material as a shim and they don’t loosen as often. This is strictly a factory fix of course.

The one issue I still have with bike is pop stalling even though I have a Rekluse. It doesn’t happen often unless the motor is not up to operating temp but will still occasionally do it. I am convinced it’s me that causes it. I am an old rider who learned on the old two strokes when you couldn’t trust they would continue to run while going down hills or cornering while riding on trails. So those old habits of playing with the throttle still haunt me. And the modern fuel injected four strokes don’t like their throttles blipped off and on at slow speeds even with a Rekluse. I don’t know maybe it would work better without the Rekluse. Ain’t no way I’m going to give up my Rekluse (Although not using a Rekluse for MX would work except I’m addicted to it?)

A friend of mine who rides a KTM 450 almost exclusively at chalk Bluff where the trails are very tight and has very strange ideas on how to set up his bike to ride there and he’s a very fast rider up there, but he likes no engine braking which is hard to accomplish with a 450 four stroke. First of all he converted his clutch lever to a hand operated rear brake. (No clutch lever) He sets his Rekluse to free wheel as soon as possible and sets his idle at around as low as he can and have it still run (Four stroke fuel injection idle is normally around 2000 RPM +) So his bike stalls a lot and is a big source of frustration for him.

So he tells me about a fuel rail that is made and sells for about $75. Apparently someone wanted to get a KTM 500 up to 150MPH but it was running out of fuel at the higher speeds. The fuel entering the throttle body had two 90 degree bends before it reached the injector. They believed in that space between the two 90’s it was running out of fuel. So they developed a fuel rail that eliminates the two 90’s and goes straight into the injector. Apparently as a side benefit it helps with pop stalling. So my buddy and I ordered a couple of them. We’ve both installed them and he’s had one opportunity to try it. According to him once the bike was up to operating temp it did not stall. I haven’t had the chance to try mine yet, so when I do I’ll finish this article.

Well I went to Prairie City the day after the big cross country race to test out my new fuel rail. I found out a couple of things, first I didn’t enjoy riding my MX bike on yesterday’s course. It’s one thing to race a rough course on the day of the event you sort of get in the grove of it but trying to duplicate that the next day is difficult especially riding a bike suited for a motocross track. So in other words the bike and track beat the shit out of me. And the other more important thing is the bike still stalled.

I certainly thought the bike was warmed up enough. I was putting around in the rocks and ravines going very slow. Once I got out into the more open areas it didn’t stall again. I don’t know what to think at this point, I am obviously going to try it on a motocross track and see what happens.

I start thinking about old gas, winterized gas maybe it could use a little octane booster things like that. Or maybe I need to see where the TPS (Throttle position sensor) is set, maybe advance it a little.

Sierra Old timers had their first ride day of the New Year on Friday February 2^nd at Prairie City MX, track this gave me another shot at evaluating the fuel rail. It did stall on me a couple of times at first, but not on the track. But after that it didn’t.

I still haven’t changed the gas and the motor normally starts right up especially when warm but struggled a little on this probably the warmest day of the year so far. I’m still not convinced it’s better yet.

Had Bucky at SBB check the valves, the intakes were a little tight. It still stalled and was hard to start. I decided to have it tested and set up on a real KTM Diagnostic program. They basically ended up cleaning the injector. I did find out the idle I’ve been running is too low. (1900-2000) And I did have to put in a new battery which I think contributed a lot to the bike’s resistance to starting especially when cold.

I went to Prairie City to test again and this time the bike ran great, no stalling and started fine. I ended up raising the idle to the high 2100’s low 2200’s.

No practice before the first race of the season in Arizona, it’s raining. I’ll save the last paragraph for how things went.

Traveled to Arizona for the first Old Timer race of the season, got there too late to practice on Friday, so my first ride was Saturday mornings practice. Practice and the motos on Saturday went great the bike ran perfect. Unfortunately it rained all night and for most of us was to wet to ride, so I packed up and left.

This has been a long draw out report; you’re probably just as tired reading this as I am of writing it.

Doug 21J.