Husaberg FE650

In the early days, before KTM bought the company, Husabergs had a reputation as being fast but very rough around the edges. There wasn't a lot of build quality, to put it bluntly, and when you stacked that on top of a few oddball design features, it made the locals sceptical.

Since taking over the company, KTM has put Husaberg on the orange production line and improved a few things. Gone is the European SEM ignition, replaced by a Japanese digital Kokusan. The Dell 'Orto carb has been replaced by a Keihin. The old Husaberg 'restart' system has been made into a fair dinkum electric-start with a decent battery and a Mitsu starter-motor.

The Husaberg FE650 is one hell of a bike, no doubt about that. It's the fastest dirt bike we've ever been on, maybe the most powerful there is, but it still has a few weird features. Some of them are the result of shaving every gram of weight the designers reckon this bike doesn't need. For example, every bolt-head has been scooped out to reduce the amount of metal the bike has to carry around. Here are more quirky features:

Most liquid-cooled bikes have two radiators. This bike has one. That might be okay on a race bike parked next to a team transporter, but on a dirt bike, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest dealer, maximum damage to this radiator means no radiator at all.

There's no coolant overflow bottle.

The tiny choke can only be seen and/or found if you're on your hands and knees. It's in such a secret place we had to ring the raceteam workshop to find out where it was.

This street-legal bike has a steering lock, but no-key start. All thieves have to do to pinch it is break the steering lock, fire it up and ride away.

The wires running across the top of the carby chafe quickly. They need to be rerouted or protected with insulating tape.

The decomp cable has a kink that will turn into a problem.

The engine breathes through a two-into-one rubber hose running from the head to an air cavity inside the chassis backbone. It breathes so hard it sucks oil vapour from the engine and deposits it in the air filter. (And no, we didn't drop the bike).

There's no engine or frame guard.

There's a seal on the kick-starter and gearshift shafts to keep oil in, but no seal to keep dirt out. (And they're not double-lipped seals, either.)

There's no thermo fan. That's not unusual. A lot of liquid-cooled dirt bikes don't have one - my WR450 doesn't - but if you're slogging through the jungle at 4km/h for hours on end with no air flowing over the engine, you might want something else to help keep it cool.

On follow-through, the kick-starter catches under the footpeg. Some Huskies used to do that. I hate it.

When the fork fully compresses, the front tyre hits the header pipe.

I asked Husaberg Australia about this last item. Apparently they're designing a new header pipe.

There were other quirks too, but I don't want to give the impression that Husaberg does these things simply to attract attention. And some of them could easily be fixed.

A more efficient baffle in the breather would solve the problem of oil being sucked into the air filter. Fitting a bashplate is no big deal; most bikes need an aftermarket one. Insulating or re-routing the wires over the carby wouldn't be difficult. Neither would fitting up a small overflow bottle for the radiator.

As for that stupid choke button, Keihin designed the carburettor, not Husaberg, and on any other bike that button might easily be reached.

The thing is, with better attention to detail, Husaberg could have fixed all these things for us. And maybe it should. If the FE650 was less like a boutique bike and more like a (Japanese) trail bike, they might sell more of them.

ALL THE POWER IN THE WORLD
We all rave on about the current crop of high revving, short-stroke four-strokes as if Yamaha invented the idea and pioneered it. It didn't. Husaberg was well into this style of engine before the Yamaha WR400F turned up in 1998. One reason KTM bought Husaberg was to get its hands on the engine technology.

Husaberg's have always been distinctive too, and traditionally feel like no other bike. There's nothing on a 'Berger' that doesn't have to be there. That reflects the racing heritage. When you compare the profile of this bike with the typical Japanese dirt bike, the Japanese model seems to carry a lot of incidental equipment a Husaberg can live without.

The '04 FE650 has a huge 48mm WP fork and, of course, a WP no-linkage shock, both with all the adjustment you need. The suspension is brilliant and the entire package very well-balanced. This is a beautiful bike to ride. It tracks straight, steers accurately and turns with very little effort from the rider. It feels right.

Here are a few more things we like about it: for a big thing with a wheelbase of 1490mm it's surprisingly manoeuvrable. At 109kg dry, and with a seat height of 930mm, it's easy for small guys to handle. You don't need pro skills to enjoy it.

And there's nothing this bike can't do. It hammers over rough ground with a confidence-inspiring sure-footedness and never feels twitchy or nervous.

Blokes who find their own lines through the scrub will like it because it doesn't have to be ridden on the perfect race line to steer or turn properly. Rutted or washed-out terrain doesn't bother it in the slightest. It's always stable. Always predictable.

It's a good bike for big fellas too; there's plenty of room to move around on it, and the engine and suspension can handle any beef burger who wants to ride it.

The 644cc, four-valve engine gets power to the ground through a marvellously light hydraulic clutch and a six-speed gearbox. Shifts in both directions are slick and fast and there's no need for the clutch after lift-off.

Anyone who suggests the engine is the heart of this bike is right, but that's only half the story. All the power in the world is useless if the suspension can't handle it.

Then again, all the power in the world is what makes the FE650 such a blast to ride.

Even with a piston the size of a dustbin it revs like buggery. Throttle response is very good, and when it hooks up on something with good traction, the big bike launches itself in a manic burst of acceleration few standard bikes can match. It's certainly faster than the VOR 530.

If you can't ride this thing for half an hour and get off smiling, you need counselling.

Most of our riding during the evaluation was on hard-pack, with plenty of rocks, terrain and circumstances that quickly showed the weakness in Pirelli's MT83 FIM tyre. The front MT83 seemed okay but after a couple of serious rides the rear tyre was hanging in shreds. All you get with an MT83 on the back is wild fishtailing.

What the bike needs is an aggressive knobby on the rear end, something that gives more traction and less wheelspin than the FIM Pirelli. Under-tyring this bike is a mistake. You'll find that out the first time you hit anything with little natural traction.

Do we like the big girl? Hell yeah. It's one of the wildest things we've ever ridden. The engine and suspension are fantastic and the bike handles as well as anything out there.

The importer says the FE650 doesn't sell well to trail riders, and frankly that's a damn shame. This bike is vastly superior to most popular big-bore four-strokes, the TTR600, the XR650 and so on. Thing is, on a Yamaha or a Honda you won't see the front wheel hit the header pipe. You won't find engine oil in the air filter either.

When Husaberg can address these small but annoying mechanical faults, this $14,000 'boutique bike' will look a lot better to this particular bunch of sceptics.

WHAT WE LIKED:

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: