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TE511

Cush Hub......?

11/22/2014

1 Comment

 
I was curious and figured what better way to find out than to call Woody's about some cush drive hubs. Here are the prices;
(friends bike) 570 Husaberg - about $800.00 if they can reuse the rim
(my bike) Husky TE511 - about $800.00 if they can reuse the rim
(my bike) Suzuki DRZ 400S - About $920 with Excel rims and closer to $1000.00 with Takosago(?) rims, I figured that I am that far in on a 11 year old bike why not replace the rim.

These are all with new hubs/spokes/bearings/rubbers/spacers/relacing....so basically everything but the tube and tire.

Just gathering information at this point because a more comfortable seat and larger gas tank are much more important.

Some FAQ information;

CUSH DRIVES & motard conversions

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do i really need a cush drive hub?

Road use does place more stress on a gearbox, sprockets, chain and rear tyre, because the rear tyre normally slips a little in dirt with each combustion stroke (hence that little rooster tail under acceleration!) and there is also the flex of knobby tyres - both these effects act like a cush drive hub.

There are plenty of arguments for and against them if you check the forums, and a lot of opinions aren't based on hard facts. Personally, we believe that a cush drive hub isn't strictly necessary if:

- your bike is under 600cc
- you don't plan on clocking too many miles on bitumen
- your bike has a solid gearbox with no known issues.

Our reasoning? Almost every trail bike over 600cc has a cush drive hub, which strongly suggests the manufacturers think they are needed on the big thumpers.

Almost every road bike in existence has a cush drive hub, strongly suggesting that manufacturers think they are needed for doing a lot of road mileage.

If your bike has a light weight gearbox, or any known issues, then a cush drive hub probably isn't a bad idea to minimize possible problems.

So how does it work? A cush drive hub lessens the impact of a single cylinder's combustion stroke on your transmission, drive chain and rear tyre, but if you are riding in the upper rev range then you won't notice any effect. The rear hub is also usually heavier with a cush drive hub, which slightly increases unsprung weight and makes the rear wheel a bit more likely to go wider when backing it in in racing.

The benefits of a cush drive hub appear more as you operate in the lower rev ranges. For example, the smoother ride is noticeable at around 3000rpm to 5000rpm, but most noticeable in slow or stop-start traffic. So if you tend to do quite a bit of easy riding or commuting, you'll have a much more enjoyable ride with a cush drive hub.

It is unlikely that your gearbox is going to break down simply because you are using a fixed rear hub for occasional bitumen riding. Gearboxes on dual purpose bikes are over-engineered to last so you can probably ride on bitumen without a cush drive hub for years without problems, particularly with trail bikes that have heavy beefed up gearboxes (e.g. DRZ400, KLR650, DR650), but is probably worth considering more with performance bikes like the KTM and WR450F with light weight gearboxes. As dedicated dirt bikes, the priority on minimising weight means those higher gears may not be so beefed up for extended road riding. There is a reason every road bike has a cush drive hub, and why manufacturers stress that their higher performance offroad bikes aren't intended for "extended highway use".
how much difference does a cush drive make?

For a single cylinder bike, a big difference in everyday riding. For example, in testing cast wheels with the cush drive hub against a spoked motard wheel set it was found that chain snatch setting in at 80kmh with the spoked motard wheels in top gear was reduced to 50kmh with the cast motard wheels. This makes a difference to your useable rev range on your bike, meaning a lot less gear changes in normal road riding. It can be likened to the difference between riding a single cylinder road bike compared to a twin cylinder. However, if you ride hard or race then this will make no difference. But for everyday riding, each combustion stroke of the piston is dampened, which has plenty of advantages:
- extended life of sprockets and chains
- reduced wear on the gear box and other moving parts
- smoother ride whether accelearating or deccelerating
- longer rear tyre life.
how does a cush drive work?

A cush drive is a part of a motorcycle drive-train that is designed to reduce stress from engine torque damaging other components during gear or throttle changes. A common design is made of three major pieces: the wheel, the sprocket assembly or 'sprocket drive', and the rubber damper.

The wheel and the sprocket assembly fit together with five sections much like two hands woven together. In between the contact of the two assembly are rubber blocks. These cush drive rubbers are usually triangular in shape, have a hard compound and may be air-filled. This makes it so the wheel and the sprocket have a dampening layer between them, and the rubber blocks reduce wear, stress fractures and fatigue of the metal assemblies. This is most noticeable with single cylinder motorbikes used on paved roads at slow to moderate speeds, where in effect the power and engine braking is delivered in a series of punches through the transmission, chain, sprockets and rear wheel.

When the rubber damper becomes old and hardens, or wears out, the changes in load on the drive chain instigated by changes in throttle position or changing gear can cause snatchiness in the power delivery. Loads particularly on the drive chain can be massively increased in these conditions, increasing the risk of breakage or of contact with the swinging arm resulting in damage. Perhaps more pointedly the sudden transfer of force to the rear tyre can cause momentary loss of traction (lock or spin) resulting in small changes of direction or at worst total loss of control.
WHY YOUR offroad SPOKED WHEELS DON'T HAVE A CUSH DRIVE

Why doesn't your dirt bike have one? When riding in the dirt, the rear wheel does slip marginally on the looser surface which acts as a kind of cush drive. Cush drives do make a rear wheel heavier, which isn't appreciated by dirt riders or competition motard riders. A cush drive is also more expensive so manufacturers avoid them when they can unless they feel it might cause warranty issues. Generally speaking, both Japanese and European dirt bikes won't feature a cush drive hub until they are over 600cc and have a lot of grunt, meaning they'll be ridden at low revs when the cush drive will act to smooth out the ride. This is why the DR650SE, KLR650 and KTM LC640 and 690 models all feature a cush drive hub.
CUSH DRIVEs and spoked motard wheels

An aftermarket cush drive hub will typically cost around AUD$800 or US$600 which drives the cost of spoked motard wheels up substantially. There is an increasing trend toward adapting cast wheels from smaller sports bikes to gain the benefits of a cush drive hub at a fraction of the price with very little weight gain, if any, compared to spoked motard wheels if the right cast wheels are used.
1 Comment

License Plate Mount

11/22/2014

0 Comments

 
So since I got rid of the rear fender which had the license plate mount on it I needed to do something. I could have mounted it to the piece of rear plastic which was left, but I wanted something a bit cleaner. So back to Sicass racing for a solution. I used their universal KTM plate mount.

It's well made, heavy duty, and they ship it with a lot of screws so you don't need to find your own. Nothing too special about mounting it just line it up so that you have maximum screw coverage and drill some holes and bolt it on....that's pretty much it.
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The only other thing you need to know is that right now I don't have a license plate light....I don't do much if any riding at night so I am not going to sweat it. If I decide to put one on though I broke and LED trailer light a while back so I took it apart and it has a small cluster in there that I kept for moments like this. I will try to get a picture of the LED later and post it.

I also picked up an Enduro carry all bag from Wolfman which mounts on the front number plate....it's working out pretty well. Some guys say they don't want the extra weight up high which is not really a concern of mine but I would like to keep the weight off the bars so I don't have to fight the extra weight, so I will just be putting light weight stuff in it.
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Flush Mount Rear Blinkers

11/22/2014

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All I can say is that rear fender is a huge piece of dung....so it has to go! So the first thing I did was pull the seat and the rear bodywork so that I could get to the wiring. Once that is off it is only a couple of screws, two plugs, and two bullet connectors and the whole blinker/license plate assembly comes off.
These are the two blinker plugs.
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And then the rear looks like this.
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So I decided to use these flush mount LED blinkers from Sicass racing which are plug-n-play with the Husky wiring harness. Even with using just one pair I would still recommend their flasher unit as it does blink a bit fast.

So I eyeballed a suitable location on the tail section and drew a line around it using a pencil. I then removed the tail and started the preps for drilling the holes for the wires and attaching hardware.
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Take note that these plastic ribs get in the way of the attaching hardware and wiring so you may have to adjust the position of the blinker a bit like I had to so that everything clears. So you will probably have to take the tail on and off several times to get the position where you want/need it.
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Here they are mounted slightly more forward on the bike from where I started.
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Plenty of clearance between the muffler and the blinker......hopefully, only time will tell.
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So the last thing I did was take some cleaner and remove the pencil markings and try them out.
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Skid Plate Upgrade

11/18/2014

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So after my last weekend adventure where I took some pretty hard hits I quickly decided that it was time for some engine protection. There are MANY skid plates on the market and probably most of them will do an adequate job so really it's probably down to price and looks. I chose the Ricochet because it is reasonably priced and I have had them on other bikes and they hold up pretty well and provide good protection. Sp here it goes with the installation.
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So here it is all brand new
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Mounting brackets which are kind of a pain at first but I got the hang of them so no big deal
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Decent looking welds
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Side view of stock skid plate
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Front view
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Remove the front center bolt, the other two are motor mount bolts
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Remove these two off the bottom and the stock plate falls right off
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And there it is, I will clean that up and keep it for the next owner.
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Bottom of engine with plate removed
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Remove the two engine mount bolts and remove mounting plate, then reinstall motor mount bolts and torque to spec.
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Put all the brackets in place and bolt up the skid plate, not really that easy but easy enough.
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Front view
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Rear view where it provides protection for the rear suspension and grease zerk, nice feature!
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Right side view of installed
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Another right side view
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And one more picture from underneath, overall not a hard project and the cost is about $100.00....so not so bad for some pretty good engine protection.
0 Comments

Ignition Switch

11/18/2014

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So if you are going to be out and about, at some point are going to be out of view of your bike. Well the way the bike comes you may not feel comfortable considering that it doesn't even have an ignition switch.....that's right no ignition switch! Just jump on, pull in the clutch and push the start button and you are off and riding. So that's where Sicass racing comes in as they sell a plug-n-play ignition switch which plugs right in to your wiring harness.

You can mount the switch one of two ways, either use the mount for a nonexistent switch which comes on the bike as I did.
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Or this mount which can be bolted to the forks or some other suitable location.
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The wiring harness is located behind the head light assembly so you will need to remove the four screws which hold on the fender and one up top below the dash cluster. This will allow you to drop the fender/light assemble out of the way so you can plug in the harness.
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Four fender bolts
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Top bolt below the gauge cluster which will need to be removed as well.
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Here is the harness all plugged up and ready for use. I now have a little piece of mind when I walk away from the bike.
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Gas Cap Replacement

11/6/2014

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Not really a big deal to most but the gas cap on this thing is a real Bitch to take off and putting it back on usually took several iterations because it wanted to cross thread itself. Oh and if you didn't Grrrrrr it down tight it would leak. So the guys over on Cafe Husky told me about a factory Husky gas cap which was aluminum and would solve my problems....and it does and it is a nice looking piece to boot.
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Notice how it's warped.
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Just remove the gasket from the stock cap and install it on the new shiny cap and install....done! It screws on as a gas cap should now.
In case you were wondering where I got the cap.
http://www.halls-cycles.com/default....submit1=Search
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The Modifications Begin!

11/5/2014

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So the adventurization of my TE511 begins. Some say that the bike is just a dirt bike with tags....they may be right but I think it can be more....way more. So as I build it I will post the updates and changes...the good, bad, and the ugly of the build and the shortcomings of the bike if any. So what's my goal.....Minimum 200 mile fuel range, comfortable seat, and able to haul my camping gear and miscellaneous other stuff for up to a short multi week adventure. I am sure I will have more requirements as I really sit down and work through the details but these will do for a start.
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First upgrade is the pegs or should I say peg extensions. Since my foot is still pretty screwed up from last years incident I figured that a large platform on which to stand would be a good investment. So I got a hold of Zip Ty racing and placed an order for their peg extensions, they seem to be a leader in aftermarket parts for the Husky.
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These should make life pretty good!

So if you remember back a couple of years ago Bill Conger, an instructor from the BMW off road school, attempted Dakar but it didn't work out so well. In the process of the build of his TE449 he did quite a few things which I thought were pretty good so I took note and waited for the day I got my own TE.
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One of the things I worry about is that Husky parts may become difficult to locate or that what little aftermarket there is may dry up so some parts may be purchased first just so that when they dry up I already have them, which is the case with my next part. An adapter for an external oil cooler from Zip Ty racing.

Upgrade #2, the way I figure it cooler oil is happy oil, to a certain point, and more volume is good as well...especially for the long hauls, so I bought the part that I thought may be hard to come by and the more generic parts, i.e., oil cooler and lines, I will pick up a bit latter as time and $$ permit. The bonus is that the kit comes with a reusable filter so if you are out somewhere and flood the bike out, filter replacement won't be an issue, just change the oil and clean filter and carry on. Pretty nice piece!
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Since this bike on a good day only has about 165 watts of available power of which probably 1/2 or more of that is needed to run the bike. I realized that since I wouldn't be able to run a heated jacket liner, what was next most important thing to keep warm....that would have to be my hands. So I found a guy in the flea market selling a set of heated grips which should make life a bit nicer when the cooler temps roll around....I will install them later this year.
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So the latest is to fix the auto retracting side stand. At first I found it entertaining but it quickly became irritating so with a quick spin of the Dremel with a cutoff wheel I removed the nub which makes it auto retract....back to a normal kick stand.
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So one of the other things which is not only really irritating but also dangerous as hell is the problem known as "Flameouts". As I understand it it is due to an extremely lean fuel mixture which allows them to get past emissions but it stalls out at inopportune times, like pulling out in traffic.
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So take off the seat and then you will see the computer which is held on with two rubber insulators, one on each side. Use a suitable tool and free the computer from the isolators.
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Under the computer you will find two plugs, the smaller one is the one needed for the power up function.
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Remove the cap and you will find two open pins, sorry I didn't get the picture without the jumper. I tried first with multi conductor wire but it kept fraying and was too big as well. I had a few pieces of solid conductor phone wire laying around so I made a short jumper and installed it.
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I then reinstalled the original cap and put the connectors back where I found them and reinstalled the computer back from where it came.
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This it what it looks like now on the odometer, it's hard to read but the screen says "Race map II" after installing the jumper. This should richen up the mixture a bit and stop the "flameouts"....hopefully. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet.
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