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