Doug's 2021 Husky TE300i Project Part 2.0

2021 Husky TE300i Part 2.0

I still haven’t put many hours on this bike. I did ride a local dist. 36 cross country event on it a few months ago now, the bike was great the rider wasn’t. I do have my excuses of course, but nobody wants to hear them, I don’t even want to hear them. But I do have a new product to report on.

I’ve been using Flex Bars for the past few years on most of my bikes, they work as advertized, which means great. But there’s always been for me at least that, BUT about them which is they are bulky and add weight right where you don’t want it at the handle bars. When I stand up I tend to be over the front end and I’ve knocked the wind out of myself because of the height of the bars that attach to each side of the bars on the top mounted stabilizer units.

This year I’ve been noticing some of the riders I regularly watch on You Tube have this rather different looking top clamp on their bikes. None of the riders talked about it I just noticed it when watching their videos. Turns out it’s a handle bar dampening system. It’s made by XC Gear out of Mississippi and it’s called a Mako 360 (xcgear.com) it totally isolates the handle bar from any metal to metal contact and allows the bar to absorb vibration and impacts 360 degrees. The Flex bar only moves up and down which certainly works but I thought 360 degrees could be better. Each rider has the ability to customize just how much flex they want, from us slow guys to the pros. If you run a top mount or bottom mount stabilizer you can buy the accessories necessary for that installation. I have the bottom mount Scott stabilizer and did have to add ¼” spacers to the handle bar mounts in order for it to fit.

My goal was to get back to a standard bar and configuration, lose the bulk and extra weight so that part was perfect.

For those who have never ridden with flex bars or anything else like it, you are not aware of any bar movement while riding, you will be aware of the results of riding with a dampening system, less fatigue in your hands and arms because the bumps are being dampened they take the big hits, you know you’ve hit something hard but it doesn’t transfer that big shock into your hands or shoulders. These help the riders who have hand or wrist issues, which means virtually all of us older riders.

When you look at the kit you can see why it might costs as much as it does. Mine didn’t come with install instructions but was easy to figure out how to install. You can see in the pictures how they install. The bar mounts can be installed facing back or forward; there are a lot of bolts to tighten. The shark fin as they call it is what keeps the handle bars from rotating and is also rubber mounted, no metal to metal contact. 

I finally had a chance to do some trail riding with the new set up and it work very well. I rode with a friend of mine who subscribes to the old adage one bike is a trail ride two bikes is a race. And on top of that he finally got his suspension sorted out and he was feeling very racy. After two plus hours of pushing it I was getting tired and started feeling the effects of it in my hands. So I don’t know if it was because I haven’t ridden in a while or if this set up actually doesn’t work as well in the long haul as the Flex bars. I rode another two plus hours four days later that’s a very tight and technical area, at the end of the ride my hands were starting to bother me again. I don’t ever remember the Flex bars doing that, so the jury is still out, I may keep trying them or change them out and see if my recollection of the Flex bars is correct.

I put the Flex bars back on and I’m waiting for the rain to stop so I can try them. I did get a ride in before the last big snow storm and no problems with my hands.

I sent an email to XC Gear and told them of my experience. As I’m scrolling down to find their contact info I see where you can download the installation info, when I read it and it says to torque down all the bolts to 12lbs I only torque down the bolts that hold the bar in place to 12lbs the rest I tightened very tight as you normally would. This could be part or all of the problems I’ve experienced. I’m waiting to hear back from XC Gear. Well I never heard back from XC Gear, not good on their part.

But I did put XC Gear mount back on and I realized the bars I used the first time were swept back more than I now use. I now use bars that are pretty flat and that could also be a reason the XC Gear mount was bothering me. I’ve ridden it once since putting the XC mount back on and with flatter bars. I do believe those changes helped, but still not sure yet. More rides are in order.

Drum roll please, I’ve now gone back and forth between the two systems a number of times now and have decided to continue using the XC Gear Mako 360 set up. There is a difference but I like the less weight cleaner look of the XC Gear set up.

Doug 21

2021 Husky part 2.5

I have enjoyed every hour on the TE300i. At this point I’m still glad I bought the 300; but not quite as enthusiastic about it being a 300. At times even with the power in the dumb down mode it can be a lot. And without the Rekluse I wouldn’t want to ride it, it would simply be too much for this old man. Because of the low end torque I can ride it in higher gears and not worry about it getting away from me as much. In hind sight unless I’m going to ride hard endure stuff, which I wouldn’t a 250 would have probably been better. Everyone thinks they need a 300 but I’m not sure about that.

I have for a long time used Fast Way down and back foot pegs it makes easier to stand and doesn’t bind my knees as much. I’ve always set my KTM bikes up with the bars set in the back hole facing forward. I wanted to be able to move more forward on the bike for those tight Chalk Bluff corners so I moved the handle bars as far forward as I could, (forward hole facing forward) first time I’ve ever done this and much to my surprise I felt extremely comfortable. Coupled with the down and back foot pegs It was easier to stand and stay standing, my body was more over the front end and the bike was easier to control. I’m a little over six feet (Or I used to be anyway) and most of my height is from the waist up. By moving the bars forward it has allowed me to have more room in the rider triangle, don’t know why I never tried this before, especially when I’m known as a tinker.

Doug 21J

Comments

[237s]

Nice review. See you at the track!