The equation was simple. Take one Husky. I like them. Add Unadilla. I had never been there, but I have to like it-what moto junky wouldn't? Factor in mud. Even though we didn't really expect it. I'm from the desert of California so I look at mud as a treat, yes, even to ride in. And what you get is a good mix. So I jumped at the chance to race the first GNCC at the famous New York facility.
Luckily, I had the chance to break in and ride the shiny TE450 a few days before the race at the Race Tools ride day at Hoghill in Palmyra, New York. They had the MX track all prepped, and some of the club members had ribboned off a GNCC-style loop through the surrounding woods. My bike was set to competition mode from its original street-legal stock condition. The throttle limiter was removed, a straight-through muffler (still quiet) was installed and turn signals were ditched, but the horn was left on. It was a button push away from running and only a few extra turns of shock spring preload from 105mm of sag. Get with it!
At first, the Husky felt a little sluggish on the MX track. After a few weeks of 250cc two-stroke MX bike testing, this wasn't shocking. Factor in that Italian bikes typically want a little time on them before they begin running nice and free. The same goes for the brakes and suspension. All were happy for the day of riding, a nice break-in of about two hours.
Unadilla was waiting, and it looked as if it was going to be a dusty bowl, but race morning greeted us with thick skies and weathermen promising rain. I hooked up with Kinney Jones prerace for a few quick photos, just in case. That turned out to be the second-smartest thing I did all day. The first was to race!
The start was held during a brief break after an hour-long downpour. The usually picturesque Unadilla was a muddy mess, trying to somehow wash itself downstream. It was going to be carnage if I didn't get a good start from the front row of the industry/sport line. But even the slow-spinning electric starter fired just fine, and I was off to a good jump in second place around the first turn. From there it became just a matter of dodging roost courtesy of motocross and GNCC helmet-cam rider John Ayres on his KTM 125.
The Husky isn't the lightest 450cc enduro four-stroke out there, but after three turns there were about 60 pounds of mud on the bike, but who's counting? The nice bottom-end power delivery, which is a little slower at low rpm, was helping me get great traction in the slime and slop, but then when the motor worked up into mid and top, it screamed, quietly though, and would shoot the bike wherever it was pointed and clean off the rear tire. The clutch was hardly necessary, even when we came back around and got into lapped traffic. The spread of the six-speed gearbox is low enough for a real slow first gear and quite tight between the rest of the speeds. Sixth is pretty tight, unlike the sixth gear in a KTM EXC. Overall, the bike has the power to get whatever needs to be done, done, and it isn't so squirrelly or violent as to exhaust you or make extra work out of tough trail situations. Unadilla was tough!