Nick Fahringer rips up the...
Nick Fahringer rips up the Terrain Test on the Husaberg.
Dirt Rider Post Torture Evaluation
Best All-around bike because:
The Husaberg FE450 was Dirt Rider's Bike of the Year (along with its bigger brother the 570). So, it's safe to say that the bike has potential to beat the crap out of everything else. The ingenious engine design makes technical trail situations a breeze and brings two-stroke-like handling back to the thumper ranks. Ridepg.com and the Genuine Dirt Racer shop took tons of experience in GNCC and off-road racing into building this bike and it should be the all-inclusive package.
Not the best all-around bike because:
This bike was simply too far away from home. The Husaberg, while a revolution in four-stroke handling, doesn't shine in the faster wide open spaces of the great American west. The fast-paces of Rynoland's race-courses were too much for the 'Berg to battle and it fought its weight. The off-road gnarly prowess of the bike only had a couple places to shine and unfortunately its modifications made this bike more distant from stock than it needed to be.
Dirt Rider Says
We love it when Ridepg.com gets involved in a project. Usually, they're one of the coolest looking bikes we'll see and Bart and his crew isn't afraid to hang it out in the style department. This Husaberg was no different. With a race-inspired graphic theme the bike looked more exotic than many factory bikes we've seen in a supercross pit. Add in the Factory KTM WP SXS forks, Akrapovich exhaust and generous amounts of Husaberg's own anodized accessories and you've got a big piece of blue eye candy. We couldn't wait to test it.
This bike was clearly built for a purpose. That is to kick ass on trails and technical rides in the Eastern half of the country. The bike was built that way from the factory, too. And anyone who's ridden one in the tightest conditions (I have) can tell you that the bike simply rules there. The more slippery, off-camber and switch-backing you can make it, the better the Husaberg performs.
Once out in the tests it became clear that Husaberg was here to show it could rail out west, too, and the bike dropped some great times. However, when our slew of DR testers got on board, some of the East side positives turned to West side negatives.
California is mostly wide open. Even riding areas like Rynoland are biased towards some sort of speed. Sure, we had super-technical twisties, but they're minor compared to what a normal test ride back East would entail. In our open vastness, the Husaberg seemed to suffer. Its weight showed up and the suspension-while set up ideal for most of the trail situations-didn't perform well at high-speeds and under mass loads like our MX tests and GP trail sections.
Likewise, the motor character of the Husaberg-smooth and strong with serious tractor pull-is almost perfect for trail riding. But when you pump it up and try to stretch it out you end up pushing it past it's comfort zone and the whole package suffers (mainly from vibration).
This doesn't surprise us and doesn't say anything negative about the brand. After all, Husabergs are built for a purpose, and that is technical trail riding in the toughest conditions. Any time we've tried to stretch this bike in stock trim outside those areas we notice similar shortcomings. So, one that is modified with some weight-gaining parts (skid plate, steering damper, etc) is likely to perform similarly.
We were a little surprised that the SXS fork setup didn't deliver some moto-track goodness but what we really want to do is get this thing back east and rip it up!
Editor's Note
This year's Dirt Rider Torture Test was set it up like a screening for a reality TV show: Bring what you have and prepare for whatever happens. The idea was to show up at the Torture Test with the best all-around, one-bike-does-it-all off-road dirt bike, with no guidelines or requirements from our side. It was wide open, but everyone knew going in that it would be tough to make the cut to get into the final group of bikes you see in the magazine. Of course, they didn't all make it to the pages of Dirt Rider. Some missed out ever so slightly, some by a longer ways. This is a full test of one of the bikes that missed the final cut. The competition was tough but lurking in this field of bikes you can likely find an example of the perfect bike that fits your needs, or learn what other riders or people in the industry think is the best bike in the whole world. For the people and companies that built each of these bikes, it was the best bike they could deliver.-Jimmy Lewis, Editor Dirt Rider Magazine