In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :
Yes, experienced rider. I kinda suspected parts might be a challenge and sometimes that's fun, but the riding season is late April to maybe early November so extended down time try to find or wait for parts would make me kinda sad.
Before stumbling upon the Berg I had been eyeing the WR250R for a while.
In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :
Next time call the dealer and talk to their parts guy. Ask him to do a nation wide inventory search. If another dealer has it, he'll give you their contact info. Then you call that dealer and order it from them and they'll ship it to you
In reply to clutchsmoke :
On the FS570, quite a few parts are easy, as the chassis is essentially KTM. Wheel, brake, electrical, suspension parts are shared with multiple concurrent KTM models. The engine layout is unique, but it is a unique layout using many existing components, so things like the fueling system, throttle body, transmission, oil system, valvetrain, and the like are shared with KTM. The parts that are unique are things like engine cases, engine side covers, exhaust, plastics, seats, and probably some other smaller engine parts.
As with any barely-watered-down race bike, there is regular maintenance needed. That said, the 70-degree Husabergs seem to have the potential to last a long time with proper care. My yardstick is the Aprilia SXV, for which oil changes are every few rides, and checking valve clearances is an engine-out service. Under race use, an engine rebuild is recommended at 60 hours, and even under street use with regular oil changes, bearings, pistons, and cylinders are wear items. On anything like the 'Berg, SXV, or a motocross race bike with 17" wheels, you are going to be changing oil and checking valves frequently, but I'm impressed with anecdotal evidence of Husabergs that still get valves checked, but don't need adjustments after the initial round, or engines with hundreds of hours being disassembled and not needing bearings, piston, or a bore or new cylinder. Part of the reason I picked one up!
I'm not super-familiar with the WR250R maintenance schedule, but I presume it is probably more along the lines of other street-use Japanese supermotos/dual sports like a DRZ or KLX, rather than along the lines of an SXV or CRF450R.
Riding the FS570 on the street is fun, but is a non-stop exercise in restraint. It has nearly double the power of the WR250, and slightly less weight. It isn't quite as bonkers as the SXV, but large throttle openings are an occasional occurrence when circumstances allow. I imagine the WR250R is like other 250-350cc supermotos I have ridden. Really fun for late-braking, carrying all the cornering speed you dare, and pulling away from the lights by whacking it open, winding it out, upshifting, winding it out again, upshifting again, and repeat. Both fun, but different types of fun.
I rode the FS570 out to the shop, and among other things, did a little task on the Husky: I installed the good used stator I bought in the stator cover.
The service manual didn't mention a torque value for the three bolts, and others online reported disappointment in finding the same thing. Thankfully I checked before disassembling, and was able to use my torque wrench for disassembly. One bolt broke loose at 4Nm, one at 5 Nm, and one just a smidge over 5 Nm, which seems believable for M6 bolts threaded into aluminum. I cleaned everything, and put some loctite on the bolts. I torqued them each to 5 Nm plus a smidge and called it good. When I install on the bike I'll do a skim coat of gasket maker where the rubber grommet surrounds the wiring exiting the cover.
A couple more little bit of progress on the 701 while I await the stator cover gasket! A while back I picked up a lightly-used Trail Tech Voyager Pro GPS, and this weekend I started installing sensors. They have options for the coolant temp sensor, and the unit I bought came with a metal tab to shove in-between a couple radiator fins, which probably works, but doesn't seem ideal to me. I dug through my Trail Tech instrumentation parts bin, and saw that I had both an inline aluminum coupling with sensor (slice open a coolant hose and insert) and an M6 threaded sensor...and the bleed plug on the Husky is M6! 
I got old dashboard completely stripped back and ready to be reconfigured on the new dash.
I also got down with some polishing on the header. It is stainless, and was neglected for a long time and got a bit rusty. Not long ago, I tackled it on the bike as best I could. Now that the pipe is off, you can see the rusty areas I couldn't reach easily.
I used Never Dull wadding, plus some 000 steel wool for the more stubborn areas, and lots of patience and elbow grease.
I'll probably do a bit more while I've got it off, which will hopefully make future on-bike clean-up a little easier.
Seeing your white VFR reminded me of my red '04. Still miss it sometimes; I felt like it was a great do-all bike, let down by some over-complication that came along with the 6th generation of these bikes. I went through two stators on mine, both around 20k miles each. They're basically a wear item with the VTEC 800's. There were stories of some improved R/R that wouldn't create as much heat in the stator helping things but I never bothered with that swap.
The fueling wasn't too bad on mine but that seemed very hit or miss through the entire run of the 6th gens. 8th (they're very very similar) gen's don't, to my knowledge, have that issue nearly as much. There's a bunch of different band-aids for that issue.
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
I agree that it is a great do-it-all street bike. I think we corresponded a while back about yours, and your interest in maybe getting another someday.
Mine had a new stator not too long before I bought it. 84,000ish well-maintained miles on mine. Since I'm doing the R/R upgrade on my Husky, it is a nice practice run for doing the same on the VFR.
There have been times I've considered just buying an 8th gen and backdating the aesthetics with 6th gen parts. I think it should be doable. I prefer the style of the older bike, and the under tail exhaust, but like the newer bike's suspension, lighter wheels, and slight tweaks to the engine management. Then again, I've dumped a good chunk of change into the suspension on my 6th gen, so the smart bet is probably just have someone renowned for such things tune the bike I have, and potentially upgrade the wheels someday if I get to it.
After a looooong Pacific NW spring of temps in the 30's/40's (occasionally 50-something if I'm fair) and precipitation in a variety of forms, the forecast for the latter part of the week ahead looks warm and possibly sunny! I look forward to riding the Interceptor to work, and hopefully getting into VTEC a few times on the way!
An air freight package arrived today with a stator gasket from overseas! I may chip away at the Husky this week, but there's no way I'll have it done before taking off Friday after work for a long three-day weekend of four-wheeled fun with my local sports car club at Oregon Raceway Park!
With the first genuinely warm and sunny spring days of the season this week, I rode the Berg to work today. It is always fun to ride, if a bit cantankerous. I've really got to re-gear this bike. When short-shifting in traffic, I'm into third gear around the far side of the intersection, and fourth feels more comfortable for a sustained stretch of 30-ish mph...definitely too short for my use! I had a brief stint on the highway up to an indicated 68-69, (probably 63-64 actual) and the bike was really singing in sixth gear to the point where I'm not sure how long I would want to continue at that pace.
Also of note, it was on the verge of boiling over as I pulled into the garage. First genuinely warm day here this spring. I know...commuting-on-race-bike issues! 
I live downtown, so no matter how I slice it, the last 15-20 blocks of my commute is likely low-speed, with potential stops at lights. I'm definitely going to check coolant levels to start, might also look into adding the optional Husaberg coolant fan, and ripping off the stupid aftermarket radiator guards someone added, and possibly increasing the ventilation on the back of the front fender.
The 8th gen is weird, I like the looks less than the 6th, it's almost like they said "how about we take a modern stab at the 5th gen headlights with this one". I like that the radiators aren't on the side, but then the way that everything is arranged seemed overly complicated. Like, why does it need two radiators out front now? I don't see being tempted away from a good 6th gen by an 8th.
My VFR left me pretty, well, over it. I don't know if I'll have one again or not. There's some things I really liked about that bike and some things I just did not like at all. Kind of odd for a Honda?
docwyte said:Have you checked the valve clearances yet? They're due every 6k miles...
Since it was disassembled 90% of the way to the rocker cover, I dove into the Husqvarna today to check valve clearances. Just over 12,000 miles and the intake side are both bang in the middle of the spec range, and exhaust are both at the loose end of the spec range. I don't have any shims, so calling it good enough for now.
I started installing the Oberon clutch slave I had on the shelf (the stock ones are prone to fail and are the Achilles heel of these bikes.) Since I raised the bars, the hydraulic clutch line has been tight, so I've been running it with a couple constraints loosened. I ordered a custom longer line from Venhill.
The stock line at the slave end has no washers, and has a tapered fitting, so the seal must be at the bottom of the taper. The aftermarket Oberon slave fits multiple Husky/KTM bikes, and looks like it is designed to accommodate a tapered seal at the bottom of the fitting, or a copper washer seal at the top of the fitting. The instructions say to use the supplied sealing washer if your original application had one, and to leave it off if the original application didn't have one. The longer Venhill line also arrived labeled Husky/KTM, and had copper washers supplied, and had a taper at the bottom of the fitting. The instructions with the line also suggest replicating your stock washer (or not) arrangement.
The threads are the same on the two lines (stock is silver, Venhill is black) but the length of the fitting is different. The Venhill is shorter and doesn't seal on the taper at the bottom before bottoming out the threads. I'm going to add a sealing washer as in the photo below and try it...I can't imagine this will cause an issue. Thoughts?
In other thumper news, I completed an oil and filter change on the Suzuki Goose. The oil analysis on this change (first one I've sent for analysis on this bike) came back with slightly elevated levels of some metals, and a suggestion to monitor oil pressure and send another sample in 1,000 miles to see if it is a trend (elevated wear) or an anomaly (previous use of leaded fuel?) Still runs well, so...
I took it for a short ride post oil change and got caught out by a bit of a spring rain shower. Still had fun! Reminder to self to step-up on the yoga to make riding this bike easier for my middle-aged body!
Next step is to put my portable wideband tuning setup on the bike and start logging some data.
In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :
I feel like I'm the voice of doom and gloom here.... But.... did you replace those rocker arms? Standard (yeah, I know) wisdom is to replace them every 10,000ish miles. They can break with little to no warning and then lunch your motor. I assume you didn't because then you'd have to recheck clearances and most likely change some shims. At the very least I'd totally remove them from the motor and check them for play. I've got a new set of rockers sitting in my work bench, but I've only got 5,2xx miles on my motor. They're not very expensive, I think I got them from RMATV and they're OEM KTM parts, I got the shim kit from them too. I had to change one intake shim on mine, it was tight.
As far as the clutch line, when I installed my risers I just rerouted the clutch line from in front of the bars to behind it, that gave me the slack I needed. When I did my Oberon slave, pretty sure my line didn't have a gasket on it, so I just went with that. No issues but I reused the stock line. Reverse bleed it from the bottom up, which is a total pita. I should've bought a mtn bike brake bleeding tool but made due with my car stuff, which is too large and caused much profanity on my part but did ultimately work.
I spent the weekend cranking on this bike, determined to get it back on the road. Six weeks and I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms pretty badly!
In reply to docwyte :
I didn't replace the rocker arms. I did remove them and did a thorough visual inspection, check for play, and fingernail check across the surface of the rollers. Everything checked out just fine. Maybe it's my riding style (more slab than dirt and slow with mechanical sympathy) but my track record is that my stuff lasts pretty well, and I tend to experience low rates of wear compared to many. That doesn't guarantee jack-diddly-squat, but it is a factor I consider. I plan to buy rockers and a shim kit, and dive back in sooner rather than later.
I switched back to the stock clutch line (but routed on the back side of the top triple clamp) and did a successful and easy reverse bleed on the Oberon slave with...my mountain bike brake bleed tool! All those years as a bicycle mechanic finally paying off.
Oberon clutch slave installed with original line rerouted. Also note the stator and stator cover I installed with new gasket. Getting this on allowed me to fill it with new oil (I had already replaced the filters and screens.)
I've been wanting to install the Trail Tech Voyager Pro GPS I picked up a while back, both for GPS, and for additional instrumentation that might help consolidate my ragtag assemblage of different instruments and gauges. Online searching revealed mixed reports with the tach feature. I took the rubber boot off the bottom of the coil, filed some shallow grooves in the plastic insulation around the tip of the coil, and wrapped the Trail Tech wire in the grooves, then shoved the rubber insulation back on over top. I got around five wraps around the coil.
Airbox reinstalled with fresh air filter. Prior to this there was some tedious wiring and looming work done under the airbox. I routed wires for coolant temp, tachometer, and redid the ground and power feed forward to the secondary fuse panel/power distribution block inside the fairing. The routing is improved, the chance of accidental chafing is reduced, and I can install a positive terminal cover back on the battery now. I also spliced together the stator->regulator wiring harness for the new MOSFET regulator/rectifier.
Said R/R.
When removing the side covers, I noticed one had plastic tearing around the pop-into-place anchor. It was getting late in the evening Sunday, but I broke out the Polyvance Airless Plastic Welder and did a quick and dirty PP fusion weld with black filler rod (all I had on hand) and figured A) it isn't visible, and B) it isn't any worse than before.
Beginning to look like a bike again! Sooo exciting, it rejuvenated my flagging energy. I decided to mock stuff up on my existing dash with the GPS, and then transfer it to the new pristine dash panel once I'm totally satisfied.
Woohoo!
In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :
Your 701 looking good. These little bursts of nice weather have been getting me itching to get back out on my DRZ.
Way too hot to stick around town today. We catapulted from cool and rainy spring straight into summer, so time to head for the woods in the hills.
With my new gauge, I could see that coolant temps were cool when moving, and peaked at just over 200 when slowly climbing a steep gravel hill. The regulator output was rock solid at 14.2V...I saw it dip to 14.0 or 14.1 a couple times when the fan kicked on! Sadly, the tach output is unreliable when warm...showing 25,000rpm when the fan kicks on, and randomly surging from reality to 2,000-3,000rpm over reality as it gets hot! 
Sadly the best suggestion so far on the tach is that it is designed to wrap the pickup wire around a spark plug lead between the coil and plug (are we back in the 80's/90's suddenly?) If you 'happen' to somehow have coil-on-plug you've just got to play around with trial and error wrapping the coil, adjusting the number of wraps, the location of the inductive-pickup wire, and possibly modify the coil to suit! 
I've already modified the coil and the rubber boot for the current setup, because there's no room to add five wraps of wire inside the rubber boot and still get it attached to one of the spark plugs, and it takes a fair bit of work to remove and reinstall parts to access it. Guess I'll just buy a bunch of coils and spend every weekend playing at random with different setups trying to utilize a feature that is advertised as part of the unit? 
Stopped for gas plus some hydration and bumped into a good group of fellow riders. A great mix of guys and gals on sportbikes, Harleys, ADV bikes, and retro-styled bikes, all enjoying a ride together. In fact, I saw lots of bikes out and about along the route, which was awesome!
I'm generally not into chicken-strip bragging or shaming, but I felt like today I was safely exploiting a good portion of lean angle available without delving into dangerous territory on the street. Always leave something in reserve as a safety buffer when riding on public roads! You never know what's around the next corner! True to form, some gold quasi-luxury sedan was pulled over on the right side of the road, right turn signal on as I approached, and sure enough, not only pulled out right in front of me without signaling (I'm only 6'2" on a bolt-upright white bike with extremely bright lights, wearing a dayglow yellow suit) but just after pulling out, the car slammed on the brakes to suddenly turn left without signaling barely 100 feet down the road from where they were pulled over on the right shoulder!! I was braking hard but had a reserve I utilized to avoid a collision. I guess it is my fault for not recognizing the universe revolves around the blue hair behind the wheel and all others must yield!!
One of the reasons I picked up my '17 is that it still has the full dash, with tach. The newer ones don't and that just kind bugs me. Been rainy and crappy here, yesterday was a planned ride that my buddy and I wanted to go on. It was cancelled because a large part of the planned route is still buried under 3+ feet of snow! Going to be late summer before the high passes are open around here, as that route wasn't even close to those...
In reply to docwyte :
I don't think the Husky was ever offered with a tach, and I've gotten by without it (I can tell by ear/feel what is going on) but it kinda bugs me too. I am spoiled by living in the Pacific NW. Yesterday's ride was up in the hills of the Coast Range, or 400 to maybe 1,500-2,000 feet up. Our high country is heavily snowed in still, but we have lots of low elevation riding around as well.
I haven't shared much about the Husaberg yet. The story with this bike starts with the Aprilia SXV. When searching for an SXV to buy, I saw several mentions of the FS570, the first I'd really encountered the idea of one. Shortly after buying my SXV, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I got in touch with the primary (most miles, most enthusiastic) previous owner of my specific SXV. At some point I asked why he sold. He told me it was to buy an FS570, which at the time had me a little baffled. I couldn't understand how someone would sell the only production V-twin supermoto ever (with awesome styling) to pick up a slightly-funny-looking rare thumper?
As time wore on, I encountered several others online who had experienced the 690/701, SXV, and FS570, and most of them agreed the 701 is a jack-of-all-trades, and one bike to rule them all, but the Husaberg is a better race-bike-for-the-street supermoto than the Aprilia if the 701 is too heavy and tame. Color me intrigued...
About the time I started to get serious about trying to sell the SXV, a super-low-hours FS570 popped up for sale locally. The seller stated that the only trades he would consider were a lightweight Aprilia, KTM, or Husky twin, so I reached out via Craigslist.
It turns out that he really liked the bike, but wanted to ride with his aging dad more, which meant a KTM 790/890 Adventure or an Aprilia Tuareg (or maybe Tenere 700.) As such, the SXV was not a possibility for a trade. However, he gladly tossed me the keys to the 'Berg!
The first ride took me right back to my first-ever first-ride on that CR125, as well as several white-knuckled, knees-trembling first rides over the years when I upgraded to a faster bike! 
The Husaberg rips! Sooo much fun banging up through the gears, and it had the most enjoyable pop and burble on the overrun! Short gearing, and nearly instantaneous direction changes...I was hooked! Similar to the SXV for quickness off the line, not quite as fast at higher speeds...but definitely handled better. I didn't buy that first visit, but I thanked him profusely for his time and the test ride. He said he knew it could take a while to find the right guy to appreciate a 30-hour-from-new FS570.
After a little while of not being able to get the Husaberg out of my head, I bought it! My buddy drove me over with cash and my riding gear, we did the paperwork and I rode it home. First impressions:
-Very short gearing
-Tiny clutch lever
-It's physically small and feels very light
-Suspension out-of-the-box feels firmer/shorter than the other supermotos I've experienced to date
-Very smooth and reasonably rev-happy for a stonking big-bore thumper
-Lots of pops and bangs on the overrun
-Great brakes...probably even better than the FTE on the Aprilia
-Runs hot!
-Very strange to ride a bike with no kill switch
Upon checking over the 'Berg in detail, it is in good shape overall, but not without "opportunities."
The first issue I tackled was a broken tab for holding the headlight into the reflector.
Thankfully, the remaining piece of the broken tab was still inside the headlight!
The repair was fairly straightforward because there was only one chunk broken off, but with a jagged break, so it fit back in like a puzzle piece. I bonded it back into place, then sandwiched it either side with overlapping bits of thin sheet steel which I cut to match the shape.
The other thing I tackled at the same time was installing a skid plate. Essential? Hopefully not. Might help protect vital parts? Certainly. Does it look cool? Yes. Enough for me, I'm sold.
Lots more little details yet to come!
There's several things on the Husaberg that needed to be remedied. I started with an easy one; removing some of the extra stickers...which were actual pretty restrained and tasteful in the world of supermotos and dirt bikes. I'm just not a "graphics" kind of guy. Other aesthetic things I want to address: the mirrors (which say KTM and appear to be original, but I'm not enamored of their looks), the aftermarket "Guts" seat which looks like a bread loaf and says Guts on it, the stupid tiny aftermarket LED turn signals that scream cheap eBay purchase.
On the mechanical side of things, the main issues stem from the original owner's decision to try and fit an Enduro-model snowbike kit on the Supermoto. 
They notched the radial front brake caliper mount, and cut the bottom off the subframe! The guy I bought from (second owner) was forthcoming about these modifications, and when I bought I figured the good outweighed the bad, but sheesh...if that's what you really want, why not go buy an Enduro model? Or a snowmobile? Instead of berkeleying up a rare supermoto and then giving up on fitting the kit that explicitly doesn't fit this bike after you've berkeleyed it up?
Other minor things of note. One of the metal threaded inserts for anchoring the radiator shroud was pulled out of the plastic gas tank by a ham-fisted previous owner...I'm guessing I know who...
There's an ignition map switch on the left handlebar which apparently isn't factory. The guy I bought it from said he couldn't discern if the modes really do much. It bears further investigation for sure.
It will absolutely need to be re-geared. The stock setup for this bike is 14/38, and it isn't uncommon for folks to report the stock gearing is a bit tall. The bike revs to 9,500rpm, and stock gearing has it spinning at a little shy of 5,000rpm at 70mph in sixth. My bike has 13/52 gearing, or something like 45% lower than stock! My bike is spinning about 7,300rpm at 70 in sixth. I shift into third around the far side of the intersection. I frequently use fourth for maintaining cruising speed on city surface streets. First is waaay too short/responsive, so I almost always short shift to second almost as soon as I'm rolling. The acceleration at full tilt is insane, and a total hoot, but the bike isn't well balanced for all-around use with this gearing.
The last item in the short list is removing or modifying the aftermarket radiator guards. They don't seem to fit super-well, I doubt they are needed for my use, and they rub the front fender, which is quite annoying.
The bummer with the hacked-up subframe is that it is made from crosslinked polyethylene, which is quite strong, but it is very difficult to repair. It can't be plastic welded, because it doesn't melt. Most epoxies won't adhere to it securely, and the one epoxy that works isn't fuel-safe, which is a bummer because the option to convert the subframe into an auxiliary fuel tank is one of the highlights of this bike IMO. More on fuel tanks and range in a bit.
My bike's hacked subframe also no longer holds the mud flap off the bottom of the subframe properly (there should be three fasteners) and as a result the lower rear shock mount chews up the flap, and mud/grit/etc can blast through the hole in the flap onto the shock.
I started hunting for a good used subframe, dealer with a NOS new subframe (NLA new) or someone selling one of the mythical 70 Degree Racing subframe tanks that were sold briefly. No luck on any of those fronts with about six months of searching. 
In the meantime I purchased a new left lower fork leg, so that next time the forks are apart, it can be swapped on and the fork mount will be full-strength again. I'm riding on the ground-down one in the meantime, which my gut says is probably still strong enough, but not doing any trackdays, and inspecting it frequently.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with the Husaberg regarding fuel capacity, and became focused on finding a subframe auxiliary tank, a subframe to convert into an auxiliary tank, or a Safari tank for the front. A reasonable person might ask, "why?" The answer lies more in my personal motorcycle history than in any real-life reason.
As anyone who has ridden the gravel roads of the remote American west knows, gas stations are not a given. Even on the paved routes, 40-60 miles between fuel is commonplace in Central and Eastern Oregon, and some routes or SE Oregon involve even longer distances between fuel. My initial yardstick was my old DR350 with an oversize 4 gallon tank; it would do 200+ miles on a tank, which meant I could explore without a ton of planning, and never really suffered fuel anxiety. My 701 holds 3.4 gallons and will do 150+ miles, which works pretty well in the real world.
The largely-imagined problem is that I conceptualized the Husaberg as a replacement for the Aprilia SXV, and their similarities as streetable race bikes meant I might have unfairly rushed to judgment on the 'Berg regarding fuel capacity. The Aprilia had an 8 liter (2 gallon) tank. It got mid-20's for fuel efficiency, maybe 30's if I babied it, and the resulting pitiful range made the 'oversize' 12-liter (3 gallon) tank a necessity to avoid fueling up every 40-50 miles. The Husaberg comes with a 2.4 gallon tank, so if the Husaberg is the new SXV, it must need an oversize tank, right???
A used Safari tank missing a little hardware popped up for sale locally! New ones are about $800 and need to be shipped from Australia, so I snagged it! This is a front-mounted tank that drapes like a saddle over the front of the stock tank and the stock radiator shrouds. The seller said that the range was nice, but the width bothered him, so he pulled it off to sell.
Hauling the tank home on the back of the Husky was an amusing photo op. His Husaberg can be seen in the background.
Before fitting the Safari tank, I found a hen's tooth...a used stock subframe for sale in Greece! It was part of a large lot of parts, but looked decent-ish in the photos, which weren't high-res, and each one was of piles of 10 parts per photo. I took a chance and bought it.
The subframe arrived, and I realized that my excitement at finding one for sale probably colored my eye for the condition. It is a remarkably light structure! It had been rattle-canned black with little prep. (Stock subframes are either grey or black depending on year/model.)
I would prefer the aesthetics of a black subframe. I think the grey is one of the reasons the bike looks a little...odd. The body stuff is body color, the tank under the body is black, most other bits like inner fenders, airbox, etc are black, and the subframe is...not black.
Anyway, I started stripping the finish back to see what I had.
Sadly it has a couple pinhole leaks, so not a good candidate for auxiliary tank conversion.
BUT...then I rode the Husaberg a bit, and was pleasantly-surprised it seems to get mid-40's for fuel mileage! I found the realistic range for the stock tank keeping a reserve to be 100 miles or a bit more, and for the way I ride this bike, that's close enough...it's a quick blast bike, not an explore-the-remote-depths bike.
I've got a Safari tank on the 690. It gives me easily a 350 mile range, if I use 50mpg as an average. I tend to get anywhere from mid 50's to mid 60's for mpg, so if the planets lined up I could possibly go 450 miles on one tank. It does make the bike wider but I'm ok with that, as it acts sorta like a fairing and gives my legs some wind protection.
The long weekend involved several moto successes. The Goose had been stashed at work, and we are tight on space, so I rode it home Friday. It seemed to be running great!
I fixed the missing radiator shroud fastener on the Husaberg, which had really been bothering my attention to detail. Here's the hole where the threaded insert got pulled out of the tank.
I was able to find some M5 threaded inserts with a ridged outer surface at McMaster-Carr. The outside diameter was perfect...it was a little too big to drop into the hole. I threaded one a turn or two onto the end of the bolt and heated it a little bit with a propane torch.
Then I pushed it into the tank, pushing it into place, with the heat softening the surrounding plastic a bit.
Once cooled, it seemed really solid. Came out as good as I could hope.
I don't know if I mentioned that when I did the recent work on the 701, I upgraded the case saver/front sprocket cover to a two-piece aftermarket unit from Aurora Rally. It took forever to arrive from Greece, but it is a nice design which allows you to take off the outside cover to access the chain/sprocket without having to remove the entire assembly (like the stock one-piece part.) The only bummer was the color. The choice at my time of purchase was blue or orange, so I chose blue. It isn't a matching dark blue like the rest of the Husky parts, but rather a bright blue, like Grabber blue, which looks quite out of place.
Thankfully, the issue is very easily fixed...much better!
I find these small victories so gratifying!
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