#dirtbike #motorcycle #offroad #adventure
For 2020, the Husqvarna 501 has so many changes it’s almost a completely new motorcycle. This comes just three years after the last major redesign. The most obvious of these is a new look. The bodywork is pretty much straight off the 2019 Husky FC450 motocross bike. So is the frame, which is more rigid in all planes. The motor itself is new, too, although it uses the same basic design and layout. The head is much more compact, again taking inspiration from the Rockstar Edition. The biggest change in the lower end is apparent if you look at the left side of the motor-there’s no longer a provision for the addition of a kickstart lever. The lever and shaft had already disappeared, but Husqvarna engineers maintained the polite fiction that people might want to add the kickstarter after purchase. That pretense is now gone. Down low, the power is awesome. It pulls from the basement up about like you would expect from a 500cc single, but it’s so quiet that you don’t always think it’s pulling. With the Husky, you get much more wind noise than motorcycle sounds. You pay a price for the super quiet exhaust note in revs and top-end power, though. After all that low end power comes a fairly flat mid range and an even flatter top end. I know the knee-jerk reaction will be to replace the pipe looking for more power and maybe pull the reed valve out of the intake boot. It won’t work. With the stock mapping it will actually run worse. If you know how to reflash the stock black box, good for you, but it’s designed to be tamper-proof. Many riders will replace the stock ignition. It’s a can of very expensive worms. In stock form, the greatest thing about the FE is the fact that it runs super clean. No flame-outs or backfires. That’s a true miracle for an EPA-approved dual-sport bike. f you like high-speed off-road riding, you might also want to stiffen up the suspension, the stock XPLOR coil-sprint fork are pretty soft, although they are excellent for low speed trail riding and technical stuff that we usually find ourselves doing. This is an incredible bike, and Husqvarna knows it. The price is $11,499. You just have to cowboy up and accept the fact that good motorcycles are expensive.
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