RUST magazine: RUST#37

LONG TERMER
before my mishap. The intention was
to evaluate the bike over the 2017/8
season. So the original plans were
shelved (obviously) – and now, fastforward
a year and a bit, here we are,
back at the start of the project. At RUST
we know the meaning of ‘long-termer’!
SO, WHY CHOOSE THE HUSKY FE350
AS A LONG-TERMER?
Well, a number of reasons really. I have
never before owned a four-stroke as my
main off-road ride. I’ve always chosen
two-strokes over four-. I guess it’s an
age thing, you just get used to what
you’ve been brought up with, besides
I just love them. And because of that I
figured it was time to challenge myself,
to go counter-culture (for me).
And if there was a single four-stroke
that I hoped could match my favourite
two-stroke – the 300 – then perhaps
the 350 was it. In my opinion the 450F
is too brutal, especially for vet’s, and it
lacks the finesse of the 300. Meanwhile
the 250F, while lighter and nimbler,
lacks the low-end torque and top end to
match the 300. As a result, it would be
left up to the 350F to make believer out
of me.
THE PROJECT BUILD
JB will tell you, I don’t keep standard
bikes. Initially my idea was to buildout
the bike entirely before throwing a
leg over it. With a year to think it over I
binned that idea and decided that the
review would be more authentic and
accurate if I rode the bike as is out of
the box first. I needed a baseline. The
idea on how I was going to use the bike
over the next year evolved, too, and that
influenced the parts I’ve been selecting
for the project.
SUSPENSION
Did I say ‘ride as is’? Okay, confession
time – the first thing I did was to
remove the XPlor forks. I had removed
my Stillwell Performance tuned 4CS
forks from my previous TE300 longtermer
(before I sold it) and I sent those
together with the XPlor forks to Stillwell
for a full upgrade. Alan and Kevin
at SP explained that we could make
something of a Frankenstein’s Monster,
by using the outer tubes of the 4CS forks
with the Xplor internals. The 4CS upper
tubes had been Kashima coated and the
lower fork tubes had been DLC coated
as part of their A-Kit upgrade. These
coatings reduce stiction significantly
and improve the overall performance
of the forks considerably. The 4CS
internals would be swapped out and
replaced with the Stillwell Performance
Xplor A-Kit internals (Fork Revalving -
Midvalve Mods - Fork Pro Valve Pistons
- Polished Fork Springs - Pro Sliders -
Billet Clickers - Air Bleeders). The lugs
on the tubes would then be replaced
with new ones to fit the 2017 FE350. Not
only would this save a bunch of money
60
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