1995 Husqvarna 610 Review
By Mark Nadolski ( nadolski@cwnet.com )
The Husqvarna 610 is an exceptional bike. It hasn't changed significantly since the 1992 model year. Mine was originally sold as a dirt bike, a WXC model. But mine was converted to a dual sport via a Baja Designs kit by the previous owner. As a dual sport this bike turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It could be categorized as 80% dirt and 20% street.
Features include:
- Fully Adjustable Male Slider Showa Forks about 11-12 inches travel Fully Adjustable Showa Rear Shock; about 11-12 inches travel
- Water Cooled, 575cc, high compression engine feels siginficantly more powerful than my 89 Yamaha XT600 or 83 Honda XL600
- Advertised 258 lb Dry Weight; I estimate it to be about 280-290 wet.
- 2.5 Gallon Fuel tank gives about 100 miles dual sport (50/50 on/off road Range)
- 6 speed transmission gives a nice range of ratios without a large spread between first and second I experienced on some other 5 speeders
- Extremely long aluminum swingarm looks cool.
- Stainless Exhaust System with dual silencers protruding from under the seat are totally bitching! Ala Ducati 916. Nothing in the aftermarket could approach it; even if it were available. Whats more the system works. Its reasonablly quiet, emits a nice snarl, and seeems to flow well.
- 40mm DelOrto Carburator seems to keep the engine well fed without lean symptoms etc.
- Wet sump Engine is easy to change oil on. Although there is no oil pump or element filter, just a "reed valve" and screen which seems to do the job, so far.At least theres no filter to change, just clean the screen!
- Comes stock with Brembo Brakes, which work very good, even on the street
- Name brand rims
That it for features. I have been running Pirelli MT21 tires which work very good on the dirt but wear out fairly quickly on the street, such is the price of fun.I geared it up one tooth on the countershaft for better street gearing. This sacrafices some low speed tractability but its still low enough in first for most single track I have encountered. On gnarly paved roads this bike aboslutely smokes! Copious torque, for the weight of the bike, enable excellent acceleration at low to medium speeds, better than my Yamaha FZR600, at least up until 80 MPH or so.
This bike has a few weak points. One is the stator which does put out enough juice to run head light, tail light and keep the battery charged. I think it needs one of those stator winding jobs to improve output. Another problem I have had is clutch slippage. It is not an issue in the dirt, where traction is limited anyway but on the street the clutch will slip when one really gets on the power band. I plan to fix this problem with stiffer chutch springs. The engine has no balance shaft so it vibrates some, and theres no electric starter. Its definitely not a KLR type dual sport touring bike but a serious dirt oriented dual sporter. I would be interested to hear from any other Husky 610 owners out there.
Mark Nadolski ( nadolski@cwnet.com )
03/19/99