Husaberg is aiming to improve its current small market share in Australia’s booming off-road market.

New commitment to service / warranty...

Perhaps the most important step in the right direction has come with an increase of the normal 3 month warranty out to 12 months.  Husaberg now offers a better warranty than bikes like its KTM brethren (3 months) and Yamaha's WR models.

Husaberg management claim that they are now totally committed to after sales service and support, an area where the brand has been lacking in previous years.

Perhaps even more important for customer satisfaction is that all 2003 Husaberg machines are put through an extensive pre-delivery regimen at the WA based national distribution centre, before being sent on to dealers. 

Nothing like your new bike leaking oil the first week you get it, this new system of doing things hopes to prevent such happenings.

Husaberg also claim to be working hard to ensure a large stock of components and service items are always available and warehoused at their Australian distribution centre.  I was impressed with my walk around their facility, the manager I spoke to impressed with his common sense approach to how he aims to improve the name of the brand.

Husaberg - History

The Husaberg brand came about from a group of Husqvarna engineers breaking away from Husky to produce their own machines.

They had immediate success in European racing circles and started producing machines for sale.  They were then brought in to the KTM fold to help them develop Husaberg further.

In recent years KTM has learnt many lessons in areas of quality control and parts distribution, and this is where the benefits for Husaberg will show through. But each company’s products will remain totally separate.

Now to the bike

I recently covered over 600km aboard one of Husaberg’s FE501 machines.

For this review I sampled the model with some optional ‘SuperMoto’ components, including polished 17” rims shod with Michelin Sport road rubber. An impressive Inox 310mm floating front disc assembly with Beringer four-piston caliper was also an optional extra fitted to the machine.

The FE501 retails for around $12,595, the road wheels and brake are available separately but will add nearly $3000 to the cost of the machine. But then you have a road bike and MX bike in one, you only need to switch the wheels over depending on what you plan to get up to over the coming weekend.

The brake is powerful and does not fade.  The disc rotor is fully-floating, thick and robust.  Effort through the lever is moderate and feel is quite good.

Combine the impressive braking forces with the motocross based suspension and it is easy to see that in Supermoto trim the machine would benefit from some stiffer springs in the forks, along with a reduction in travel.  Husaberg can supply off-the-shelf components to make this simple modification a fuss free affair.

The soft forks held things back a little when braking hard.  Also on the exit of fast turns when carrying good corner speed the forks were prone to 'pattering' a little.  We were getting pretty excited on the machine though and circulating the Wanneroo short-circuit in around 61 seconds.

However, the rear suspension was impressive in Supermoto trim.  The progressive PDS shock behaved extremely well and did not suffer from excessive squat or instability, common on such machines when road rubber is fitted.  You would have to be getting fairly serious at the track before any changes to the rear shock were necessary.

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