Wood you believe?
What to do with a loaned Husqvarna FE350…
MODERN LIFE HAS DONE THE DIRTY ON ME – work, attempting to move house and young children have conspired and resulted in my race events calendar looking barren and empty. Having done big events such as Erzberg at the moment there seems little to look forward to. Hastily borrowing a Husqvarna FE350 has helped ease the pain and after so much time on a two-stroke 250 it has been refreshing to feel its four-stroke power. Where often the KTM 250 2T I rode for most of 2017 was eager and usually more tiring, the FE350 feels lazier and more relaxed. I’m just not very good at ‘aimlessly’ going on a trail ride. Though obviously there’s nothing wrong with trail riding it just isn’t my thing. So I invented an ‘aim’ for the Husky which was to have a day out and ride it to a trackday – an off-road trackday that is. There are a couple of tracks near enough to me to make it possible to ride (mostly) off-road all the way, instead of vanning it like usual. With some tools and a drinks bladder on my back I set off and didn’t come back till tea-time. The FE350 is docile on the green lanes, economical and quiet wafting along in a high gear where I’d perhaps have been more self-conscious on the buzzing two-stroke. It’s also quick and agile when I get to the patch of woods which hides a loopy, whoopy course called ‘Hit the Dirt’ in Norfolk. I felt a different set of emotions turning up in that way. More relaxed and certainly more pleased with myself. A handful of 20 minute sessions and 25 quid lighter I head off home again mucky and happy at discovering a new aim and a different, more personal take on the trackday theme.