BRUCE HUSQVARNA FE 350
Some people look forward to their birthday, Christmas, or that fishing trip with a mate they see just once a year. Me? Well, I look forward to weaponising winter with an enduro bike. Living where I do, with the opportunity to hit green lane after lane and a smattering of pukka enduro tracks littered around to make things all the sweeter, it would be sacrilege not to take advantage of the opportunity. Besides, it’s what keeps me sane when the cold, wet months kick in and you have to grasp the reality that blitzing around on a 200bhp sportsbike in the ice and snow is only going to end in pain in one form or another. I’m too old for those kinds of antics, so I’ll leave it to the bolder and the braver. Besides, a change of scenery every now and again never did anyone any harm.
In all honesty, switching back to enduro riding on an annual occasion never fails to catch me off-guard at first, with the biggest shocker being the literal height of these gangly god-sent gifts. At least, that’s what my brain told me when cocking a leg over my Husky FE350 termer. At 5ft 9.5in tall (you can’t forget the half inch), I’m not the tallest of folk, but I’m no Hobbit either. Nevertheless, and despite almost 20 years of enduro bike riding, I found myself stumped by the altitude of the saddle, which gradually started to feel more at home a few miles into my inaugural ride. What made me less at home was the lack of indicators, mirrors, rev counter or coffee cup holder (I’m sure that comes as standard on some bikes?). I guess I’ve got used to such luxuries over time, but on a machine as focused as this, designed to compete first and foremost and lug you around as a commuter very much secondary, why the hell would such features even factor? That was a realisation that came in time, but not until I’d dialled back into the realities of riding a pokey single on nobblies on wet roads.
I find it’s like a playing a game of Russian Roulette against yourself, with your brain telling you to slow down as you enter into a bend but that devil on your shoulder telling you that even if you do wash the front, you could just save it with a dab, drift the rear out for dramatic effect, and make your fellow road users worship your riding skills
(which in my case I don’t possess). The point being this – it’s a little unnerving at first, and the sketchiest thing about a bike such as this on the road is that at speeds of 60mph-plus, even going in a straight line feels frightening. The FE, on off-road tyres, is not a fan of doing just that, with its natural disposition being to shake its head like my angry two-year-old when I tell her its bedtime. Grip the bars harder and you’ll only make things worse, and the same goes for sitting further backwards. Riding a bike like this at pace on tarmac is all about being relaxed, loose on the handlebars, and plonking your balls pretty much on the headstock. Thankfully, this bike makes so much more sense in its natural off-road habitat. In the few weeks I’ve now had this machine, I’ve mostly played on local green lanes – on which it is exceptional.
The thing I like best about the Husky is how easy it is to ride for so many different reasons. I should start by admitting that while I’ve been riding dirt bikes for many years, I’ve never really ridden more than a handful of times a year, and during every such time, I’ve never been any good at it. But it’s fun, and on a bike like this, the scene seems to make so much more sense. The best thing about the FE on trails is how effortlessly it floats along, whatever lumps and bumps come its way. For an amateur like myself, the WP suspension feels top draw, informative, and forgiving; fire the bike wherever you want it to go and the pogos take care of everything else. It’s also a very agile machine, which is no bad trait when bounding along often narrow and debris-rife lanes, with plenty of logs, rocks, and dog walkers to avoid… in no particular order. The bike’s so responsive to pressure through the pegs that you never really need to give the bars much of a workout, and when it comes to slow action stuff there’s a great sense of balance thanks to the bike’s considered weight packaging, which means you can hover almost static without feeling like its mass is going to get the better of you and put you on your arse. At very slow speeds, that makes this bike feel super special, and I also like the impressive amount of steering lock on tap that makes U-turns a doddle. Of course, the alternative is to just lay the bike over a bit, pin the throttle, drop the clutch, and power your way round until you are pointing in your preferred direction.
As far as clutches go, this bike’s hydraulic option feels light and offers reasonable feel – ideal for the aforementioned manoeuvre. I ride everywhere with one finger on the clutch, and the span position seems to suit me a treat, with the initial biting point being not too far into the pressuring of the lever. You get the point: it’s a decent operator, but the engine on this thing is the real talking point. Husqvarna offers a massive range of enduro bikes, both two-stroke and four-stroke, from 125cc all the way up to 701. The FE family (four-stroke enduro) consists
of a 250cc, 350cc, 450cc and 501cc. For whatever reason, the 350 option seems to suit me best. The power on tap is plenty, but not so much that it leaves you with nightmares when you’re scrunched up in bed. For a rider like me, it’s the perfect tool, with a linear and predictable spread of power and super-crisp fuelling. It sounds good too, even with the stock can on it. I don’t feel the need for any more oomph and the proof in that pudding is the tendency for the rear wheel to light up as you hook your way up the six-speed gearbox. It just never seems to tail off on the energy front, which means wheelies are child’s play regardless of what gear you’re in. Personally, I love it (if you hadn’t already got the message), being so versatile for the stop-start nature of riding green lanes. As far as tech goes, I’ve not yet had chance to indulge in the true worth of the two-tier traction control system that comes on this bike, but it’s something I’m sure I will dabble with next time out when I ride it at a proper enduro park. The weather’s only getting worse now, so I’m sure the scenery will be plenty slick by the time I make it out on a track to test the more performancefocused attributes. But what I can tell you, several rides in on this experience, is that this bike is an exceptional sparring partner for the kind of shenanigans I’ve got up to this month. It’s massively versatile, packs a hefty fuel range so you can go the distance, and there’s not enough that can be said about the brilliance of the electric start function that takes all the sweating and swearing out of more traditional enduro riding experiences. I like this thing. I like it a lot.