I
leapt at the opportunity to ride the
very classy looking Husqvarna TE250i in
Riverhead for an afternoon with the guys
from KR. I like the slightly retro front light,
the plastics are super sleek and my boots
just glide right over them. The graphics
on the bike are simple but stylish. The advice
Vege, KR’s Publisher, gave me before riding the
new bikes was to “make sure you short-shift the
bike, it’s got plenty of power... and have fun.”
Hopping on the bike it felt a bit tall for me.
This is probably because the bike is designed
for a rider with a decent frame, not this 60kg
lightweight. The little grey starter button just
next to the throttle instantly brings the 250
to life, every time. The bike idles super low, at
first I thought it was gonna stall but it seems
the onboard computer has got this dialled.
The Riverhead clay was a bit wet and slippery
after two days of rain, but the Husky was
forgiving and easy to ride. The power came on
from rock bottom and continued to build with
no sign of the classic “hold on to your steak
and cheese” power-band. All the torque made
it super easy to short-shift through the gears
to keep the 250 purring in the tricky stuff. Even
crawling through some dark and slippery single
track the TE just purred through in second
gear making easy work of the clay and logs.
This is a really forgiving bike, coming into
one sharp turn a bit hot the brakes pulled
it up really nicely, and then coming out
of the corner the bike pulled beautifully
despite being in too high a gear.
The bit I enjoyed most in the Husky was the
suspension setup, even with my light 60kg
frame, it worked amazingly.The forks were
great, they didn’t dive too much and still
had a super smooth ride – really confidence
inspiring. The rebound was spot-on because
after a lumpy landing the forks didn’t jump
back up, instead you could ride on as if nothing
had happened. I think the TE250i is a bike you
could just trust and love riding – it’s a class act.
~ WILLIAM EYRE
KIWI RIDER 53