Here is Dustbites updated report on his bikes. He gave me permission to just copy and paste from his pm.
Hi Dale,
It’s our high season, that’s why I haven’t been around here.
I quickly checked the bikes:
oldest two bikes (Dec 2008):
450 – 563 hr 21591 km
570 – 505 hr 19837 km
“newer” two 450s (March ’09):
– 396 hr 15319 km
– 416 hr 15930 km
three bikes received new piston- rings and timing chain. They started consuming a lot of oil and starting became difficult.
One bike needed a new cylinder. The old cyl. showed two light colored spots where the compression ring reaches TDC.
at € 465,- RRP for cyl & piston you won’t hear me complaining (minus a dealer discount).
The timing chain stretches a lot, so much that the tension rail rests on the cam-shaft gear wheel! It results in a lot of clacking noises by the hydr tensioner at low rpms.
The good news is that the chains seems to be unbreakable. I didn’t change the gear wheels but it will be necessary next time as the Morse type chain wears out the gear wheel in a very different way as a chain with rolls.
The 570 seems to get hotter than the 450s (well, obviously I guess). Sometimes the one-way reservoir breather-valve blocks at this bike and the pressure rises so much in the reservoir that it starts leaking at the pump flange.
But: with one group the bike seemed to boil and loose cooling liquid. But with the next group: no problems. So it might be driver related. That’s the whole problem with fora anyway: 10.000 members and 10.000 different opinions……. And riding in my nick-of-the-woods has a different impact on a bike that elsewhere, that’s another important factor to consider.
From a tour- business point-of-view: I don’t think there’s a better bike! Honestly, we have so little troubles with the bikes, it’s amazing.
The shims of the exhaust hammer in, putting back a shim in the original thickness brings the gap back to specs!
That’s very, very different from the older Husaberg models and the 2003 KTMs I owned; the intake valves were always “eaten away” by the very fine dust we have here.
hope this kills your curiosity
cheers,
Adriaan
