Husqvarna 510 Centennial
HUSQVARNA 510 CENTENNIAL
One hundred years in the making
A funny thing happened on the way to motocross school. Having showed up at the Cagiva factory early in the morning, I was dismayed to discover that class didn't commence until afternoon. So to pass the time, Press Officer Martino Bianchi set up a little demo ride for me-on a $22,000 dirtbike!
Now, the Husqvarna TE510 Centennial is no ordinary off-road bike. Meant to commemorate the originally Swedish brand's 100th anniversary, the limitededition machine (just 100 will be pro duced worldwide) was built with the sort of attention to detail that is ordinarily reserved for the factory's mega-dollar MV Agusta sportbikes. Just look at the fuel tank: Made of aluminum and polished to a mirror finish, it shows through ports in the red-painted radiator shrouds to evoke the look of a chrome-tanked 1970s Husky. Those shrouds, incidentally, are made of carbon-fiber, and are shaped like the familiar "H" crown logo, as is the machined-from-billet fuel cap. All very striking, especially when complemented by the silver-painted frame, top-level brake and suspension components, countless carbon-fiber and titanium bits and red-anodized hardware. Based on the TE450 (Cycle World's Best Enduro Bike of 2004), the liquid cooled, dohc 510 actually displaces 501 cc through a 97mm bore and 67.8mm stroke. Compare that to the far less over square 91.5 x 76.4mm of the original air cooled, sohc 503cc Husky 510 and you get an idea of the progress made over the past 20 years.
Destined to become collector’s items, the majority of 510 Centennials probably will never be ridden, which is a real shame. Because after spending a morning riding in the woods adjacent to CH Racing (the shop that fields the works Husky enduro team and builds Husky mini-bikes under license), I can attest to the fact that the bike works very well indeed.
Maybe even too well: Compared to the 450, the 510 simply offers more of everything everywhere, with an explosive bottom-end hit that makes it hard to stay in the ruts and out of the trees, and a topend rush that makes narrow woods trails seem even narrower. I’d have preferred to test it in the desert, where there’s more open space and softer shrubbery! According to CH Racing proprietor Roberto Azzalin, the factory enduro team mellows out the 510’s power delivery with a different pipe and a Keihin (rather
than the standard Mikuni) carb, which if rumors are true will come standard on the 2005 Husky four-strokes. Some elements of the Centennial's styling also allegedly will be standardized for `05, so if you can't afford $22,000 for an anniversary-edition model, don't sweat it-they'll be sold out by the time you read this anyway, and next year you'll be able to buy the same basic bike for one-third the price. And you won't have to think
twice about crashing it.
Brian Catterson
