Is 2011 TE630 a reliable ride?

[CoAdvRider]

I'm looking to get into motorcycle adv riding after about 20 years. I was an avid street rider before, have taken motorcycle safety courses and am generally a mild rider. I'm not looking to hop rocks or do wheelies with - I'm over that. I want to do mild trail riding on weekends and head to the capsite for the night.

I found a 2011 Husq TE630 on local Craigslist with 5000 miles. Here is the ad for it. I like the style, it looks well kept, it's in my price range and it's not too far from where I live. I have few reservations:

1) It seems heavily modified and lowered for a shorter person - I'm 6'2'' and 240lbs...
2) I've read some posts that made me think that maintenance schedule is pretty intense: changing cam chain, valve adjustments at short intervals - don't normally dig in the engine and don't really want to
3) A seasoned rider from a 4x4 forum advised me against purchasing TE630 from 2011 - due to maintenance concerns

Is this motorcycle really something to stay away from or worth considering?

P.S.
My other choices are Honda (XR650L), or similar

[CoAdvRider]

I feel like I've stepped into a BMW forum with Husky in its domain name...

[Tims1572]

Well I can try to explain that. Back in 2009 and on through 2011, BMW owned the Husqvarna motorcycle company and its assembly plant in Varese Italy. The BMW designed 450X engine was supplied to Husky for their TE/TXC/TC 449/511 models from 2011-2013 after BMW ceased production of the BMW G450X model. Many of the BMW members of this group of forums didn't much care for the Husky's being part of the BMW Family. I myself own both a 2009 BMW G450X and I also have a 2015 KTM "Austrian built" Husqvarna FE 501. I moderate the G450riders.org forum on here and have tried to keep the Huskytalk section active for several years now. After much negotiation BMW made the move and sold the "Husqvarna" (name only) to "KTM" in mid January of 2013.
The old Varese factory sat for a few years and was reopened by 1 of the largest Chinese cycle and scooter manufacturers in the world "Shineray" and are building new bikes and continuing designs and offer several models under the old "Speedy Works Motors" SWM brand.

They purchased the 4 stroke engine design program, all the factory tooling, rehired many of the former Italian employees and have continued working on upgrading the 4 stroke engine designs from the Italian era Husky's. Including the 630 engine.
They did not buy the Italian Husky 2 stroke engine program.

Many of the parts used on the SWM models built today in several sizes actually have parts, gaskets, etc. that interchange with the 630 engine ands some of the other smaller engine CC models as well. They have been building bikes now for the few years.

The TE 630 was morphed from the earlier Italian design "Gagiva" era Husky 570/610 engines. They are sort of an orphan in their own class, but in a good way. As they are more of a dirt bike and are a bit lighter than say the G650X challenge from BMW or the DR 650s from Suzuki. Many owners love both their earlier 2009 610s and the 2011 on 630's. Most of them use the bikes as dual sports. one of the more popular modifications to do to these bikes is what's called the Pod-Mod, which involves a major improvement to the air box by lengthening the air filter neck and mounting a foam filter rearward off of the new filter neck fabricated from PVC fittings and later on done with much more smoother flow by making 3-D printed plastic filter necks to do this. This helps direct the filtered air to the neck of the air inlet in a less restrictive design and aids in filter changes. Modification to the airbox has been done in many ways to contain this set up and from my having read on this in years past I have seen quite a few innovative designs.

If you want to get some access to a wider variety of archived information on the 610/630 Husky's. Check out the Cafehusky.com forum. I'm a member myself.
They have a Italian era section with a separate section devoted to just the 610/630 models. If you haven't already seen that forum, you might want to take a look.

[CoAdvRider]

Thank you, Tim - that's quite a set of twists and turns for that company... now that the Chinese are involved in that brand, I think I'll just stay away from it.

[Tims1572]

The Chinese have re-opened the old Italian era Husky factory and build SWMs.

You might want to rethink the Italian built SWM motorcycles. They are actually much more refined then you might think and are easily comparable to the Husky models made in the same location. They are very affordable and have proven themselves in the trail riders market world wide and in Rallye competition and Hard Enduro competition.

I've included a few pictures of the very nice and serious RS 500 single and the 650 mid sized dual sport adventure bike. It runs the same refined and upgraded engine as what was in the Husky 630 you were talking about.

Here's a Cycle News test of the SWM 650 from last year. This bike is the continued and refined evolution of the earlier Husqvarna TE630.
https://www.cyclenews.com/2020/04/ar...dual-x-review/

These bikes are seriously loaded with nice features and just because the Chinese Company Shineray owns the SWM factory they are built in Italy by many of the same people that built the Italian Husky's, back when MV Agusta had some holdings influence on the Italian Husqvarna before BMW purchased them for the short few years they owned them.

They in no way are involved with the Husky Brand name.
KTM is the owner of Husqvarna now and they supply and handle the sales of all early Husqvarna parts available for the earlier Italian models prior to KTM buying the Husqvarna brand and of course all the newer Austrian built Husky's as well.

[CoAdvRider]

Sounds like the 2011 TE630 in my original question was built in Italy while under BMW's ownership during those years. Are parts availability a concern for these 630s? Is KTM or SWM now supplying parts those?

Those SWM bikes are stylish, no doubt.

[Tims1572]

KTM handles the parts distribution for the earlier Italian Husky's.

The "Cafe Husky" forum I mentioned earlier has a page devoted to the new SWM bikes and I believe they have a "sticky" page that lists many of the engine parts, plastics, etc. that crossover to fit directly to the earlier Husky models.

Parts for these Italian era bikes are still available and some Husky dealers specialize in the location and supply of the earlier Italian era parts, Such as Halls Cycles in Illinois. They can find just about anything you would need. There are a few European based Husky parts locator shops as well overseas.