he 250cc four-stroke has a lot going for it, so it's no surprise this model is so popular with Aussie dirt riders. Problems specific to high performance four-strokes notwithstanding, the typical 250 four-stroke has impressive engine performance, the bike is light so its easy to throw around, drag out of a bog-hole, extricate from a humungous rut and so forth, and the thing corners really well. Firing these little buggers into one berm after another on your favourite trail is a real hoot.
This market segment is well serviced too. Most manufacturers have a street legal, race-bred 250cc four-stroke, and they're not separated by much in terms of performance. During our last shootout on these bikes we dragged from our testers an almost unanimous decision that the Husky was the nicest. And some guys who thought they'd never admit that anything was better than a Honda or a Yamaha had to eat their words or choke.

LATE CHARGE
No doubt a stubborn streak of conservatism held Husqvarna back in this country, and for a long time. Despite God knows how many championship wins in cross-country events, the brand never seemed to take off here, at least not in the volumes we've seen KTM push out in the past five years. What teh KTM distributor has achieved is one of the great Australian marketing successes, but of course that's another story.
And things are certainly changing for Husqvarna. The latest batch of Huskies are the best the brand has ever been, and from our highly opinionated point of view the TE250 is possibly the best dirt bike Husqvarna makes. On top of that the local distributor offers a 24-month parts and labour warranty-much more generous than anyone else-while the bikes themselves bristle with gold label gear. And why do we like the TE250 so much? Well, all that gold label stuff, and because the littlest TE does damn near everything so well.
There's nothing about this bike you'd point to and exclaim "I hate that!" The only gripes we had concern the sidestand and the gearing. The powerfully spring-loaded sidestand retracts with unwarranted aggression. It's a weapon! One rider let the bike go because he thought the sidestand was down. It wasn't. The sidestand is also difficult to deploy when you're on the bike unless your legs are like Leroy Butthead's.

As for the gearing, it's too high for the dirt, or to be mote specific, it's too high in first and second gears. With 13-50 sprockets the Husky needs a lot of clutch dancing to get up a rock-strewn climb. It just doesn't have the marbles for that sort of work with standard gearing.
But that's hardly a problem; most dealers rarely sell a bike with stock gearing anyway. Husky dealer Chris Flaherty (Southlakes Motorcycles) says 12-50 or 13-52 is a better bet if you have to prove your manhood every weekend by running down a bunch of psyched-out lunatics posing as friends. We couldn't agree more.

A RIGHT LITTLE CHARMER
Another characteristic we like about the TE is its handling. From a trail rider's point of view the bike's Marzocchi/Sachs suspension is plush enough to keep him comfortable over the length of a long hard day but still cope with all the crap nature can chuck his way.
We believe the suspension on this bike, and particularly the Sachs shock works better on the 250 than the 450. The shocks might be the same for all we know but we can only call it as we see it. The smaller bike's suspension feels plusher and more compliant, and lacks the 450's occasional habit of kicking you in the arse on really nasty terrain. (And, incidently, we'd say the same thing about the Yamahas; the WR250 has nicer trail suspension that the WR450).
So where does this leave us? Very impressed. All things being equal, this bike would win another DBT 250 four-stroke shootout. And I'll go further than that. If I was buying a 250 tomorrow, I'd be signing up for this baby.