Riding Impression: 2017 Husqvarna TX300 Build

Is This Even Legal?

Story and Photos by Trevor Hunter

It’s not often we get the call to ride a freshly prepped bike, built with every trick part you can think of, and get to just show up and ride. Truthfully, we like building bikes ourselves, getting a feel for everything we touch and seeing what works and what doesn’t. That aspect of the testing process is intriguing, informative, and allows us to make gains in performance and/or durability rather than slapping on aftermarket products for the fun of it.

However, when Jay Clark called asking us to try out his newly refurbished 2017 Husqvarna TX300 dual sport, and after going over some of the parts list, we were excited to throw a leg over the bike. You can check out some of our past Jay Clark test rides like this 2017 KTM 300XC and this YZ250 Rebuild.

What exactly made this bike so intriguing for us? There were a few bits and pieces that sparked our interest – some that we had had negative experiences with in the past, and some that we had zero experience with. The biggest change Jay made to this bike, whom we might add was the original and now fifth owner, is the Lectron carburetor feeding fuel and air to the 300cc power plant equipped with fresh Wiseco parts. I personally have had one experience with a bike running a Lectron carb and I couldn’t get off of it fast enough. The KTM 250, known for a smooth and rather torquey bottom-mid range, made less power than a 125cc two-stroke down low and putting all that power into the top-end and overrev. The powerband was extremely narrow, hard to ride, and just flat out not fun to ride.

Knowing a Lectron can be set up in so many different ways, I was hopeful that Jay’s tuning would be everything but what I had ridden. And it’s safe to say it is night and day better with the right tune. Jay’s TX300 was ultra smooth down low, pumping out tons of torque with a smooth power delivery that gradually pulled into the mid-range before signing off high in the top-end, much like a well tuned 300cc two-stroke should. Having some experience with Mikuni carbureted two-strokes, they can be difficult to jet perfectly, especially when being ridden gently and maintaining low RPMs. The Lectron never skipped a beat, always providing plenty of power and maintaining a crisp throttle response at every crack of the throttle.

Moving onto the suspension, this was another aspect of the build that intrigued me and my test rider. Ditching the AER48 air spring, Jay and Race Tech installed the single spring conversion kit that replaces the air spring with a traditional coil spring in the one fork leg. This is the budget-friendly spring conversion for air forks, and something I hadn’t had a chance to try yet. After a solid day of riding through varied and typical off-road/dual sport terrain, we were quite happy with the performance of the revalved and coil sprung forks, along with the revalved shock.

From small bumps and square edges, to flowing singletrack, to bigger sand whoops, we rode it all and felt very comfortable with the overall balance and performance of the bike. Everything worked in unison, felt balanced from front to back, and soaked up all the harshness that we’d typically feel in a setting like this. The spring fork conversion felt a tad heavier and slower steering than air forks, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We prefer that over the lighter, more nimble air fork as its more planted and stable. Another benefit of the conversion is not needing to check and adjust fork air pressure, which can get tricky on multi-day rides or days with varying temperatures.

The final item of interest with this build was the use of a Dunlop AT81EX gummy rear tire. We’ve put a minimal amount of time on a gummy tire on an Endurocross track, but never in a real world trail setting until today. We were quite impressed with its performance in typical dirt including hard pack and sand. We knew in rocks and logs, it’s like cheating. The gummy makes you 10, 15, even 20% better rider in the hard stuff as it sticks and makes traction where you’d typically be floundering around as the rear wheel spins out of control. In the dirt, it hooks up just as well, sometimes even too well, and in the right setting where you aren’t going to put in a million miles or if you’re riding a lot of rocks and roots, this could be a game changer and something that makes that ride that much more enjoyable.

The FMF system sounded soooo good while helping put down smooth and tractable power.

The Moto Seat used today was less than ideal as a dual-sport seat, but we would be fine with it as a race seat. We’d opt for one of Moto Seat’s softer seat foam for a bike like this where long days are inevitable.

The cockpit comprised of ODI components felt very neutral and offer good comfort on the trail.

Per usual, the rest of the bike is well built with a lot of bling, but also a lot of protective pieces that can and do save the bike from abuse. Products from companies like ™ Designworks, Bullet Proof Designs, Pro Moto Billet, and more all do their job in critical places and will keep the bike moving through rugged terrain.

Overall, this bike is very easy to ride, balanced, and comfortable. It’s got more pep in its step than the newer generation TPi bikes which creates excitement and “feels” faster while you’re riding it. It’s still easy to ride with a smooth yet exciting power band and if you’re an 80-90% dirt kind of dual sport rider, a bike like this will be a blast to ride. Is this complete parts list necessary for everyone out there? The answer is no. But, they all add some value to the bike, it’s up to you to decide what’s of value to you.