Low hour '04 FE450 being sold for 3000 in my area,
this bike any good? PO is a woman and by look of photos
and desc was well cared for and seldom used, probably
ued to follow a boyfriend around.

short answer is no. Lots of head / rocker arm issues.

yeah ... as my local berg dealer once said '' they are good bikes , when they are running ''

i owned one for 2 years , issues with water pump seal , broken valve springs . counter balancer failure .

Thanks guys, no wonder it has been for sale all summer !
Will keep on rocking my super clean YZF420 ( Wiseco kit )
for an other season or so.
Thanks for saving me a bunch of trouble
Keep it simple.

I disagree, as the 04 has the good stator. I have an 02 501 that i bought used in 04 (70mi on it) still runs great and is all org. except stator/cdi and has an fcr carb and a rekluse (with the org clutch) still has the org water pump seal. only trail ridden though.

the 02 and 03 there was some trouble,  04 was a good year , kokusan ignition and keihn carburator,  it is as good as a 08 berg. .   04 was the first  really good year.

forgot mine has 03 up rockers---

I have had 2 450s an 04 and an 08.
I busted some bones on the 08 so it was sold while I sulked & repaired my body. I then saw the 04 on ebay very cheap so I was back on a Berg...
A bit of history.
I have actually had 5 Bergs all up & I LOVE them.
My 96 400 was unreliable, hard to start, cranky & moody but when it was going it was great.
My 99 501 was brilliant & did a heap of work any problems were caused by me (dusted it) but the fork seals leaked like a BP oil well.
I then shamefully left the Swedes & bought a VOR...beat me now. It was a black XR. Smooth power, nice looking but let down by crap forks.
My 03 501 did about 180 hrs and as far as I know still has not been opened. Its getting noisy though...Its had a new stator a couple of times, lots of fresh oil & filters but for me & the 2nd owner it was unstoppable. As a Berg owner of the time a stator was the same as a tyre...you knew it would need replacing at some stage.
My 450s have not had a spanner on them except standard maintenance & set up. My 2nd 450 is a bit long in the tooth & I don't really know its history but it still goes well, gets a bit noisy, wont start on the button when cold but it was cheap & keeps going for now, so I'm happy.
I use the bikes for club level MX, enduro gncc style events & trail riding.

If its cheap, buy it get onto http://www.husaberg.org/ & learn about them. Buy a few maintenance engine parts, the taffmeisters jetting kit & fall in love with a Swede.

They are great & make other 4 strokes of the age feel like whales to ride.

1st year : locked up in third, rocker arm roller bearing failed and ruined cam...
2nd year: fork seals, intake valves hit piston .... Rebuilt motor and after a couple rides discovered ware swing arm pivot bolt goes threw engine case was cracked needing new cases.... Bike was a awesome ride when it wasn't being worked on....... I don't think the new ones have these issues...

Ride said:

I would have to disagree also. I've had four Berg's and the only one to have a rocker issue was a 2000 FE501 and that may have been my boy's fault. I still have an 04 FE650 and a 03 FFE501. No issues except a stator on the 03.

I have owned 5 04-08 bergs, and still own 2 of them.  I sold my 2004 Fe550 to my buddy with over 10,000 miles on it.  All I did was replace a cam chain in the motor due to wear, not failure.  He put about 5,000 more miles on it before a valve spring broke.  My 07 650 has over 6,000 on it.  I've put about 25,000 miles on my 5 bergs and NEVER had a failure.  They kick ass, and NO bike on the planet has the GRIN factor of a HUSABERG 650.

cheeseberger

cheeseberger said:

I have came across 3 Burgs 01-02 models , 470, 501 and my 550 witch all had cracked cases at swing arm pivot bolt. Factory defect Husaberg acknowledges ... They had no 03 year cause of there problems... So 04 and up is better...... My 450r Honda is a faster bike than my old 550 . The burg is hands down well suited for trail rideing .... Mine left me hanging ..... The supeoto guys needed to run alcohol to make them hang with the Jap 450's back then...

my 650 berg was rediculously quick

cheeseberger said:

chooken said:

The 650 was fast ! I herd the 550 had more on bottom.

I would say I know a fair bit about Husabergs! I'm on my second one and into my 5th year of ownership! My first was an '03 501... The last of the 'true' Husabergs as in 2004 KTM bought the company! The 501 did have a couple of ignition related issues but compared to my 20 or so Jap bikes previous it was about the same in reliabilty but leagues ahead in speed and handling! I put it in supermoto trim and in a straight line drag race I could beat my mates on CCM r30's and KTM 625's by a long way!!
Now I have a 2004 FE450 which is in enduro trim. The most notable difference  from the '03 is the Kokusan ignition, beefier starter and the FCR carb! I have 2 mates who I go riding with and they both ride KTM exc450's. One of them has a 1 year old one and the other is an '08. Where the '08 suffers from constant over heating issues the 1 year old bike has a fork rebuild after 19 hours and a full engine strip down and rebuild after 37 hours due to a failed cam bearing! My bike so far has been more reliable than both of these put together and compared to the Honda CRF450x and Yamaha 450WR's we've all owned in the past it's just as, if not more reliable!!
Yes it is a little more 'hands on' with the maintenance but as long as you do this (I love it as much as riding) it's unstoppable! Off road when they are all working it is pretty much exactly the same in power and handling as my mates EXC's but it cost a quarter of the purchase price!

My main point really is every manufacturer has it's problems, Husaberg is no exception! But as long as you're happy with checking the valve clearances (45min job) and changing the oil every 3 or 4 rides then the Husaberg is AT LEAST as good as the rest of them if not better!!
Compare all '04 bikes in performance and handling and I know what will come out on top!

Husaberg seem to get a lot of bad press due to failures even though every make has made a lemon at some point!
My '04 has 257hours and has only ever had a cam chain and a headgasket and it rides/starts/stops like new!!

Rant over!

Ben

Rearwheelin said:

It's obvious you don't have a clue. I'm staring at a 2003 right here in my garage.

mhambone said:

I stand corrected , I was going by my local dealers word back in 03" ...... Maybe they ment they weren't getting 03" .... The issues I have stated are true to my year 550 FC 470 n 501 ... All berg shops in my area have closed and there has been a few... Those bikes are a love hate relationship from my expieriance . If they are so great then why are the maintenance books in Sweetish ( maybee they have English now ) and howcome by 100hrs you will have replaced every single internal engine component ... Some parts 4 times over, if you go by what's recommended by factory ...... I still have a custom made 27mm deep socket for taking out the counter balancer when I rebuilt mine in 03 and parts were coming in KTM boxes then..... That was a wasted $1800 in parts ! after the rebuild the case cracked..... I should have sold the bike broke as fair warning instead of my cousin who bought 2 used 01's as a investment  bothe broke within weeks of his purchase.... Bothe Bergs also had new cases installed by our dealer too....... There junk !! Sweet on paper and good to work on !!   Just my opinion ! Hope yours works out..... I will never buy another ! I have owned 21 bike street and dirt and the berg was the most unreliable..... I had a U.S.F.S. Ranger talk mess to me how he had to tow one out that broke down.... I thought him a smart as$ but turned true to me / nice name : Hike out Husaberg

A 426 yamaha has the same top end as my 01 550fc in a drag race on the pavement !

Maybe it's your rebuild skills that are causing all your problems??

i struggle how some people have no issues and some have a list of issues .

i am one who had no end of problems , but when the bike [ 04 650 E ] was running , nothing could touch it . awesome power , my dealer said they are great bikes when they are running ! .

i have had 34 bikes