2022 Husqvarna FC250 Suggested Settings/Mods

The 2022 Husqvarna FC250 has been in heavy circulation the past couple months and we have come across some settings to get you comfy as well as some mods that can help you get some more power out of the white stallion. 

TC Two-Stroke Air Filter Cage: This is the cheapest and easiest way to get more throttle response out of your FC 250. You will notice better throttle response through the low to mid RPM range by simply going to a TC two stroke cage with no backfire screen. Here is the part number you will need. P/N 5040601600

FMF 4.1 Full Muffler System: To me, FMF makes the best muffler system for the Husqvarna FC250. There are some other companies that have other bikes dialed in more, but on the Husqvarna, FMF has got it down. You will get more low to mid RPM response as well as more mid range pulling power. Top end is increased plus the over-rev is as good as stock. It is one of the few times that I was impressed because it was actually better than stock in almost all areas. The downside is that you must keep up on muffler packing (every 10-12 engine hours) because the FMF will blow out and that could damage your expensive titanium can. Did I mention that you will lose almost two pounds with the titanium 4.1 system? If you slap spring forks on your Husqvarna, you will be gaining almost three pounds. You can get most of that weight gain back down with a 4.1 Titanium FMF Muffler system.

Pro Taper Handlebars: But Keefer they come with Pro Taper’s! Yes, I know but now that PT offers the “Race Team bend” (810mm width, 91mm height, 49mm rise, and 52mm sweep), which is a little higher of a bend than the stock Husqvarna PT bar and is still a pretty straight. I do cut the Race Team bend down to 805mm as that is the happy medium for me and my 5’11 frame. The Pro Taper SX Race bar worked well for riders from 5’8 to 6’1 as well. Both bends come in a crossbar or crossbar-less style and the SX Race bend has a 800mm width, 87mm height, 54.5 rise, and 54mm sweep. If you’re looking for a better “stand up feel” from your FC250 look for handlebar close to these measurements.

Throttle Tube: There are a couple you can choose from here… If you’re looking for an aluminum throttle tube that is expensive, but helps the feel of your throttle, I recommend the ZRT throttle. This throttle tube makes the pull have almost zero drag and is a tough SOB. There is some set up/prep time to this throttle (cutting the right side of the handlebars), but it can help the pull over the long haul. If you’re more the plastic style tube type of rider, look at the Motion Pro Titan tube as it’s tough for a plastic tube and doesn’t have as much drag as the stock lock on style ODI grip/tube that comes on the stock FC’s. The stock plastic throttle has a lot of friction and gets tough to turn too quickly. 

Ride Engineering One Piece Bar Mount: The Ride Engineering One Piece Oversize Bar Mount has a one-piece top that is designed to resist bending much better than the stock bar mount. Precision machined from aircraft quality aluminum, there is also a 6mm difference between the forward and back mounting positions. Ride Engineering also machines their own stainless steel posts that prevent over tightening, unlike some other competing brands that DO NOT use quality posts. This bar mount has saved my son and I a couple times when we are out doing motor. He seems to crash a lot in corners and the stock mount on the FC250 just twists and bends easily.

Rear Axle/Axle Blocks: Going to a Works Connection Elite axle block kit or Ride Engineering axle block kit will get rid of the fixed left axle block on the stock KTM’s axle. This will help the rear end to move more freely under throttle and improve the shock’s comfort on acceleration chop. Both are great, but you will have to decide if you want a complete axle/axle block kit like Ride Engineering’s  or just the blocks themselves like WC’s.

Rear Brake Pedal Spring: Purchase a Honda CRF450R rear brake pedal spring with the rubber around the spring. The FC rear brake pedal spring vibrates and will break every 4-5 engine hours. Orrrrrrrrr. Get a Fasst Co rear brake return spring and be done with it! Fasst Co’s rear brake return spring offers tunable pedal resistance and a more controllable feel by placing the spring in compression instead of tension, minimizing the "on-off" feel of most rear brakes.

Fuel Filters: If you’re a FC owner, do yourself a favor and put a couple of these in your toolbox just in case. Fuel filters can get clogged on all FC’s and this can cause damage to your fuel pump or possibly not allow your bike to start properly.

Throttle Cables: If there is one thing that DOES NOT last on KTM’s/FC’s it’s the throttle cables. Every 20 hours or so I will have to replace the throttle cables to ensure that my throttle doesn’t feel hard or sticky when twisting. Originally I thought my throttle tube was dirty or maybe the right side of the handlebar had dirt on it, but I found out through a couple KTM mechanics, that the throttle cables simply wear out. You can’t lube them or clean them out as it will only make the throttle feel better for a short amount of time.  

Check All Spokes: KTM/FC spokes always come loose near the rim lock so make sure you pay attention to all the spokes after every ride. If you don’t check them constantly you will lose or break a couple. 

Check Engine Mounts/Swingarm Pivot Bolt: Always check the torx bolts that hold the top engine hangers on the bike. After break in, these will loosen up a bunch, so you might need some blue Loctite on the threads. After you do this, please continue to check these as they still back out from time to time. The torque spec on these bolts are important to the ride attitude of these FC’s. Also the FC come with frame guards and that means you will not know (until it’s too late) when your swingarm pivot bolt  backs out. Take off your frame guard and check pivot bolt regularly. While you’re at it, get the Acerbis frame guards as they last longer and have better grip than the stock ones. 

FI Indicator Light: The little FI indicator light bulb will fall out of the rubber casing as soon as you get past 10 hours. The best thing to do is put a little silicone inside the rubber casing, so the light bulb as well as the wire doesn’t flop around. 

Connector Behind Front Number Plate: If your FC or KTM is cutting out or maybe not starting, check behind the number plate for this connector. It could be unplugged or corroded from condensation. Hardwiring the wires/connecter is the best way to ensure that it doesn’t come unplugged. You can even using a two post connector instead of a four post as that can work as well. If you’re turning your handlebar to the right and your FC will not start, chances are it’s the starter wire being kinked or pulled too tight. Pull the sheathing away from the cables and inspect to see if it has come apart.

Suspension Settings:

RIDER WEIGHT: 150-185 POUNDS

Fork: 

Spring Rate: 10.7-10.8 bar

Height: 5mm

Compression: 12 clicks out 

Rebound: 9-10 clicks out

Shock:

Spring Rate: 42 N/mm

Spring Rate For 175 Pounds And Up: 45 N/mm

Sag: 102mm

High Speed Compression: 1.5 

Low Speed Compression: 9 clicks out

Rebound: 10 clicks out 

Go Ride With Your Dad While You Can (Riding The 2021 Husqvarna FC250)

I never really got to ride with my dad that much because by the time I figured out that I wanted to ride all the time, my dad was too busy dumping his money/time into me. Now that I get to ride with my son a bunch, it makes me realize how lucky I am to share my passion with him. Kellen works for Racer X and I have got to know him over the past 18 months or so. When we would be on assignment, I noticed he was riding an older yet very clean Honda CR250, so I offered up a newer four stroke for him to shred around on. Little did I know that he and his dad shared the same passion that my son and I did and over the past year, he has got to spend that time riding with his father Bob. It’s amazing how dirt bikes can bring a family together even when father/son are both older with busy schedules of their own. Here’s Kellen’s story about riding with his dad and a little bit about the Husqvarna FC250. -KK

Go Ride With Your Dad While You Can 
By Kellen Brauer

Two weekend’s ago, I got to spend my first Father’s Day as a Dad. And one week after that, I was able to roll a Strider around the corner for my daughter Hollie who was turning one-year-old. She’s not big enough for a Strider yet but we sat her on it with pads and a helmet and pushed her around while she had a massive smile on her face. It’s the type of moment I had always hoped for when I thought about what it would be like to be a Father while I was coming of age.

To have a passion for motorcycles is something that many of us get instilled in us at a young age. When you watch the High Point National and see all of the top pros talk about when they first got on a dirt bike and how their Dad’s rode or raced and it was something they always wanted to do, I’m no different in that regard. And while there are some exceptions, almost everyone I ride with has the exact same story. We wanted to be like our Dads and ride dirt bikes.

I’m 28 now and I still want to go with my Dad to the track every time. He’s 65 and I know his times of riding motocross tracks are waning and instead he’s been more enthusiastic about dual-sporting and the adventure experience lately. His interest in that has peaked mine and while I still very much enjoy ripping with my buddies at the motocross track, I’d gladly take a day in the hills with my Dad over that any day.

As I’ve now become a father, my acknowledgement that the time fleeting I will have to get to ride with my Dad is becoming more obvious. I very much hope he still has another 20 years of riding in him, and we get to experience so much more together, but you really just never know. The recent passing of Rocky Aiello, who worked at KTM North America as a national sales manager, hit me pretty hard. His son Kai is just 20 years old and the family lives pretty close by to me here in Temecula. 

Kellen and his pops getting ready to do some riding together.

I remember seeing Kai just about four or five months ago out at Cahuilla Creek MX Park. Kai is a great rider with good technique and he’s blazing fast too. He’s no question one of the best local pros who consistently rides out here in Southern California. But when I saw him at Cahuilla that day, Kai was just cruising around the vet track and urging along some younger riders. I don’t remember seeing his Dad nearby, but I remember thinking that there’s a kid who was raised to enjoy more about motocross than just the individual feeling of going fast and riding an adrenaline high. He understood the comradery involved and how great this sport can be when you share the experience with others around you.

That’s a lesson I learned from my Dad, but it’s not one he sat down and taught me about. It’s one that I got to learn through experience. When we would wake up at four in the morning to load up on a Sunday to go to the races, those two or three hour drives to the track were equally as valuable to me as the actual motocross racing I got to do those days. Being able to just talk to my Dad about all the things he lived in his years behind the handlebars were priceless interactions.

Growing up in San Diego and going to Carlsbad for the USGP in the 1970s and 1980s. Getting his first dirt bike when he was 13 years old, very much against his mother’s wishes, and being able to go riding with the other kids in the neighborhood. Picking his brain about all the different bikes he’s been able to ride over the years. Asking him about being inside Angel Stadium for the 1986 Supercross opener classic. Him telling me about seizing up his CR500 on the Carlsbad drag strip and sliding on his back for a few hundred feet after laying the bike down. The stories go on and on, and they are some of my favorite stories in motocross. But they are all stories that nobody knows about because it was just a guy from San Diego named Bob Brauer that had a passion for dirt bikes and rode whenever he got the chance. He wasn’t the superstars of motocross from those days that we talk about today, but he’s the most important figure for my passion and love of motocross.

Sometimes I feel that the father-son or father-daughter connection gets lost as the younger reaches adulthood and naturally wants to break away from their parents. And unfortunately, when you reach your 30s or 40s and yearn for those days when you could go ride with your dad at the track, time has already taken away that opportunity. Too often we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life to stop and soak in the moments that are going to mean a lot to us when we get older.

This past year for example, Keefer gave me the opportunity to take this 2021 Husqvarna FC 250 for the year and go ride it. I obviously had a ton of fun getting to rip around some new equipment and see how great modern dirt bikes are, but I also had a blast letting my dad hop on it and see his thoughts. My window of expectation on motorcycle feel is so much narrower than his. He came from the era where dirt bikes were dual shock with six inches of suspension travel and even if you had the leg of god himself, bikes were still practically a coin toss to get running. Now he just threw his leg over the bike, pressed a button, and off he went. He can adjust fuel mapping on the go, quickly adjust fork pressure or spring rate, and feel perfect delivery of fuel through injectors. All stuff that isn’t new or anything, but it’s all stuff that is so farfetched from what he grew up on. And of course, he comes back from riding it and gives me a laundry list of things he likes or doesn’t like and what he would do different. Meanwhile, I’m just happy watching him still ripping around a motocross track. It’s experiences like that that are so invaluable in motocross. 

Bob Brauer shredding his old, yet very new looking KX250 smoker

Not everyone has the same stories, or the same opportunities to still go ride with your Dad. I feel for those people. I genuinely hope that those of you who no longer have a chance to load up and head to the track with your Dad anymore got so many great stories and experiences to last a lifetime out of the years that going to the track with your Dad was the norm. But my assertion to those of you who still can go to the track with your Dad but choose not to more often than not in favor of your buddies or just wanting to be your own person, is please at least try to go riding with your Dad a few times a year. Never forget where your passion started.