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2-strokes. Lightweight, affordable, and no fuss. They've built quite a legacy over the years,
and it's no secret that we absolutely love them at bikesales. Nowadays, 4-strokes might be the
rage with a lot of riders, but the modern 2-stroke is making a major resurgence on the Enduro Trail,
and I think the 2022 Husqvarna TE 300i is a bit of an exclamation point
on the trend. Fuel-injected, lighter, with quality kit and some really smart electronics,
the TE 300i is also a lot more expensive than 2-strokes Evolve. Let's take a closer look.
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The TE 300i is one of three 2-strokes in Husqvarna's Australian Enduro line-up and has
undergone some significant evolutionary changes for 2022. At $16,525 or a pinch over $18,000 right
away, it certainly dispels the thinking that 2-strokes are the budget-friendly alternatives
to modern 4-strokes. However, the TE 300i gets plenty of kit out of the box.
So beginning with the visual stuff, this is a very clean, very simple new colour-way for 2022. Gone
are the splashes of blue from the predecessor's plastics or graphics. There is now a lot more
gray involved: Gray seat, gray frame, gray handlebar guards, and also there's really cool
electric yellow accents dotted around the bike. Otherwise, there's a new Braktec hydraulic clutch,
Braktec brakes, and updated damping and action for the forks and shocks.
As before, the TE 300i's engine is cradled in a chrome alloy steel frame mounted to a composite
carbon fibre subframe and hollow-cast aluminium swing arm. It uses a linkage system as opposed
to the PDS employed on related KTM Enduro machines. Elsewhere, there are CNC machine,
triple clamps with a 22 ml offset, while ProTaper bars and ODI grips are also standard fare.
Sitting under the broader KTM group banner, the Husqvarna brand is really positioned as the more
luxury option, and the TE 300i certainly reads that way with all the equipment that you get,
standard. From the quality Michelin rubber, the DID DirtStar wheels, and the components that are
spread all around the bike. It certainly looks great and it feels great, as well.
Everything is designed with a hard-wearing premise. I love that you get standard frame
guards. Even the corrugated section of the expansion chamber is designed to stand up
to rocks and sticks and debris on the trail, and it's certainly done that so far. As ever,
the ergonomics of the TE range are just great. You've gotta really open cockpit, lots of space,
and it feels like a bike that would be well-suited to taller riders and shorter riders alike. I'm
about 5' 9", and I've had no problems whatsoever with the standard set-up of the TE 300i.
Slightly at odds with the premium positioning is the TE 300i's very simple digital screen,
which covers the bare basics but not much more. That said, it is lightweight and very robust.
Handily, you can access the TE 300i's air box and change its air filter without
tools. While a quick-release fuel filler cap offers easy foolproof access to the tank.
That brings us to the engine. It's a 293.2 cc liquid-cooled 2-stroke with electric start and
two-stage traction control and mapping. It's mated to a six-bay gearbox. And importantly,
it has both fuel injection and oil injection, so that means no more jetting changes,
no more pre-mixing fuel before you go out and hit the trail.
The 2-stroke oil tank and pump holds about 700 ml worth of oil, and crucially, the engine will
actually cut out before the system runs out of oil, so no unwanted rebuilds. With that amount
of oil, you're gonna get about 700 km to a full reservoir, while the fuel tank offers 8 1/2 L
worth of fuel. With the latest injection changes, the 2-stroke is actually more economical than
before, so you're gonna get decent stints out on the trail before you need to refuel. Importantly,
the injection system also significantly reduces emissions and meets the latest Euro 5 targets,
future-proofing the humble 2-stroke for a few years yet. It's certainly not as loud or prone
to vibration as 2-strokes of old. Instead, the TE 300i packs a swift, effective punch.
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First of all, you really do have to cast aside any preconceptions with the Husqvarna TE 300i.
Admittedly, I hadn't ridden a 2-stroke 300 cc Enduro bike for a few years,
but I remember the last one that I rode scared the absolute...
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Out of me. I have no qualms in saying that because the latest Husqvarna and the fuel
injection technology really is a revelation in terms of the way the power curve is delivered,
how smooth it is, and just how linear and user-friendly it is, as well.
Upon first jumping on, you could easily mistake the engine for running a little bit rich. It's
not because it was fluffy or anything else, but it just didn't deliver that sort of aggro power band
that a traditional 2-stroke does. Admittedly, the engine doesn't really produce the instant
torque that you find in a modern 4-stroke engine, and it's probably most noticeable when you're
coming to power wheelies and things like that. It's not quite as linear as a modern 4-stroke.
Where the TE 300i really comes into its own is tight fire trails and climbs. It is remarkable,
next level, on that stuff. The engine doesn't flame out. It's virtually immune to stalling,
and unlike a modern 4-stroke engine, you don't have that constant engine
inertia trying to amble you along. It means that you can get to a really tight pinch
point on a climb or the bottom of an obstacle, and you just have a moment or two. The engine
feels really balanced. You have a moment or two just to pick out the line that you
wanna go and charge at it, and it just... The traction. Everything else works super well.
Changes to the suspension settings on the fork and shock are said to improve rider feedback,
and on tests, both produce excellent feeling and a huge breadth of capability.
In a word, the fork and the shock feel really progressive. I say that because they deal with
pitter-patter style bumps. They provide lots of feedback through crevices and things like that,
yet there's also a lot of progression in the damping, as well. Like some of the bigger hits
that we took on today, it never bottomed out, and even though the set-up is softer,
it's nice and linear with the way that it moves through its stroke. More experienced riders might
find they'd like a little bit more firmness in the fork, a little bit more balance between the
front and rear, but as a basic set-up without any touches at all, to the clickers or anything else,
it works quite well. That brings us to the brakes. Now, if you recognise the Braktec
logo, that's because they're in use on GASGAS machines. GASGAS owns Braktec,
so the decision was made by Husqvarna to basically take their braking in-house so that they can
control all of the production cycle, with all the setbacks that are happening with COVID-19.
The brakes work really well. They're immune to fade. They're nice and linear in their modulation.
I found the front and rear brakes were dependable and worked really well in all scenarios. Out of
the box, the TE 300i feels ready to tackle any off-road task, and fine-tuning would only improve
its appeal. We didn't play around too much with the two-stage engine mapping or traction control
settings and didn't even touch its clicker settings or SAG. The potential here is huge.
Not so long ago, a 300 cc 2-stroke Enduro bike would have had many riders shaking in their boots,
but the Husqvarna TE 300i is clearly a perfectly manageable, well-balanced motorcycle that really
revels in those tight and tough conditions. It inspires confidence, it makes the right noises,
and it's just fun out on the trail. For me, it's truly worthy of the lofty price of entry.