In the issue about the Maico 490 Mega 2 motorcycle, I mentioned its main competitor in the person of the Husqvarna CR 430.Today we will talk about him.Let me remind you that these two irreconcilable
rivals of the 80s belong to the open 500 cc class, and have different ideas about it.Unlike Maico, who believed that the engine should be
as large as possible in the class, so they have a volume of 490 cubic meters, Husqvarna believed that the engine of the «five hundred» should be closer to 400cc in volume.Therefore
with the release of the CR model, they repeatedly changed the volume of its engine.At first it was 400 cm3, then 360 cm3, then 390 cm3 and in 1981 it became 430 cm3, looking ahead I will say
that in the end Husqvarna will still release a full-fledged CR 500.
In the early 80s, the dominance of traditional European cross-country cars had already passed to the Japanese, who were advancing on all the dandies, except for the open class.The
Europeans took the royal class very seriously. Their cars might not be sold in huge quantities, like motorcycles of smaller cubic meters, but «five hundred» for them was an indicator
the prestige of the company. The Japanese, on the other hand, often regarded the 500 cc class as more backward in terms of technology, so much so that, for example, the same Honda
did not produce open-class motorcycles at all until 1981.
