Do It Yourself

Those older simple machines are wonderful. The green BMW was my first fuel-injected bike and after the parts bills to fix its dead fuel system, I still prefer carburetors. EFI is convenient but when it breaks it takes specialty tools and knowledge and lots of money to fix. First part I ever bought for that bike, used, was close to $300 on eBay. It was the plate that the fuel pump, fuel filter, and fuel light float mount to, and it has a fuel-tight wiring connection going through it. The ground wire powering both the pump and float switch had broken contact somewhere in there. No way to fix it and make it fuel-safe again. Then there was buying and installing a new fuel filter and pump, replacing in-tank and external fuel lines, installing pressure-safe disconnect fittings, cleaning the fuel injectors... It eventually became worth it. That bike and its big brother are the most comfortable and practical motorcycles I've ever owned. Just took a lot to get there.

I'm about to resurrect a 1986 Yamaha XT350 for my partner and that'll be a much easier and less expensive process than my fancy BMW's.

As someone who rides an already heavy bike (it's just old), and drives a hybrid, I just don't personally see motorcycles ever really being a meaningful use-case for hybrid tech. Batteries are heavy and current electric bikes already don't get fantastic range, so it just doesn't make sense to add more weight to get less range. Stop-start application may have some use in a dual clutch transmission, or maybe on pulling the clutch in, but that's only useful in traffic, where you really want consistency and reliability when you don't have any buffer space, and most bikes get better fuel economy anyways..

Didn't mean to rant a bit, I was a hybrid and EV diag tech for Chevy for a bit and I gave it some thought.

1984 Honda VF700S and a 1st, then 2nd gen Toyota Highlander hybrid.

Motorcycles and battery tech really don't go together well because batteries are inescapably heavy when scaled up to the power and range demands of a proper motorcycle. Most street bikes have at least 120 miles of range and that's more than the first mass-market electric cars had. Hybrid would be even worse than pure electric for weight. Hence why almost nobody's making them.

If you paid someone enough to make it, of course you could buy one. But you'd spend mansion money. A two-wheeled hybrid would have to be engineered from scratch. I can't think of a single motorcycle made and sold in the last couple decades that hasn't been designed specifically around its internal combustion engine. They're not meant for easy powertrain swaps and nowadays they're built tightly together. Balance is also incredibly important on a motorcycle and even just a few pounds in the right places can massively change how it rides.

Small motorcycles are already stupid efficient, too, so that's another reason why a hybrid isn't a common idea. The fuel-injected Honda Grom can achieve over 100MPG on regular gas and fuel-injected scooters can get even more. What would be gained in fuel efficiency would be lost to the weight of the whole hybrid setup.

Anyone can attempt a home project with enough time, money, and ingenuity though.

I could perhaps see something like a Ural sidecar rig having a hybrid drivetrain thrown into it since weight and balance isn't much of a concern. You could easily throw 200 pounds of batteries into the sidecar without causing any problems, and put a motor next to them to drive the axle from next to the outrigger wheel. Ural makes 2WD models so on those there's already a driveshaft out there. But that's a 3-wheeled contraption that already weighs plenty.

I have only worked on 1 Husqvarna to date -- a 2015 501FE.

Depends on how mechanically-experienced you are in general. If you've ever worked on a car or another motorcycle you'll be in decent shape. If not, there's a ton of small things to know, especially with a motorcycle so new and electronically fancy. Lots of procedures and even some tools are model-specific.

In general there are a few things I'd say: buy torque wrenches and learn how to use them or you will be breaking a lot of fasteners. Get a service manual for your motorcycle if one exists, and refer to it frequently; they often have a section for beginner mechanics that explains many things you need to know. They also contain accurate reference information you can read faster than I can reply.

Here's the bad news: good suspension is not cheap and there's no way around it. Especially custom or lowered suspension. Often it's cheaper to have a seatbuilder lower or change your seat via a rebuild than it is to buy a custom shock. You have to change both ends of the bike to match if you lower one end. How tall are you? What's your inseam relative to the seat height? I see a lot of beginners saying they want to lower their motorcycle because it makes them feel more comfortable at lower speed, because they can't get their entire feet flat on the ground -- frankly if you can get the front third of both feet down on the ground while sitting that is enough to balance. If you're shorter with a shorter inseam than the test rider the machine was designed for, that's understandable and custom suspension or seatwork may be in your future.

Is there any more specific stuff you'd like to know?