Husqvarna unveils Vitpilen 701 street bike

Famed off-road motorcycle company Husqvarna is moving further on to the street with the new Vitpilen 701 naked bike and Svartpilen concept.

The bikes were unveiled this week at the EICMA show in Milan.

Meanwhile, Husqvarna Australia says the Vitpilen 701 and 401, plus the Svartpilen 401 scrambler will arrive in mid-2018.

Pricing will be announced closer to arrival. The 401 models should be close to the KTM 390 Duke ($6095 plus on-road costs) on which it is based.

Vitpilen 701

Vitpilen is Swedish for white arrow and Svartpilen means black arrow.

Husky started teasing with a scrambler concept in 2011, two 401 concepts in 2014 and last year’s 701 concept.

We’re not sure how customers will accept the names, nor their looks. They are quite futuristic and confronting, especially the moulded tank, suspended seat and tail bodywork.

However, the “white arrow” details are certainly stunning. They include full LED lighting, round digital instrument pod and bronze accents in the engine casings, fork brace, wheels and front suspension adjusters.

It also features WP 43mm forks and rear monoshock, a slipper hydraulic clutch and Brembo callipers on a single 320mm front disc and 240mm rear disc with Bosch ABS.

The 701 is powered by a new 692.7 cc liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine with 55kW (75hp) of power and 72Nm of torque at 6750rpm.

Svartpilen 701 concept

We’re not sure why they also unveiled the Svartpilen concept as it is very similar to the Vitpilen.

In their 401 guise, the Svartpilen is a street scrambler.

Of course, the Svartpilen 701 concept doesn’t have mudguards, indicators and mirrors.

But the only differences are darker paint, bolder tyre tread and bulky rear bodywork which is painful on the eyes!

Husky says: “The Svartpilen 701 concept machine is a dark street explorer that is free of excess and reduced to its simplest form.”

Chequered history

Husqvarana started making motorcycles in Sweden in 1903 after being an armament manufacturer.

The compmay has a glorious record off off-road competition wins and in 1987 was bought by Italian company Cagiva and moved to Varese.

BMW bought the company in 2007 and produced a couple of models before it was bought by a KTM board member in 2013.

It is now distributed in Australia by KTM.