hen KR’s publisher rang to tell me
there was another funky small capacity
bike for me to test, I was all ears. When
he told me it was a ‘Husky’ my ol’ dirt
bike ears pricked up even more. “It’s a Svart-
pilen” he said… a fart what? A quick search on
line was all I needed to seal the deal, I mean I’d
never seen anything like this that wasn’t out of
a custom chop shop, especially coming from
the Husqvarna marque.
Well that last statement is not entirely true
in a way, as the new Svartpilen – Swedish for
Black arrow – and Vitpilen (White arrow) 401s
are almost Duke 390s in disguise, oh but what
a disguise! Lucky enough for me the bike on
offer was the Svartpilen, as it was the one that
most appealed to me. With a crazy styling mix
of Ducati-esque Duke 390 trellis frame, chunky
urban enduro/dirt bike/WW2 image and a
whole lot of crazy lines, the likes of which, I’d
never seen on a factory bike before. It was a lot
to take in.
Hmm, the first dilemma was what to wear?
I mean these designers and marketing types
must get together and agree on who each bike
in their line-up is aimed at right? Well that’s
what I was trying to figure out, should I have a
beard and a waxed moustache, maybe some
tats, should I wear road kit or is it strictly ace-up
boots, jeans and leather jacket time? Just whom
had the design team aimed this strikingly
quirky machine at?
Before doing any decent amount of research
I had to get out and ride the beast to make
sure I had no prior expectations. The first thing
I noticed was the riding position. The pegs
seem quite rear-set for its dirt-styled, wider
handle bar,which left a feeling of pressure on
my palms at urban speeds. It wasn’t a huge
amount, and the bars felt good, but it was no-
ticeable. This eased once on faster roads. The
next thing was the engine, offering the same
great pick up of the 390 Duke but it seems a
little more ‘grunty’ – maybe down to lower gear-
ing? Saying that, it loved to be revved too, really
coming alive around 6-7500rpm.
The suspension, which on paper is the same
as the Duke, felt a little firmer on the smooth
stuff, but great when the going got rougher.
The 17-inch wire wheels look the business, as
do the wide and chunky road knobblies. I found
out later that these were some of the Husky’s
arrows in its quiver.
KIWI RIDER 49