After getting to know the bike around town I
decided to take it out on a wee adventure of
sorts, to see where the road takes me kind of
thing. I set out from home in West Auckland
and headed through the countryside towards
the West Coast. Once out of Waitakere I basical-
ly kept turning left until I hit my first gravel road
– where I was keen to see if the looks of the
bike would actually deliver. Husky is an offroad
brand after all. As it turns out the Svartpilen is
a confident gravel cruiser and it’s a good job
it has the small bash plate to prevent damage
from stones being thrown up. The long swing
arm means when you give the throttle a squirt
in the loose it steps out in a very controlled
fashion.
I was beginning to fall for the Husky, just as
I had with the Duke, only in a different way.
While the Duke looks like it came out of a sci-
ence fiction movie, the Svartpilen is like Indiana
Jones meets Blade Runner, and everywhere I
rode the bike drew looks from curious onlook-
ers. Not only that, the bike had unintentionally
become my muse, I’d taken my camera with
me and couldn’t get enough of taking pictures
of its curious blend of modern and classic de-
sign – almost demanding me to capture it with
any backdrop worthy of it. Every corner and
dead-end became a potential shot for the bike,
at least in my mind.
I met all types and the bike was a catalyst for
conversation; a lady with a horse where the
gravel turned to grass track, Jamie, a young
Scotsman with a Triumph Scrambler, an old
gent walking his dog on the beach who owned
four motorcycles, a mountain biker heading
into the forest who just had to stop and asked
‘what the heck is that?’.
Ok, so there’s not much back there for the pil-
lion to hold onto, and some of the lines do take
a little time to adjust to (the abrupt end to the
seat and the low mudguard and indicators), but
it didn’t take long for me to get what this bike
was all about. I believe the Svartpilen isn’t just
aimed at one demographic of motorcycling (or
general) society, it’s for whoever rings true with
it, and that could be anyone from hipsters to
high court judges. From the grimy urban jungle
to winding country byways and gravel land-
scapes, it ticks the boxes. And, while its cousin
the Duke 390 is an exercise in design in its own
right, the Svartpilen is too; from the sweet
looking combination front mudguard/fork
shrouds, to the amazing lines of the seat and
tank. This is a bike which makes you feel good
when people do a double take and the look on
their faces says “Wow, what IS that?”
While the Duke looks
like it came out of a
science fiction movie,
the Svartpilen is like
Indiana Jones meets
Blade Runner