I
t doesn’t happen often in the motorcycle
testing line of work... but, sometimes, a
bike comes along which will really surprise
you. I was fully expecting to dislike
Husqvarna’s new Husky 701 LR, or Long
Range for short. It just seemed wrong to me
on a lot of levels and was, clearly, interestingly
shaped. I thought we were dealing with a bike
with an identity crisis. I mean, I couldn’t see
why you would take a genuinely pukka, big
bore and road legal enduro machine, shorten
the travel and burden it with 25 litres of gas
– 13 litres of which is in a rear-mounted tank
with the other 12 litres sitting up front.
HUSQVARNA GIVES YOU WINGS
Ok, to explain myself, my thinking was that it
possibly wouldn’t work well in any conditions
with that fuel volume slung out over the rear
wheel. And... the large fuel tank ‘wings’ either
side of the radiators would potentially
compromise the riding ergonomics. So, I
had imagined a heavy-feeling, unbalanced
chassis with odd ergonomics that would really
detract from the great original machine.
However, because roughly half of the fuel
volume is mounted quite low and forward
and the rest is in the rear guard/subframe
combination, it works... and it works
extremely well. Even the ergos are largely
unaffected. It works so well that those who
focus on the dirty side of adventure exploring
could question whether a larger, multicylinder
adventure machine will be better
for their needs.
To my mind, how can a possible 500km
range be, in any way, a bad thing, particularly
when spread over two tanks – when one tank
runs dry, just flick the switch on the bars and
you’re back in business in an instant. And, of
course, you don’t need to fill them both for a
short ride. I say ‘possible’ here because in the
38 KIWI RIDER