stroke a little, providing harsh feedback on
potholes and bad corrugations. A suggestion
would be to take a little high-speed
compression damping out of it and perhaps
add a little low speed, but because it worked
so well everywhere else, I didn’t mess with it
too much. As usual, a little fiddling can go a
long way to get a setup that works for you.
Braking? Terrific in a word. The single
300mm floating front disc with twin piston
Brembo caliper provides great stopping
power and feel, both on and off road... but
switch the ABS and TC off when you’re offroad.
It’s the same deal at the rear. The
240mm Brembo disc brake is great. The 701
also has a slipper clutch and shift assist.
I enjoy both functions on the road a lot.
However, they are a catch-22 thing for me.
While they’re great on road, personally I’d
prefer not to have them off-road. For me
the shift-assist is imprecise and cannot be
as well controlled as using the clutch, and,
likewise, the slipper clutch means clutch
controlled engine braking on gravel/dirt is not
as effective. Frankly though, these are very
minor issues. The dash is pure minimalist and
small, dirtbike style, but it has all the necessities.
WHO’S THE LR FOR?
This Husqvarna 701 LR rates super well. Add
a nice screen and it’s close to perfect for truly
adventurous trail exploring. It is quick, pretty
comfortable, handles and stops well both
on- and off-road and has on hell of a fuel
range. If you need good fuel range and
genuinely like to get into the boonies more
often than not, then this bike is probably
better suited to you than a multi-cylinder
Adventure machine. If it fits your use case,
I have a feeling you’ll be very impressed.
KIWI RIDER 49