WORDS: Peter Elliot PHOTOS: Geoff Osborne
VITPILEN 701
This is, quite possibly, the future of motorcycling.
Fast, furious and... a lot of fun. ow. This bike has destroyed a lot of ideas I have developed about bikes over my decades of riding, on and off road. But before I explain how this bike broke my brain, we need a little context. To say that Husqvarna’ s journey over the last 135 years of bike production has“ been interesting”, is equivalent to saying that brain surgery is a“ job”. That is to say, it’ s true, but not the whole picture. So, a little potted Husky history. Following a decree from the Swedish King in 1689, a forge was established in the town of Husqvarna to supply weaponry for the country’ s army. Originally it produced rifles. The Husqvarna logo is often mistaken for a crown atop an H, when in fact it represents the rifle-sight picture. Husqvarna, over the decades and centuries, has developed into an enormous organisation delivering hundreds of household names; Husqvarna sewing machines, Flymo mowers, McCulloch, Poulan and Jonsered chainsaws, Weed-eater, and Gardena, to name but a few. However, Husqvarna entered the motorcycle business in 1903, pre-dating Harley Davidson in the U. S of A for producing motorcycles. All through the years up to the birth of motocross in the 1950s, Husqvarna’ s name and reputation as a winner grew, with names like Rolf
Tibblin and Bill Nilsson taking out world titles in the 250 and 500cc classes in 1959. Throughout the 60s and 70s the‘ Husky’ rep expanded further, with wins in Baja and many other major events. Then, in 1977 Husqvarna was purchased by Electrolux, and it rolled along for a few years until in 1987 the company was bought once more, this time by Italian bikemaker Cagiva. These big changes saw internal problems arise, as the factory was relocated to Italy, and the design team didn’ t want to leave the north to live there. They elected to split off, stay in Sweden and continue their own work, and the motorcycle offshoot, Husaberg, was born. In 2007 was purchased once again, by BMW, and in 2013 Husaberg’ s owner Pierer AG which holds the majority shareholding in KTM, bought Husqvarna back, and reunited the company at last, moving operations to their base in Mattighofen, Austria. This is‘ once-over-lightly’ in the history department, of course, but enough for a glimpse of the maker’ s journey, I hope. Husqvarna Motorcycles has always led the way in development and technology, and in winning races. In fact when KTM bought Husaberg they also bought the Husaberg marketing slogan,“ Ready to Race”, which is now used for all KTM machines.
KIWI RIDER 45