Ahead of the machine’s arrival at dealers this year, Husqvarna has begun the marketing march for their new 701 supermoto, launching a new microsite to promote the bike.
Husqvarna first showed the 701 in concept bike form back in 2013; at the 2014 EICMA show, Husqvarna announced they’d be bringing the bike (derived from the KTM 690 platform) to market in the coming months. It follows the tried-and-true Husqvarna tactic of slapping street wheels on a dirt bike (a reworked KTM 690 platform, in this case) to round out their lineup with a street-friendly machine.
According to the Husqvarna press release, they plan on having the 701 in dealerships by November. They’ll be releasing more information about the bike bit by bit in the upcoming months, and if you sign up for information updates at their microsite, you can get that news as it comes down the pipe. However, we already do know a fair bit about the bike. Back in November, when Editor ‘Arris saw it EICMA, the story was that it puts out 67 hp at 7500 rpm, and makes 50 ft-lb of torque at 6000 rpm, has 10,000 km valve adjustments, a slipper clutch and has dual spark plugs.
Along with that power, the designers claimed to have trimmed the weight to 140 kg dry, and added WP suspension. Sounds like fun! It will be interesting to see what else Husqvarna has built into the machine as they release more details in coming months. Let’s just hope they avoid the sort of interminable promotion that Kawasaki used to hype the H2 and H2R last summer. That last thing we need is monotone YouTube voiceovers explaining the significance of the logos on the bike.
Id happily pay the price if they had some of those trick bits from the concept bike
Looks like a fun bike, although I don’t understand the marketing of similar products as KTM, November release and good luck finding a dealer. IMO, the 690 platform is all wrong for a dirt bike anyway, so maybe a SM is a better direction.