RIDING A bike fit for McQueen
Husqvarna’s Vitpilen is the hog On Any Sunday star ‘would have wanted to ride’
Normally, as a card-carrying, hipster-hating boomer, one of my prime jobs in life is to denigrate anything even remotely trendy. You know, like the Civil Warera beards. I suppose it could be their preoccupation with craft beers. Mostly, though, it’s the forced nonchalance that says if you are going to attend something as bourgeoisie as the ballet or opera, you’re obligated to wear a Kenora dinner jacket, preferably with the loudest red flannel possible.
But I do like me some of their motorcycles. Triumph’s Bobber, for instance, floats my boat. Ditto for BMW’s R nineT. And how can you possibly not like Ducati’s little Scrambler, it being the cutest of the cute, all cheery internally combusting bonhomie and a cheap-fora-Ducati price tag.
But the best of the lot may be the new Vitpilen that Husqvarna just unveiled at New York’s hopelessly swanky Skylight Modern studios. Now, I know most of you, even the ones who claim an intimate knowledge of the famed Swedish brand, are thinking, “Husky has no history of building street bikes, so how can they now claim the nostalgia requisite in building retro-rods?”
Well, in fact, you’d be wrong on both counts. For one thing, Husqvarna did build quaintly streetable hot rods back in the day, only getting into the then new sport of motocross in the mid1950s. Even the “Pilen” name is not new; the 1050s Silverpilen — literally “silver arrow” — was a quasi-street-legal two-stroke with then-revolutionary hydraulic front forks.
More, importantly, the Vitpilen is not a retro bike. Oh, its simplicity does hearken back to a “time when motorcycles were more pure,” says chief designer Maxime Thouvenin. And yes, Steve McQueen did ride a Husky — don’t try this at home, kids — shirtless in Bruce Brown’s iconic On Any Sunday, but the Vitpilen is not a homage to either bike nor man. Rather, as Thouvenin puts it, this is the elemental motorcycle of the 1970s, but modernized.
“This bike is not the bike Steve McQueen rode,” says the Vitpilen’s proud papa. “It’s the bike he would have wanted to ride.”
So while I see a little bit of Craig Vetter’s famous X-75 Triumph Hurricane in the Vitpilen’s seat/gas tank combination and the svelte Husky’s minimalism is very reminiscent of many circa-1970s cafe racer, it is most definitely not a retro bike. From its industrial-designed tank to its Silicon Valley-inspired digital instrument display, the “white arrow” is a modern motorcycle. Indeed, Thouvenin says the hardest part of designing the new Vitpilen was integrating all its modernisms — electronic fuel injection, ABS, etc. — without losing its minimalistic motif.
It worked out splendidly. The Vitpilen is possibly the first of motorcycling’s recent Back to the Future craze that attracts nostalgic Boomers and shallow Hipsters equally. From the stubby clip-on handlebars to the seat that appears to magically float over the rear of the motorcycle unsuspended, the new Husky appeals to virtually everyone who loves their motorcycles simple, sophisticated and sporty.
That would be especially true of the 701, which, having liberated a tuned version of KTM’s 693-cc single overhead cam, has enough power to be taken as a serious back-road weapon, its 75 horsepower only having to motivate 157 kilograms. That’s 346 pounds, folks, barely more than one of Husky’s own dirt bikes. Mated to fully adjustable White Power suspension as well as radially disposed, four-piston Brembo front
disc brakes, means the 701’s attitude is backed up with some serious backroad bona fides.
The 401 certainly carries over the same ’tude as the 701. Powered by
the same 375-cc single that motivates KTM’s sporty RC390, the little Vitpilen’s 43 hp only has to accelerate 148 kg (328 lb.), so its performance should be at least sprightly if not quite outright sporty. Its front forks are upside down 43-mm WP items as well, though not adjustable, and there’s a WP monoshock in the rear as well (again, not adjustable for damping). There’s a four-piston — albeit a lesser ByBre — front brake caliper up front grabbing onto the same 320-mm disc as the 701, so power should be adequate as well.
Indeed, both 401 and 701 Vitpilens are brilliant, both technically and stylistically. The only fly in Husky’s ointment is pricing. While the 401 seems a veritable bargain at $6,999, the 701’s $13,399 MSRP seems a tad inflated. Yes, the suspension, brakes and engine are substantially upgraded, but at 13 large, the bigger Vitpilen has to go head to head with some serious players — Triumph’s Street Triple and BMW’s R nineT Scrambler to name but two — with but a singular piston.
Wonky pricing aside, the Vitpilens are a sensation, perhaps 2018’s most eagerly anticipated motorcycles. We’ll be testing them in the next month or so; if their performance matches their looks, we’re all in for quite a ride.