Spied! Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 Nearing Production

Husqvarna's Vitpilen ('White Arrow') is already nearing showrooms in '401' form using the KTM 390 single and the latest spy shots show the larger '701' model is nearly ready too.

Spotted on test alongside the never-before-seen Svartpilen 701 (see separate story HERE), the Vitpilen 701 shares the same KTM 690 Duke underpinnings and wraps them in a road-going, café racer-inspired set of panels.

It was first shown as a concept bike in 2015, and the production version looks much the same. Tweaks for production include the addition of mirrors and a swingarm-mounted license plate bracket that also hosts the rear turn signals. The inevitable, larger exhaust pipe needed to meet emission limits is also on show, but it’s commendably similar to the concept version in terms of shape.

The production bike loses the concept’s twin front brake discs in favor of a single one, taken straight from the 690 Duke along with the same Brembo caliper as used on the Austrian sibling. Moving up, it also shares the Duke’s WP forks, the same tubular steel frame and an identical 73bhp single-cylinder engine.

Unsurprisingly, the exposed, cone-shaped air filter visible under the seat of the Vitpilen 701 concept has been ditched in favor of a proper airbox. While the clip-on bars give it a café racer look, the appearance of a rider on board reveals that the seating position isn’t as radical as that tag suggests. In fact, it looks pretty comfortable in a Ducati Monster sort of way.

Husqvarna is set to put the smaller, 373cc ‘401’ version of the Vitpilen into production before the end of this year. It displayed the final version, along with the production-spec Svartpilen 401 scrambler, at last year’s EICMA show in Milan. Following the same pattern the firm is likely to pull the covers off the Vitpilen and Svartpilen 701 at EICMA this November, with production starting in the latter part of 2018.