Husqvarna 900: power, weight and power-to-weight

Husqvarna has released technical details and a promotional video for their upcoming 900cc street-bike. We already knew the motor is a punched out hot-rod version of the F800 parallel twin and now that there are some numbers, we can start making real comparisons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRy-O-TUUXwThis appears to be an official "spy" video released by Husky in part of this pathetically transparent teaser campaign.

Official power figures for the Husqvarna 900 are listed as "more than 100 hp" and "more than 100 nm (73.75 ft/lbs)" and weight is listed as "below 175 kg (386 lbs)." This puts it squarely in competition with the KTM Superduke, which weighs 410 lbs (wet, sans fuel) and makes 118 hp and 73.8 ft/lbs and the Ducati Hypermotard, which weighs 377 lbs (dry) and makes 95 hp and 76 ft/lbs.

Plug those numbers into a calculator and you'll arrive at 0.259 hp-per-pound for the Husky, 0.287 for the KTM and 0.251 for the Ducati (I'm going of the manufacturer numbers, so take them with a grain of salt.) I haven't ridden the Superduke, but after spending a day on rentaducati.com's Hyper, I can confidently say that Ducati builds a fast bike. This is much more than just a rebadged and slightly larger F800 motor.

Even if Husqvarna is shooting for a 386 lb dry weight and 100 hp at the crank, it will still make for serious acceleration if you manage to keep the front end down. Add to that fully adjustable 48mm Sachs forks (likely to be very similar to the ones on the Griso that felt so good), Brembo monoblocks and a fully adjustable Öhlins shock out back and it should also handle.

Curiously, Husqvarna is saying that it will have an "exhaust system with exhaust valve," an incredibly common feature on modern bikes that's used to meet sound regulations. Disabling (or adjusting via tuning) these valves usually frees up some top-end power. One last clue they give about the exhaust is "carbon cap, carbon clamp and carbon heat shield." That tells us two things: they're serious about weight and the 900 is unlikely to be a cheap motorcycle.

Husqvarna

Check out our Husqvarna tag page for all previous coverage