A quirky, 700cc, single-cylinder sportbike? Yes, please!
Husqvarna has been working overtime lately in the "making seriously cool bikes" department. All that effort was on display today in Milan as Husky unveiled a bevy of new bikes and concepts at EICMA 2018. Among the Svartpilens and various dirtbikes was a stunning blue and white jewel—the Vitpilen 701 AERO Concept. So, what is it? Let's find out together, shall we?
HUSKY!
The Vitpilen 701 AERO is a faired sportbike concept based around Husqvarna's Vitpilen 701 naked bike. Clearly designed with track days in mind, the 701 Aero has an old-school fairing with a covered headlight and a seating position that's more MotoGP than street bike. Like the bike from which it's derived, the AERO is powered by Husqvarna's 693cc, liquid-cooled single. Now, a big-bore thumper sportbike may seem strange to some, but since Husqvarna is the SAAB of motorcycle OEMs (my opinion, your mileage may vary) it makes a quirky kind of sense.
Husqvarna supplied us peons very important moto journalists with a press release regarding the AERO but, sadly, it doesn't tell us much. Oh, it says a lot, sure. It's full of hyper-dense adspeak that talks so much and says so little it'd give Gary Farmer a run for his money. I assume that's just because the AERO is a tarted up Vitpilen and largely a design exercise so there's little to tell. The document does highlight the bike's round, full-color TFT screen that looks like a high-tech interpretation of a classic round-faced speedometer. It's very cool and reflects the rest of Husky's retro yet high-tech design language.
Will we ever see the Vitpilen 701 AERO in Husqvarna showrooms? Probably not, unfortunately. The company did the same thing a couple years ago with the Vitpilen 401 AERO and we still haven't seen that bike. That said, these concepts are a great window into Husqvarna's designers' heads and I definitely like what I see. If we find out anything more, we'll let you know.
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