Husqvarna 701 Enduro | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Husqvarna 701 Enduro

Back to the topic at hand of the 701 Husky. If it's about 15k to buy, what is it's closest competition Honda 650, Kawi 650? I think the Honda is like 8k ish to buy and the KLR in the 7's? Both when new. That means the Husky is almost double the price. I would argue it's worth it cause the Husky has almost twice if not more than twice the horsepower. The front suspension on the Husky is twice as good if not more. In a lot of ways the bike is twice as good as it's competition with twice the price tag. All that being said all these bikes can accomplish the same tasks I think, so is the Husky worth twice the price for the extra fun factor?
 
The Husky is in a league of its own. That's why it is so desirable, and also why Husqvarna can charge what they want! It's closest competition in my mind would be the Ducati Hypermotard, or the Aprilia Dorsoduro. Those are both closer to a standard motorcycle, than a dirt bike style supermoto.
 
Closest competition? To me this bike is more adventure bike then dirt bike so I'd say Honda Africa twin. More off-road go husky, more hwy then Honda. If the husky came with the rally fairings pictured a couple pages back the gap would be closer.
 
The Africa Twin is an all day, multi-day, comfortable offroad oriented tour bike. I'd hate to spend a whole day in the saddle of that Husky! It wasn't built for comfort at all! Performance, and hooliganism! You can put fairings on it all you want, it still won't be long distance comfortable.
 
I still think it belongs in the dual sport category. It's a single cylinder engine and should be compared against other thumpers. The Africa Twin is a much different bike, parallel twin, suspension travel and geometry is different. Although both share same wheel size. Swing arm gap is probably narrower on the Husky as well. Also Ducati doesn't really have anything in its lineup that would compare to the Husky, once again very different engines and bike geometry. Although the new Ducati Scrambler desert sled looks cool as hell, wouldn't trust it for prolonged off road beatings.
 
I want to get a Husky 701 for those days when I have no one to ride with pure off road. I would leave my house and go back road adventuring. Either ride to the Ganny do the double track or easy single track, go to St Williams putter around on those trails a bit although the whoops would be a handful. Or ride down welland canal watch some ships. Or blast around on any gravel road I can find. I would also consider entering the 701 in the Paris to dacre challenge although I know it's more suited to 500's. I think the 690 or 701 can do it with time and skill.
 
See I look at the Husky fe501s/fe350s and ktm exc's as the dual sports. With close to 70hp and 350lbs it's closer to an adventure bike in my eyes, I'd hate to ride one in any kind of tight single track but it would be awesome for something like trans Canada adventure trail.
 
I want to get a Husky 701 for those days when I have no one to ride with pure off road. I would leave my house and go back road adventuring. Either ride to the Ganny do the double track or easy single track, go to St Williams putter around on those trails a bit although the whoops would be a handful. Or ride down welland canal watch some ships. Or blast around on any gravel road I can find. I would also consider entering the 701 in the Paris to dacre challenge although I know it's more suited to 500's. I think the 690 or 701 can do it with time and skill.

Kind of my point.
 
I want to get a Husky 701 for those days when I have no one to ride with pure off road. I would leave my house and go back road adventuring. Either ride to the Ganny do the double track or easy single track, go to St Williams putter around on those trails a bit although the whoops would be a handful. Or ride down welland canal watch some ships. Or blast around on any gravel road I can find. I would also consider entering the 701 in the Paris to dacre challenge although I know it's more suited to 500's. I think the 690 or 701 can do it with time and skill.

I think you'd by better off with the KTM 690 Enduro. Certainly more offroad oriented. The Husky is a short commuter, or hooligans dream!! This bike is clearly built for asphalt shenanigans!!
 
I think you'd by better off with the KTM 690 Enduro. Certainly more offroad oriented. The Husky is a short commuter, or hooligans dream!! This bike is clearly built for asphalt shenanigans!!

I think you could flip a coin on the 2 performance wise. The Husky is better looking in my opinion.

Make a decision based on having a good dealer nearby, and/or who will offer the best out the door price. If it were me I'd take the KTM, but I've got Orange about 15 minutes away and GP Bikes 30 minutes in the other direction.
 
The 701 Enduro has longer suspension travel than its 690 Enduro equivalent (275mm Front&Rear vs. 250mm Front&Rear). If we are comparing 2017 models, the 701 also has the newer more powerful and smoother Duke engine while the KTM still has the old engine. Also in the states, the KTM 2017 690R has mysteriously disappeared from their website although has now reappeared. This might be the last year for the orange version.

I chose the orange version because it's a little less hardcore and the KTM has an analog tach... and you can slap anodized orange supermoto rims onto it and still keep the OEM look.
 
The Husky is in a league of its own. That's why it is so desirable, and also why Husqvarna can charge what they want! It's closest competition in my mind would be the Ducati Hypermotard, or the Aprilia Dorsoduro. Those are both closer to a standard motorcycle, than a dirt bike style supermoto.

I never tried Hyper, but I used to own Dorso ... and I would not take it on any sort unpaved road. It's kind of fun bike around town and limited hwy. But most importantly it's top heavy pig. That's as bluntly as I can put it. The Husky makes a lot more sense if any "dual" sort of operation is required.
 
Every year at the bike show, I throw the term WR450R about at the Yammie booth. They're listening but it isn't up to them. I'd get rid of my 690R for that in an instant but not for the 701 Enduro. The 701 SM is nice though because there is very little overlap with any of its competitors but that price point gets you into some pretty nice hardware from other manufacturers.

The key to the 701/690 is its versatility. Some like myself who need one bike to do a little bit of everything, find this soft supermoto to encompass enough of the good enough of the time to make the plunge.
 
So I just found out that Dual Sport Plus will become a full fledged Husqvarna dealer. Apparantly they will be willing to demo some 701's and 500's.
 

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