Husqvarna Vitpilen 801 Arrives As Road-Oriented Svartpilen Sibling
To complement the new Svartpilen 801, Husqvarna has brought out a mechanically similar Vitpilen with a more road-focused setup
If you liked the look of the Husqvarna Svartpilen 801 but have no interest in its scrambler-inspired touches including those blocky-ish Pirelli MT60 RS tyres, there’s a new bike for you. This is the Husqvarna Vitpilen 801, and it has no interest in even pretending it might at some point trundle down a gravelly green lane.
As expected, the MT60s have made way for some more road-focused rubber - Michelin Road 6s. There’s no change in wheel sizing, as the Svartpilen already had a very un-scrambler-y setup using 17-inch wheels at either end.
The Svarty didn’t exactly have an off-road-friendly amount of suspension travel either, so Husqvarna hasn’t seen the need to reduce the squish, with 140mm at the front and 150mm at the back available here too. The setup uses WP Apex hardware and is fully adjustable. Rounding off the chassis are brakes from Brembo subsidiary J.Juan. Again, you’ll find the same stoppers on the Svartpilen 801.
There’s no change on the engine front either. We still have a 799cc parallel twin with a 285-degree crankshaft, giving an offset firing order much as a 270-degree crank does. The engine is shared with the KTM Duke 790, as is the 801’s frame.
The powerplant is built in China by KTM’s technical partner CFMoto, but unlike the 790 Duke, which is made via the same arrangement, the Vitpilen 801 is assembled in Austria.
Electronically, it’s all the same as the biggest Svarty too. We have four riding modes, 10 levels of traction control, which, along with the ABS, is lean-sensitive thanks to the use of an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The settings can be fiddled with via a five-inch TFT.
Where the Vitpilen 801 does (finally) start to diverge from the Svartpilen 801 is in its front light unit, which features a neat ‘floating’ DRL around the edge. You also get a different, more substantial belly pan, and a set of handlebars with a lower rise. This mirrors what Husqvarna has done with the latest Vitpilen 401, which dispensed the uncomfortable, cafe racer-style clip-ons of its predecessor.
You also get a bit more choice in terms of finishes. ‘Svartpilen’ means ‘black arrow’ in Swedish, which is why you can only spec that bike in black. ‘Vitpilen’ means ‘white arrow’, so the bike predominantly featured in the press photos is, erm, silver. Anyway, it looks great thusly painted, and it’s also joined by a very dashing yellow option.
UK pricing hasn’t been revealed just yet, but judging by the Svartpilen and Vitpilen 401, whose prices match, we can be fairly sure that the Vitpilen 801 will cost exactly the same as the Svartpilen 801, which means it’ll come to £10,499.
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Matt has a background in motoring journalism of the four-wheeled variety but has long had a passion for motorbikes, taking his first steps into riding in 2010.
