Rennie Scaysbrook | July 29, 2016

The Vitpilen 701 has long been anticipated, now we are starting to see what the bike will actually look like.

The Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 and 401 has been spotted in testing in Europe, in what appears to be near-production format.

The Vitpilen 701 caused a sensation when it was unveiled at the 2015 EICMA Show in Milan and uses the previous generation, 73hp KTM 690 Duke single-cylinder engine, main chassis and suspension and wheels, although the styling has been dramatically altered to create a futuristic café racer look.

Compared the 690 Duke, the Vitpilen’s bars have been lowered, there’s a new, sharper seat section, and the slim-line tank help to alter the ergonomics substantially. There’s also a different headlight.

The Vitpilen was unveiled alongside the Svartpilen, a scrambler-style motorcycle using the same componentry as the Vitpilen but with knobby tires, which should be debuting in production guise very soon.

The smaller capacity Vitpilen 401 (above) has also been spied in testing and uses the KTM 390 Duke motor, main chassis, suspension and wheels, and you can expect to this in finished production form at the Intermot Show in Cologne, Germany, this October.

Photography by BMH Images