Husqvarna 701 Enduro LR

After I sold my Aprilia RXV 550 Rally to a Belgian Aprilia dealership who bought it for his showroom, I decided not to participate in Rally’s again. But not owning a motorcycle wasn’t an option, so I bought the ugliest, but most capable dual sport bike on the market: The Husqy 701 with Long Range tank. Of course I will do a rally conversion on this bike again, this will solve the poor visual appearance and increase comfort on longer high speed trails and necessary road use.

The Long Range version of the 701 Enduro has a 12 liter front fueltank with second fuel pump. You can switch between the front an rear tank and have a ‘spare’ fuelpump in case one of them failis. Fuel injected bikes don’t work if the electric fuelpump fails, so you better have two on an adventure trip. Converting a dual sport motorcycle into a proper rally/adventure bike is an expensive exercise. Buying a model that already has a double fueltank is a good starting point. Futhermore this bike is based on the over-developped KTM 690 platform that has been used for the Dakar winning bikes of the last decade! You just can’t get wrong with this bike if you’re looking for a dual sport motorcycle that can tackle all kind of off-road. At 155kg dry weight it’s 30kg lighter that the two cilinder Yamaha Tenere 700 and KTM 790 Adventure and it’s 24 kg heavier than a Honda CRF 450L. But the honda has only 7,6liters fuel capacity, so after you have sorted that, the weight benefit will partly desappear. And whilst the twin 700cc bikes have better on road comfort, this will be undone by using off-road tyres. It will always be a compromise; weight, tires, comfort, suspension, except the power delivery; this bike puts out 75 Horse Power, giving it a power to weight ratio of 2kg per HP, same as a KTM 790!

Here is a picture of the bike, completely stock in the showroom of the dealership.

This bike really needs a rally conversion. I have searched the internet and ended up with Aurora Rally because they have the best kit. It comes with a rally tower and KTM 2015 Rally screen, but most important it has 3D panels between the screen and the wide front fuel tank that makes it look really good.

Here is a picture of the bike while I was still busy installing the kit. The bike looks very big and heavy but in fact isn’t mutch different to drive from stock. I have done a few off road enduro trips and the bike is very capable. It’s mega powerfull and can handle up to single tracks. Cornering on deep sand surface is not easy because the bike is too heavy to throw into a corner like a MX bike. You might end up on one side. I reduce my speed and make up for the loss accelerating out of the corner! And YES I do not ride on the Metzler tyres on the picture, I have installed proper off road tyres from Michelin: Trackers, nice tyre BTW, relatively cheap and road legal. But you can’t use it on the road at speeds over 90km/h because of the noice.

Apart from the rally conversion I did a whole bunch of upgrades that make sence in my opinion. I eliminated all the emission pipework and O2 sensor. Off road ABS dongle is a must and a 1.6″ wide front rim to improve the grip of the off road tire. Futhermore the air intake and filters from Rade Garage that comes with a huge storage earea and enables me to change the airfilter leaving the front fueltank in place.

The people from Aurora Rally in Greece have promised me they would develop a skid plate to match the 701 Rally kit when I bought it 3 years ago. Meanwhile it is clear to me that this will not happen due to the low production numbers of the 701LR. The market for a rally skid place is simply too small. I taked to Nomad-ADV and they told me exactly the same, so I decided to make one myself.

I’ve made rally fenders for a KTM 690 and Aprilia XRV in the past, so how hard can it be… Well, after about 100 hours of shaping and planing, applying putty, sanding, again and again, I finally have a result which looks if it’s developped by the Husqvarna Rally department. On the pictures it is not mounted, but held in place by a stick.

It will now be sent to a professional moulding company in The Netherlands. They will make a mould and after that I can ask them to make my carbon fiber rally skid plate.

This is how it looks now, the finished product will be in carbonfiber. In spring 2023 this piece will be used to make a mould by a professional company specialized in polyester and carbon production. We can commision as many skid plates as we like. The kit will include steel brackets and Husqvarna 450RR bolts and revets to mount it on the original brackets on your bike. Price will be $399 or € 359 excluding shipping fees.

The first carbon skidplate is ready and tested on the bike on a 1000 kilometer trip in the Alps.

It really completes the Long Range front tank in Rally style.

Testing the skidplate in the Alpes..