2018–2020 · Retro Classic · Buyer's Guide
The Purist Café Thumper
The Vitpilen 701 builds a café racer around the biggest punch you can pull from one cylinder. Its 693cc single makes 75 hp and 53 lb-ft, hung in a trellis frame and wrapped in bodywork that treats minimalism as the whole point. Liquid cooling and a pair of counterbalancers keep the thumper civil, and the six-speed gearbox runs an up-and-down quickshifter. ABS and traction control come standard, working quietly in the background the way this kind of design demands. What you get is a genuinely modern machine dressed in clean, purist lines, not a period piece playing at being old.
On the road it splits its personality cleanly. If you're new to this category, the light weight and predictable manners build your confidence fast; if you know exactly what you're doing, the feedback stays sharp enough to reward it. It carves corners willingly and threads city traffic better than the clip-ons suggest. The honest caveat sits in the details. There's little room for a passenger, luggage is an afterthought, and the switchgear and instrument cluster don't live up to the bodywork around them. This is a bike for riders who value how it looks and how it steers over how much it carries.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 75 hp (55 kW) @ 8,500 rpm |
|---|---|
| Torque | 53 lb-ft (72 Nm) @ 6,750 rpm |
| Displacement | 693 cc |
| Engine | Single-cylinder |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Final drive | Chain |
| Fork | Upside-down (USD) |
| Front brake | 320 mm |
| Front tire | 120/70-17 |
| Rear tire | 160/60-17 |
| Seat height | 32.7 in (830 mm) |
| Fuel capacity | 3.2 gal (12 L) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Comfort
Safety
Pull it off the sidestand and the first thing you register is how little there is to move. For a naked single this size, the lightness almost catches you off guard before the key even turns. Settle onto the clip-ons and the bracing that experienced riders do at the sight of them never pays off; the bars sit less aggressively than they look, and after a full mixed-road loop you step off loose rather than folded. Two counterbalancers keep the big thumper honest, so a long day doesn't leave your hands and feet buzzing. The vibrations stay present without turning intrusive; mount a camera and the footage will show them, but you won't feel them past the point where they'd bother you. At the lever the front brake reads soft at first touch, then builds its bite the deeper you push.
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
Where the Vitpilen quietly impressed me was corner entry. Throw the kind of brutal, ill-advised downshifts at it that would leave most bikes hopping and squirming on the approach, and it simply settles; the slipper clutch and automatic throttle blip strip the drama out completely. Turn-in stays willing on top of that, so once you've calmed the run-in the bike falls into the corner and holds its line without you nagging at the bars the whole way through.
This is the balancing act I respect most about the bike. Hand it to someone stepping into the category and the predictable, low-effort behavior builds their nerve quickly, with no nasty habits to trip over. Hand it to a rider who genuinely knows the craft and the feedback is fine-grained enough to keep them engaged. Most machines commit to one of those riders and quietly abandon the other. This one refuses to choose, and that's rarer than it sounds.
Grab the lever expecting a hard, snappy bite and you'll be caught off guard: the front is soft off the initial touch. I'd call that a feature. Because nothing grabs abruptly, you can dial pressure in with real precision deep into a hard stop, metering it cleanly the whole way. The upshot is a front end that reads as approachable rather than intimidating. Softness here buys you control, not weakness.
What sells this engine to me isn't peak punch, it's manners. Husqvarna pulled the throttle mapping well away from its off-road siblings, chasing refinement and cleaner transitions instead, and it shows in how composed this single feels under your right hand. A big thumper that stays this civil through a hard day of riding is not what the layout usually hands you. That restraint, not the outright grunt, is the real achievement.
Comfort here depends almost entirely on whether the road is moving. When it is, the sporty stance stays honest, and a long, varied day leaves me looser than that riding position has any right to. Let the traffic clot, though, and the forward weight bias turns into a slow tax on your wrists and lower back; the longer you sit stuck in stop-and-go, the more it collects. Pace matters just as much. In town and out on open back roads the Vitpilen is genuinely easy to live with, but settle onto a fast stretch of highway and the exposed riding position stops being charming and starts being work. Know that going in and you'll rarely find yourself in the situation where it bites.
No surprises here, and no pretense either. The pillion perch is token at best, and anywhere you'd want to strap luggage the bodywork simply wasn't drawn with cargo in mind. Plan on riding solo and light. Ask this Husqvarna to haul a passenger or a week's worth of kit and you've misread what it was built to do.
Fuel tank leak (recall)
Possible fuel leak at the fuel level sensor or fuel pump mounting area. Recalled in 2020 for inspection and correction.
Clutch slave cylinder failure (recall)
The bellow-style clutch slave cylinder gasket can be damaged, causing clutch to become inoperable. Symptoms include difficulty shifting and clutch drag. Husqvarna issued a global recall (NHTSA 21V-792) to replace the slave cylinder.
Instrument cluster display glitches
The LCD display occasionally flickers, fails to show data, or goes blank temporarily; often linked to battery condition.
Side stand magnet detachment
Magnets that hold the side stand can fall off, potentially preventing the engine from starting due to the safety switch.
Where this Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the Vitpilen 701 is actually built for.
The purist café styling nails the classic look you're chasing, and it's a joy on a quiet two-lane. Just know the wind blast above cruise and near-zero luggage make it a day-ride tool, not a loaded long-hauler.
Made for Acadia National Park · Austin / Handbuilt Motorcycle Show · Blue Ridge Parkway
For Hill Country weekend loops this sits right in the pocket: light, quick to turn, and happy to carve. Keep the runs sporty and local and it delivers, though it won't haul much gear along for the ride.
Made for Austin / Texas Hill Country · Twisted Sisters · Austin / Handbuilt Motorcycle Show
You get a tight feedback loop and featherweight handling that rewards clean technique through the tightest sets on the Dragon or Cherohala. This bike speaks precision over outright speed, exactly your language.
Made for Back of the Dragon · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway
If this one isn't quite the fit, these are the bikes worth riding back-to-back against it.
Any price note compares both bikes at the same age — the youngest age both have on the used market — against this Husqvarna Vitpilen 701. “cheaper/pricier” is what that bike costs second-hand, not how worn it is.
