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Hi, has anyone been riding their svartpilen off road ? I rode it on dirt/gravel roads quite a bit, and up some trails that were a bit more challenging as well. I could ride it standing up (I’m 185 cm high) which was convenient and found the pirelli tires to be “graby” enough (straight lining, in corners the front tire’s lateral knobs aren’t big enough to really plow through the dirt imho).
My first impressions : the rear end seems to rattle a lot at higher speeds (3rd gear), probably the license plate arm, the front fender hardly protects the engine from mud and other debris, so the bike accumulates a lot of dirt whilst riding. Also the bike is quite low, so I touched the ground a few times with the engine protector (which comes handy). Also, I find the suspension to be quite good on road but far from good off road, especially the rear suspension. I find it to lack completely in small bumps sensitivity, the fork does a much better job at that, and overall the travel is too short to really perform offroad, but that wasn’t a surprise.
To sum it up, I feel like the bike has some very decent off road capacity (for a bike that has essentially an 80-90% street bike DNA) as long as you ride at lower speeds. It isn’t in any ways comparable to a dirt bike obviously, nor a trail bike, but it’s lower off road capacity compared to those types of bikes, makes for a challenging, hence fun, experience when leaving the asphalt.
Typical gravel road I put some miles on, around where I live :
Riding up some grassy fields :
Riding in the forest, under the rain :
Sorry for the crapy pictures, they’re all I have. Also I didn’t make any of the narrower and steeper paths I rode up.
I found some Svart 401 off road riding in this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foudprExIpU
And also this report : https://www.themanual.com/auto/husqvarna-svartpilen-401-review/
If anyone has some more off roading on the svartpilen to share, please do !
Hey, yeh I ride mine off road too, and for a road oriented bike it handles conditions pretty well.. I’d agree with your views, I have got springs coming to deal with the soft suspension, I already changed my fork oil to 7.5wt.. it’s made a decent difference to stopping the forks bottoming out.
i have an ally bash plate on the way too. I added slightly higher bars to make standing easier too…
Nice, can you upload some pictures once you’ll have the mods installed ? Do you have a protection for the radiator ? Mine always gets covered in mud eventually. I’m considering replacing my rear pirelli with a Continental TKC 80 when it’ll be worn out. Do you have any experience with this tire ?
Yeah I’m not sure if I would feel comfortable taking my bike in those conditions. Both for my capabilities and the bikes as well, that looks very tough.
I did however take mine off on ~30 miles of gravel roads through the North GA mountains about a month ago. Great time and for service roads or slower, rocky roads she did just fine. No real pics from it though, next time.
Nice, I like seeing them put to work for a good time!
The stock Svartpilen 401 tires looks like they have more loose grip than the 701.I was blitzing the Svart 701 hard enough through the desert trails last month to rattle all the front fender bolts off except one. It was in the dark so no way I’d find any of them.
Bike handled everything way better than expected.I need one of those dual level brake pedals because it sucks for standing up (also standing up the heel rides on the exhaust…)
Well that sounds interesting ! So you’re saying the 701 has some off road capabilities ? How smooth/rough are the desert trails you’re mentioning ? How well do the tyres grip ?
Always thought the 701 was gorgeous but that it’s “off road/flat track” apparent DNA was more of a styling exercise than anything you could benefit from once leaving paved roads.
Would love to see some pictures or videos of a 701 involved in some off road action 🙂
I have some photos and also some GoPro video, but too cumbersome to upload for use on forums.
I’ve posted a few things on Instagram and fbook, etc.But yeah, it’s a rough ride, but still has 6″ of travel, good ergos, & agility. Remember the roots of this bike, it’s a Duke which was a Supermoto hooligan bike meant to go on dirt as much as pavement. It’s a bit more watered down to street use these days, but still plenty capable, depending on your ability and how far you’re willing to push it.
I have several dirt bikes as well. Slightly odd comparison, but one being a CRF450R that is converted to flat track use which I raced several years ago. I’d say this Svartpilen 701 did just as well off-road as my converted 450R would have done, even though it’s not the main use for it now.
I was most worried about puncturing the stock tires, but they held up. Grip was sub par (understandable for what they are), especially up front in loose, but I surfed it around and learned how it would handle.
I also dented the exhaust a bit when larger rocks would pop up, but nothing major.Keep in mind, none of it was in mud. I will avoid most mud or water submersions with this bike if I can.
Okay thanks for your interesting input ! If you ever upload some of the footage on youtube feel free to share it here. As with the 401 I think there are quite a few people willing to see how these bikes handle off road conditions.
I saw reference to using thicker oil to slow the suspension. I would recommend also adding a little extra oil to the forks. That’s what gives good bottoming resistance. It makes the compressed air space smaller which is like upping the compression ratio on an engine. A little extra oil goes a long way so experiment.
More on the off road (and touring) abilities of the Svartpilen 401, here’s a short video I made of a recent multi day off road trip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6HvH5dzysQ&feature=youtu.be
As mentioned before, I think it’s a very capable bike off road, and would be more efficient with a stiffer front suspension (at least for me, weighing around 87 kilos, plus gear and luggage).
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