Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127952
Husqvarna SM610 by a 150/ 60-17 rear on a 4.5G-inch-\vid wheel. These give a footprint of which any Su permono road racer wouldb proud, removing any pretension of off road capability fo r the SM610: hard looking, yes, bu t also hard-road hard ware - tho ugh wi th we ll-damped soft-riding su sp en sion that makes it a great tool over the less-than-perfect tarma c of ci ty highwa ys anywh ere, Ie alone the cobblestones that stiJl adorn many Italian (and other European) dty centers. If you commute to work in any majo city, this bike's for you, especiaJly with the convenient grab-handle-cum-luggage rack fitted to the bike, which gives arnpl space to strap on a briefcase . Then you can arrive at the office nicely tuned up f8 a self-assertive day of wheeling and dealing, after successfu lly combating traffic congestion on the way there in MX mode - yet feel smug about your environmental credentials in doing so, thanks to the dual ca taly tic conver ter s wit h wh ichthe Hu sk y's twin- silencer exhaust system comes equipped. Green is Good .... The fat, 45mm, leading-axle conventi onal Ma r zo cchi fork fi tted to the SM610 soaks up the rough stuff, offering a hefty 11 inches of well-damped travel. Compression and rebound da mping ate , adjusta ble - though stock set tings were fine - and spring preload on the triplerate sp rings ca n be altered, too . Thes,e sp rings give enough resistance to stop the fron t end from divi ng un du ly when you sq ueeze hard on the single big 320mm Brembo d isc to avoi d the tru ck that's puJled ou t in front of you . ) A t 330 pound s d ry, th e Husky we igh s a lot m ore th at yo u 'd expect from such a stripped-d ow n street single - Henriett e' s Six Dix sca led just 2 5 pounds wi th oil, wa ter and a gallon or two of gas - bu t you don't reaJly notice it so much on the mov e beca use of the compacted weig ht d istributi on an d the slim build of the bike as a wh ole. Sti ll, th ough wheeli es don' t come easily compared to the KTM, squee zing the brake lever to stop hard will ge t the Hu sky's front Pirelli chirpi ng on certain road su rfaces, if you don't dab the back brake as well, and no better stoppie bike has yet been marke ted with a license plate - not even the Duke. The four-piston fro nt cali pe r in the Brembo brake package is quite sensitive but gives the kind o f sto pping power most s treet MXer s can only dream of, and Husqvarna deserves credit for tailoring the suspe nsion to suit this fact. The long alloy swinga rrn is wo rthy of an RI Yama ha, a nd gives similar sus pen sion res ponse via the fully adjusta ble Sachs-Boge rear shock and its rising-rate linkage. Howe ver, this has inevitably been stiffened up compa red to off-road use, and vou do notice mino r road shock such as tarmac patches or manh ole covers as a result of this, as well as (presumably) the stiffer construction road tires. It still wo rks pretty good, thou gh . Above all, though, this is one Supermotard you wo n' t need a step lad der to climb on and off of, than ks to the fact that Hu sqvarna lowered the rid e height quite substantially compared to the offroa d spec. Also helping the ride-height cause was the reduction of whee l diameters from 21 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear. The Road Maste rs Six Di x was an effective trailer for the SM610, but it d id have some d rawbacks that made it hard to get used to - chiefly the left-foot kickstarter (a mu st since there was no electric leg) - and vibration tha t wasn't so apparen t sho rt-s hifti ng the six-speed gearbOx through city stree ts was an ug ly . By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kyo ich i Nakamura ." .. ~ t-=: ~ ~ 18 -, t's taken five years for the dirt bike demons at Husqvarna to come u p with an answer to its rival KTM's best-selling Du ke s treet rod, the ultima te take-no -prisoners ho oligan bik e for city streets and urban highways. But now, with the financial troubles of its Cagiva parent re solved, the brake on d eve lopment of HVA' s new, morerefined, liquid-cooled, four-val ve, single -cylinder engine - always intende d for just such a bike - has been lifted . The SM610 Supermot o s treet ro d now entering production is the transplanted Swedish marque's first stab at an all -ou t road bike since it moved sou th to Italy a d ecade ago. As suc h, it' s also the first of the new generation o f four-stroke Hu sqvarnas to be launch ed , equipped with a n engine package that rem oves most of the comp rom ises inherent in the old engine, thoug h the older d esign is set to conti nu e in p ro d u ctio n fo r t he im mediate fu tu re and po we r HVA's ran ge of hard no sed TE/TC61 0 co m petitio n ha rd ware. No t that the SM610 isn' t hard, too. It is - very, especiaJly in the black-bo mber livery of the test bike awai ting me in the s u m mer s u ns hi ne ou tsi de Cagiva 's Varese factory. Really, this is Husky's bela ted recogn ition of the Sup ermotard fad th at began in Fran ce almos t a decade ago, w hereby fr a n tic Fr ench MXers converte d the ir off -ro ad tr ail irons to street spec by bolting on stu ff like lights and a horn to achiev e marginal streetlegality that (mos tly) sa tisfied the gendnnnes, before also fitting bigger brakes, a smaJler fron t wheel, and ta rmac rubber to make th e result handle pro perly on the hard stuff. The result not only flew in the face of th e "N o t For Highwa y Us e" s ticke r pas ted to the fue l tank, it al so es tablished a new standard for hooligan -bike excess, a fact I had confirmed for me a couple of years ago when I squirted the Road Masters HVA Six Dix around the streets of Toulouse. That bike had been co ncocted by ren own ed Fren ch cycle couturier Thierr v Henriette, of Boxer Bikes , based on humble Husqvarna TE610, and with it I di scov er ed th er e ai n' t no quicker wa y fro m po int A to point B in urban sprawl than on such a single-minded Supermoto. Such a bike sits you high enough to deliver a commanding view over trafficchoked streets, is slim enoug h to let you squeeze thro ugh gaps between cars tha t a person might have trouble wa lki ng betwee n, and is agile enoug h to let you cra nk arou nd improbably tight turns yet as a last resort also has enoug h suspen sion travel and even more gro u nd clearance, to lend new meaning to the term "curb-crawling," allowing you to shor tcu t yo u r wa y out o f tr ouble b y hopping over curbs and jumping over central reser vations so you can implemen t Plan B (or even C) when your cho- a Husqvarna has thrown its hat into the supe rmota rd ring with the SM610. Cagiva USA' still isn 't certain whether or not it will inc lude the bike in the model lineup for the States. 's e n path to yo u r fin al des ti na tion becomes blocked . Supermo to singles ar e the ultimate s treet scooters, and ev en though KTM brought the French Connecti on to th e sho w roo m via the Duke, so me would say th at round ing off th e co rners b y rest yling it so it's self-ev idently more tarmac-oriented than the MXers it was derived from was a su rreal sell-o u t of the Supermotard concept. Helluva fine stree t rod, though ... Still, in bel atedly following in th eir off- roa d rival s' tire tracks, Husqv.arna has now gone the other way and copied the Road Masters Six Dix prototyp e so thoughtfully concocted for th em by Thierry Henriette half a decade ago (ma ybe they s hould pay him a consultan t feel), What Husky has pr oduced is an MX racer with ligh ts d ista ntly derived from Jacky Ma rtens ' World Open Class MX title-winner, complete with strip ped-o u t off-road styling that employs, for example, the sa me big front mudguard used on their TE/ TC compe tition range, but, just as on the Six Di x, is suspended some wa y above a much smaJler 17-inch fro n t wheel with its wi re-laced 3,50inc h-wi de A kr o nt rim hold in g a fa t 120/70 PireJli Dragon road tire, ma tched