IN
THE
WIND
P40
SWM IS BACK!
M
ost Americans didn't even know that SWM
had even left, or even existed.
In the 1970s and early '80s, SWM was a fairly
popular brand in Europe, mainly in trials and
enduro, but the Italian company struggled to make
ends meet and ultimately shut its doors by 1985.
But, 20-plus years later, SWM is making a come-
back.
When KTM bought Husqvarna and moved
the company to Austria a few years ago, SWM
saw an opportunity to resurrect itself by moving
into the old Husky factory in Varese, Italy, and
starting production of SWM motorcycles again.
SWM teamed up with Shinray, a small motorcycle
company in China, to help make things happen,
and as a result, new Italian-built SWM motorcycles
are rolling off the assembly line as we speak. This
is really good news for us, especially if you're into
off-road-minded dual-sport bikes. SWM wants to
import their bikes, which will essentially be street-
legal dirt bikes, into the U.S. with reasonable price
tags. At least that's the plan.
Some of these bikes look very familiar, and
that's because they are very Husky-ish. In fact,
some of them are nearly identical to the last
Husqvarna motorcycles built by the Italians before
The Italian manufacturer SWM is once again producing
bikes in the vacated Husky plant in Varese. The plan
is for U.S. to get reasonably priced, high-performance
dual-sport bikes like this 650cc Super Dual.
