Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 Review
Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 this is a great-looking little bike.
Plenty of updates for 2024 But are they enough to make this the middle-weight, rugged-looking bike to buy for this particular year.
I’ll give you all of the details with all the pros and cons, and then at the end, give you my verdict.
Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 Engine Performance
Now, let’s start by talking about engine. It’s the single-cylinder, liquid-cooled, 399 cc, I think. It’s somewhere near 400 anyway.
As you’d expect from this category of bike, you get around the 40 odd horsepower mark, and I think it’s around 40 newton meters of peak torque as well.
It’s really quite fun, actually. I think that’s the big thing that surprised me.
You look at a bike of this capacity and power level, and perhaps think it’s going to be a little underwhelming.
But bang it down into It can get the revs up.
There’s actually quite a lot of fun to be had there, and it really does lurch forward in a much more aggressive way than I think I was expecting.
Riding Modes and Features
Now, there are a couple of other nice things about it. You got a couple of riding modes, so street and rain.
You get a quick shifter as standard, and it’s a nice light geer box.
And so all around, it’s pretty entertaining and quite revy, I suppose, certainly when you compare it to some of the other single-cylinder 400-ish bikes.
Vibrations and Smoothness In Husqvarna Svartpilen 401
I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, though. I mean, being a single, it’s not super smooth and refined, and there are plenty of vibes in the lower revs.
I think it smooths out a little bit as you get up to motorway speeds.
I found it quite tolerable at 60 and 70. It’s not terrible down low either. It’s just part of it being a single.
But I think it’s certainly something to be aware of.
If you have a little bit of extra cash, you could look at something like the CL500, for example, from Honda, which just feels that bit smoother, or even the Triumph 400, which being a single, it’s somewhat similar, also built by Bajaj in India, but it just feels like they got the balancing a little better in the lower revs.
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It’s the opposite of this engine, actually.
I think the Triumph are much smoother in the low revs, and then perhaps the vibes are a little more irritating at 60 and 70, so it’s flipped.
Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 Exhaust and Sound
The other thing is maybe the sound is not particularly hair-raising, let’s say.
And although you might expect that from the standard exhaust, this one has been fitted with a couple of accessories.
I’ve had it for a few months from Husqvarna, and they kindly put on the headlight guard, the extra radiate shrouds.
But most expensive of the bunch is the REMA silencer.
And they did say it’s not going to make a huge deal of difference in terms of the sound. it’s not doing a great deal it’s just got a bit of a thin acoustic to it.
And some of the other bikes in this segment are richer, a bit meatier, a bit basier.
Maybe there are other aftermarket exhausts from third parties that will do a better job.
But it’s not exactly a bike that’s going to have you Getting all excited when you get on the gas. Like I said, there is a really nice engine.
Low RPM Stalling Issue
I like the livelihoods at the top, the way it revs up to 8, 9, 10,000 RPM.
You’ve got that directness with the throttle that you’d expect from a bike that’s built upon a KTM platform.
They’re always quite eager, and this one’s very much the same.
But the last thing to point out with it is just that I don’t know if that top-endiness for a single is at the sacrifice of a little bit of guts down low because it does feel weirdly easy to stall right down in the low revs.
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And I’m talking about when you roll up to a junction or a traffic light or something like that, even if you got the clutch pulled in, sometimes it just, yeah, loses momentum and stops, and then you have to hit the starter quickly to get back underway.
Now, the first couple of times it did it, I was like, that’s a little bit unusual. And I wondered if there was some specific issue with my bike.
But a couple of weeks back, I was also reading the MCN review, and I think they found the exact same thing that it just sometimes drops as you roll up to stop.
They said the same with the clutching.
Maybe it’s just a fundamental characteristic of this particular engine.
I’m not sure if it’s a deal breaker or not.
I mean, it’s not necessarily ideal, is it? And of course, when you’re at a junction, you want to make sure you’re nice and agile to get away quickly.
So having to hit the starter, even if it’s only half a second, is not what you want.
But perhaps it’s something that goes away as the engine frees up and runs in a bit because this bike’s got still, I think, less than 500 miles on the clock.
So yeah, maybe that will ease up as it runs in, but definitely something to be aware of if you’re thinking about buying one.
Chassis and Suspension
Now onto the chassis and look, first thing to say about this is that while it does look quite rugged and off-road biased,
it’s got all the hardware and protectors and bits and bobs like that, the wide bars, the little fly screen at the front, and chiefly those Pirelli, Scorpion Rally STR tires that do look quite aggressive.
It’s got all that stuff, so it might fall you into thinking that it’s an off-road biased bike, but it really isn’t.
I mean, it’s pretty much built upon the KTM 390 Duke with a few adaptations.
It’s low slung, it’s vulnerable to rocks underneath like most road bikes are.
It’s got a 17-inch wheel as well, despite the fact that they’re spoke, so they look the biz.
It really doesn’t have any of the hallmarks of a proper off-road-biased mini adventure bike.
They market it a little bit, I think, with flat track footage.
I think they did the launch for the previous gen with a bit of flat track riding as well.
But that’s probably the full extent of it.
I think if you saw a fairly easy-going flat gravel road, you’d probably have quite a good time, actually, on this bike.
But with anything where you’re going to get undulations and rocks and stuff like that, this is not the bike for the job.
Also, it’s really not built ergonomically to be stud up either.
Now, the flip side of that is that it’s really good on the road.
Maybe you could turn that into a positive in that it’s got the image of a bit of a scrambler bike, but they’ve recognized that most people don’t realistically take their bikes extensively off road like that, this genre anyway.
They’ve actually specced it up properly to just be a good road bike, just packing a bit of that image.
It’s got excellent suspension, courtesy of WP, which is the in-house brand at and Husqvarna.
Pricing
The ride quality is really good, especially considering the price point.
There must be some efficiencies of owning your own suspension company there because it feels like a cut above what you’ll find on other bikes at this price point.
Also, you got full adjustability, which you don’t often see either at this £5,000, £6,000 level.
A brilliant thing about this bike, definitely that suspension.
Braking and Handling
Also, braking is good as well. You got the single four-part, radially mounted Bybre caliper.
I think they changed sides for this year, so it looks better when it’s on the side stand, which I actually think is a great move.
But technically, good quality stuff from Bybre.
You see it on a lot of these bikes built in India at the moment by Bajaj.
The Triumph 400s, for example, I think you see them on some of the end fields as well.
And yeah, there’s plenty of stopping power and also, adjustable levers, so you can get the feel of the levers to your taste.
It’s nice and light as well. I think it’s 159 kilograms without fuel, so somewhere between 170, 180, fueled up.
They’ve added 4 liters to the tank as well for this year, so a bit more range, a bit more capacity.
The lightness, the good brakes, the good suspension, the fact that it is sensibly low slung for road riding means that it’s a great ride.
Honestly, it’s fantastic really agile.
I feel like you can chuck it around and you can make the most of that engine and keep the momentum up.
Tire Choice
Really, the only thing that’s maybe ever so slightly holding it back is the fact that it does have those tires.
I mean, they’re perfectly good, and they’re a great shout for an adventure bike.
You see them on a lot of middleweight adventure bikes, for example, where you might want to do a decent bit of dry off road.
They’re not mud pluggers, but they’ll be okay on drier trails.
They’re okay on the road as well, but I think it’s just the fact that the rest of the chassis is built not at all for off roading, and yet the tires are definitely more towards that side things.
And so I think, yeah, I’d be looking for something a little more grippy to make more of the bike, or it might be a reason as well to go for the Vitpilen, and it just handles a bit better.
You’ve got cast aluminum wheels, so they’re a little lighter, probably.
It feels that bit more nimble. It’s a lighter bike, slightly lower bars to get you into a sportier position, and proper road-focused tires.
And it’s also worth pointing out, they take an inner tube.
If you’re not comfortable changing tubes to fix a puncture, then again, you might want to look at the Vitpilen with the cast wheels, which you can just plug with a bang.
I think more people are more comfortable with that.