What the brand was vs what it is
Reinvented twice
1996 Husqvarna was an Italian motorcycle company owned by Cagiva, making air-cooled singles in the Varese factory. BMW bought the brand 2007, struggled to make it work, sold it to KTM 2013. KTM moved production to Mattighofen Austria and rebooted the entire range using KTM platforms. The 2026 Husqvarna is essentially a KTM in different colours.
Engine architecture (Italian → Austrian)
Air-cooled → Liquid-cooled
Pre-2014 Husqvarna used Italian-designed air-cooled singles (the BMW/Cagiva-era engines). KTM-era Husqvarna uses the LC4 liquid-cooled single — same engine as the KTM 690 SMC R. Same architecture (one big cylinder), totally different engineering.
Power gain
+25bhp
49bhp TE610 → 74bhp 701 Supermoto. 51% more horsepower. The LC4 single is one of the most advanced single-cylinder engines ever built — DOHC, liquid-cooled, four valves, ride-by-wire. Old air-cooled Husky was much simpler engineering.
701 Supermoto vs 690 SMC R
Same bike, different paint
The Husqvarna 701 Supermoto and KTM 690 SMC R share the same engine, frame, suspension, brakes, electronics. Differences: bodywork, paint scheme, slightly different bars, slightly different price. KTM brand strategy: KTM is "Ready to Race" orange-and-black; Husqvarna is "Pioneers" white-and-yellow with a more premium positioning. Same bike under the bodywork.
Real cost change
−$1.5k
TE610 was $7,830 in 1996 ($15,660 today). The 2026 701 Supermoto is $14,174 — about 10% cheaper in real terms. The 2026 model brings a redesigned LC4 engine with longer 15,000km service intervals and new bodywork. Cornering ABS, ride-by-wire, traction control, TFT, quickshifter — all absent on the original. Engineering value has gone up significantly.
Why this lineage matters
Survival of brand identity
Husqvarna is one of the oldest motorcycle brands in the world (founded 1903). The brand could easily have died when Cagiva collapsed financially in the early 2000s. BMW kept it alive briefly; KTM saved it properly. The 701 Supermoto exists because Husqvarna existed first, even though almost nothing of the original company survives in the modern bike.
Cheapest way in
$3.4k
A clean SM610 from the late 2000s. The Italian-era Husky — air-cooled, characterful, fragile, occasionally infuriating. Probably the cheapest way to put a proper big-single supermoto in your garage on the UK used market. Service intervals are short and parts are getting hard to find — but if it runs it runs.
