Husqvarna 401 VITPILEN

Remember my post about the KTM Duke 390 last year?
What I said was this:

"I think this can be the bike we have all been waiting for
It is light - 140 kilogram
It has a powerful 1 cylinder engine
It probably has a nice sound with the right exhaust
A cool looking frame
Nice rims, good brakes, etc.
And the most important thing is.. it is cheap! 5000,- or something like that.

This could be the most interesting platform on the market right now to build a custom bike
Imagine this bike without the orange and all the plastic parts
It's fast enough for a cafe racer, tracker, scrambler, etc
This bike can be so many cool things.

Please KTM send one of these Duke 390's to Roland Sands, Cafe Racer Dreams, the Wrench Monkees, Mule and El Solitario and this could be the new weapon of choice in the custom world"

KTM has made it very clear that they will not build any retro inspired new wave custom bikes in the near future because it doesn't fit in with their slogan "ready to race".
Well it seems they they found a loop hole. Since all the big motorcycle brands are jumping on the factory custom train KTM probably changed their mind after all and wanted to join but how could they do that without compromising their slogan and core business?

As you probably know KTM bought Husqvarna last year. Yesterday on the Eicma show Husqvarna presented these 2 concept bikes based on, you've probably guessed it already, the KTM Duke 390!
They’re sporting upside-down WP forks, lightweight trellis frames, 17-inch wheels with modern rubber. The 400cc water-cooled single has an output of 43hp and the bikes weigh 135 kg (297 pounds).  The first concept is the Husqvarna 401 VITPILEN (white arrow). A lightweight naked (cafe)racer with clip-ons. The second one is the Husqvarna 401 SVARTPILEN (black arrow). A lightweight scrambler or desert racer.
Looks like KTM was at least a little bit inspired by my post from last year or maybe I can predict the future, haha!

Right now these are just concept models. Let's hope the production models will look very similar to these concept bikes!

Now the big question is, how much will they cost?
These bikes are designed at Studio Kiska. Here's an interesting quote form one of their designers.(found on Derestricted)

"I think there are an increasing number of folks like myself, who really want to ride contemporary machinery…but at the same time we don’t want to look like extras on a Michael Bay set ;-) At the moment there are not so many affordable options, but this could be about to change with these bikes"-Bjorn Shuster 

Will this be a affordable option next year? I surely hope so!

All pics from the always cool Derestricted site