2018 Husqvarna 701 Omega Rally – The Beginning (2022-2023)

aka “The Bike with No Name” aka “The Austrian Mistress”

My go to motorcycle for the past 4 years, together we’ve done 10,000 miles throughout most of the west. Let’s catch up where this started.

My first motorcycle was this 2014 Husaberg FE501. It was a great bike but didn’t quite fit the bill for the type of riding I was starting to do. I went out for a ride with the 701s previous owner who I worked with at the time and at lunch they offered to sell it to me. I said yes, sold the 501 and haven’t looked back since.

The incoming 701 with the outgoing 501. Both really KTMs with a bit different configurations.

What is this bike? (Link to Advanced Specs), It’s a giant, 693cc single cylinder with 75hp and 52 ftlbs of torque and about 344lbs wet. It’s more dirt bike than adventure bike, and seems to be a polarizing option for most people for dual sport/adventure riding. You are either in the single track camp, adv camp or the seat is too tall camp I suppose. It’s nothing like a 230lb single track bike and nothing like a 500lb adventure bike. All I know is that when I swung a leg over this bike, it connected to me for how I liked to ride and I started to mold it into mine.

The chassis is close to the dakar racing bikes of the era but without the WP Pro suspension and the 450cc race engine. While mine is far from a race bike, it’s not far off either. Here is the 2016 Dakar Husqvarna race bike:

…and mine after some massaging and before I took it apart this winter…

When I bought the 701 it already had an Omega Fiber Gen 1 Rally Kit installed from South Africa. The Omega kit is based off of the earlier KTM/Husky dakar kits of this chassis but made for privateers to race. The Omega kit adds 34lbs through a wind screen, rally tower, two front gas tanks and skid plate, providing aerodynamics and an additional 4 gallons of fuel putting the bike right around 400lbs. With a hair over 7gallons of fuel it can do about 300-350miles on the 3 tanks and is insanely capable with WP 48mm forks and WP shock in the rear. Also installed were Yoshimura Exhaust and the Rottweiler emissions delete and intake packages.

Upon receiving the bike I went through almost everything and it was setup ok enough to start riding so I slapped some graphics I designed on it… well directed… from some concepts. I remain bothered by the execution by the company producing the kit.

Graphics started as an adaptation of the Burno Munari Campari Ad from 1965. As you do with race bikes, they have to have some flash and that flash generally comes from some form of sex, alcohol, tobacco or drug purveyor. Campari has long been the family drink of choice, and there weren’t really any liveries around it so I went with the idea.

…I ran through a bunch of quickly photoshopped variations…

…and landed on something like this that was handed over to the graphics company. Looking at these again, I still want to work yellow back into the design.

The kit arrived, but not as approved on the proof. You can probably tell by now I’m still getting over that.

Now the bike was a bit more “mine”

I kept adding my flavor in the free time to it as I tinkered. Where there wasn’t carbon and I thought there should be, I made my own carbon fiber using my vacuum sealer and the old heat shield as a mold. This was a pain and I probably should’ve just bought the part, still fun though.