Review: 2025 Husqvarna Vitpilen 801

A Duke of a Different Color

Blame my Midwest upbringing, but whenever I hear of Husqvarna, I first think of chainsaws, then dirt bikes, and finally street bikes. While tinkering around on the Husqvarna website, I was surprised that the company produced its first street motorcycle 56 years before its first chainsaw. Knowing this, and having recently ridden the new 2025 Vitpilen 801, I must remedy my mental association with Husqvarna.

A known force in the world of off-road motorcycles, Husky made its street-legal intentions known in 2018 with the introduction of the Svartpilen 401 and Vitpilen 401, alongside their 701 brethren. Revisiting my notes from the time, I lambasted the Svartpilen 401’s small, 2.5-gallon fuel tank, stylish but crowded multi-function instrumentation, and plank-ish seat. Still, I admired its distinctive styling and the fact that it came with adjustable suspension and a quickshifter for $400 less than its KTM 390 Duke counterpart, which didn’t. 

The 693cc single-cylinder 701 ‘Pilens were retired in 2020, while the 373cc 401s remained. For 2025, the bigger ‘Pilens are reentering the market as slightly larger 799cc parallel-twin 801 models. The big news here is the addition of one cylinder, accompanied by an increase in horsepower from 75 hp at 8,500 rpm to 105 hp at 9,250 rpm. Torque has also gone up from 52 lb-ft at 6,750 rpm to 64.2 lb-ft at 8,000 rpm. The icing on this performance upgrade is a price bump of only a grand to $10,499, compared to the 2020 ‘Pilen 701’s MSRP of $9,499.

Is It a Better ‘Pilen?

At 418 pounds, the Vitpilen 801 weighs about 56 pounds more than the 701’s 362 pounds. Three of those additional pounds come from the fuel tank, which now holds 3.7 gallons, while the rest mainly stems from the additional cylinder and the consequent frame reinforcements. Crunching the numbers shows the new Vitpilen with a slight advantage over the old model in the power-to-weight ratio, so—mathematically—the 801 wins.