First Ride: Husqvarna 510SMR & 610SM

Click to read: Husqvarna 510SMR owners reviews, Husqvarna 510SMR specs and to see the Husqvarna 510SMR image gallery.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO Husky was at the sharp end of exotic off-road machinery. Very expensive, very fast and equipped with top-range equipment, they were dirt bikes you aspired to. Then in the late ‘90s, it all went a bit pear-shaped. Huskies started breaking down, their reliability became questionable and spare parts were elusive. Husqvarna got a bad reputation as a result.

Then in October of 2007, they were put up for sale by then-owners MV Agusta, so BMW stepped in and suddenly Husky have got a whole new lease of life. Supermoto is a tiny market in the UK but accounts for 40% of Husqvarna’s production, so if you’re going to do something niche, then you may as well be the best. And this is the thinking behind the new 510SMR and 610SM supermotos.

The 510SMR is an electric whippet just to look at. Gone is the stodgy yellow/blue paint schemes of old Husky, and in its place is a sexy new red/white livery that exudes quality. From the plastics to the components and the depth of the welding, there are no corners cut and while the 510SMR may only be a tiny supermoto, there’s craftsmanship on this bike that would shame any Japanese superbike. The massive 50mm Marzocchi forks look strong enough to support a Humvee, and neat touches like the red cylinder head cover and powder-coated wheels really set off the engine. The 510 is a proper weapon, and that’s before you even ride it.

The fuel-injected 55bhp motor spits into life on the starter. No danger of left-handed, forward facing kickstarts anymore. The SMR spins up sharply at the throttle and makes you smile in that dangerous, slightly lop-sided way. You’re about to have fun. If you’re not used to modern four-stroke singles it’s shocking how quickly they rev, grab a handful and the 510 stutters ferociously into the rev-limiter. The steel muffler gives the Husky a metallic bark, but it’s heavy and blocks up the engine. Bolt on a carbon race exhaust, blank the Lambda sensor and the SMR immediately switches itself into noisy race mode. The ride position is pitched forward, the tapered handlebars high and wide, and you’re locked into a motocross stance, elbows out, ready for action.

We rode the 510 round a brutally tight, slippery kart track just outside of Benidorm in Spain and it was an assault on the senses. Blast up to corner, dump two gears, weight over the front, tyres wriggling around all over the place, lean it as hard as you dare, pick it up and fire out. Power goes through the 170-section tyre in a burst of revs and you can wring the SMR right out down the straights, far higher than you’d expect. Being a stripped-down supermoto there’s nothing as complicated or cumbersome as a rev-counter, and so you’re plugged into the bike, feeling for when you’ve passed peak power and it’s time to plug in the next gear. You don’t have to be polite with dirtbike gearboxes, just bang them mercilessly up and down without blipping the throttle, and the harder you ride the more the 510 loves it.

What’s clever about the SMR is that it’s not in the least bit intimidating. The bike is so light, so well-balanced and packs such sharp brakes that you’d have to ride off a cliff to get yourself into trouble. And if you’ve only ever regarded supermotos as a queer oddity with pointless 80mph top speeds as you roar past on your sportsbike, only to have the cursed things looming large in your mirrors at the first sign of linked corners, you need to sling a leg over this Husqvarna. It’s motorcycling boiled down to its purest elements, and feeling for available grip and winding the throttle on far earlier than you dare is all part of the SMR experience. If the rear breaks away, don’t panic. The long-travel suspension will soak it up like a sponge. Your own limits will be so far inside what the 510 is capable of doing that you can push yourself all day long and still with a considerable safety barrier.

Only 150 of these high-octane singles are expected to sell in the UK this year, and with a heady price of £6,000 the SMR is a weekend toy for the very rich or the very committed. But its razor-sharp character, thrilling ride and sky-high build quality mean those lucky few will be an elite group indeed.

Husky 510SMR specs

Price: £6,249
Engine: 510cc single
Power: 60bhp@ 8,000rpm
Torque: 48lb.ft@ 6,500rpm
Front suspension: 50mm Marzocchi, fully adjustable
Rear suspension: Monoshock, fully adjustable
Front brake: 310mm disc,  four-piston calipers
Rear brake: 265mm disc, two-piston caliper
Dry weight: 152kg 
Seat height:  900mm
Fuel capacity: 9l
Top speed: 118mph (est)
Colours: White, black, red

Husky 610SM

Husqvarna 610SM

After the 510SMR, the 610 is like stepping back 10 years when four-stroke singles were called ‘thumpers’. It makes big, donking lumps of power from the single-cam motor. It weighs 20kg more than the 510 and makes the same 55bhp, but in a completely different way. Where the SMR is a leaping, shrieking plaything, the 610 is a far more civilised package, a supermoto for more gentile people. On the road it will feel bulging with midrange and remarkably vibe-free, but around the kart track in Benidorm it just felt a bit long and heavy.

Which is a little unfair on the 610, it’s simply a tad unexciting after its younger, more pernicious brother. The SMR is a tough act for any supermoto to follow. Where the 510 likes to rev, the 610 is happy to plonk its way through the rev-range with a deep tone, the rider feeding in relaxed power that is far more suited to the steadier pace of the road. It looks solid and it is, with a faired-in front fender and a more substantial feel to the bike as a whole. The single Brembo brake is absolutely epic, capable of hauling the 610 down from any speed, and for those looking to embarrass big bikes at trackdays, the 610 would be ideal. You could cover distances on the 610SM. Some of the Husqvarna staff went so far as to call it a tourer, which is probably a little optimistic unless you live for pain, but the easy power and roomy ride position mean that a happy Sunday spent in the saddle is entirely on the cards.

As a foil to their four-strokes, Husqvarna also have a new 125SMR two-stroke. With an engine lifted out of their old CR125 motocross bike and with a 12bhp version coming to the UK, we ripped up the track on the full-power 26bhp model and it was a complete riot. It weighs 120kg wringing wet and once you get your head around clutching it out of corners to get the engine spinning, the motor is surprisingly tractable and outrageously fast for such a tiny thing. It only costs £3,399 and £350 to get it to full-power mode, and if these things had existed when I was 17 years-old I would have waged a personal war on the world.