Words: Tony Wilding Photography: iKapture

The Husqvarna Nuda is based on the BMW F 800 parallel twin, of whom it shares the engine and chassis – all be it in a heavily modified way. This is far from a bad thing as the BMW is a cracker of a bike to start with and super reliable – Husky have just remade the bike from the ground up into a very exciting, steroid feed street weapon…

Poking at the start button the parallel twin sparks to life and sounds like a beast with a deep raspy growl – how they got it through our tough ADR rules is beyond me but I’m glad they did. The R model has a slightly different muffler that has a carbon-fibre guard and tail cap but booth sound equally as menacing, as all nine Husky Nuda’s all fire up at the same time and I get that tingling feeling down the back of my neck.

As we head out of the city to the Gold Coast hinterland, the urban environment is the perfect place to try out the commuting capabilities of the Nuda. The cable-operated clutch is reasonably light and the gearbox is precise and slick. The 900R has one tooth less on the front sprocket so it has a bit more poke away from the lights.

However, the engine has that much torque that it’s really not needed and I find myself in third and fourth most of the time at speeds of 50km/h and less, as its far smoother than the first and second gear instant wheelie punching throttle response, and the fantastic grunt of the engine is more than happy to abridge. With the bike being so narrow, any sort of lane splitting shenanigans is only a thought process and the bike has a fantastic steering lock if you really want to get creative in your traffic carving...

I have a bit of a play with the two map modes the Nuda comes with; one is the standard full power map, the other is a rain map [mode 2]. The rain map really just alters the ignition curve and fuelling making the throttle more doughy and less snappy – perfect for riding in any sort of slippy conditions. I would rather the mode button be accessed on the handlebar rather than the dash, as it can be tricky to change on the move with gloves on, but this is only a small gripe really.

Getting into the mountains is where the fun is and if this were my bike, this is exactly the sort of place I’d be heading for to get my jollies. The engine is the same on the 900 and 900R and is just a thing of beauty; it feels like a cross between a v-twin and a triple by the way it delivers its 105hp. From the moment I twist the throttle that 105hp, which may not sound like much to your 1000cc sports bike rider, feels like it’s there instantly. This is probably because it also has 100Nm of torque, which has the feel of being available from tick over all the way to the 8500rpm redline – perfect for mountain corner carving. You do get a bit of vibration from the engine but just enough to let you know your having fun and riding something special – never enough to be a pain or become annoying – at least not on my 300km ride.

One of the Husky Nuda’s best features is the handling and both the standard 900 and the R don’t disappoint on this front. The R has fully adjustable suspension, with 48mm Sachs upside-down forks at the front and an off centred Ohlins rear shock, while the 900 gets the lesser spec Sachs front suspension and an fully adjustable Sachs rear shock – both bikes share the same trellis steel frame that’s been adapted from the BMW F 800 GS.

On these mountain roads there is everything from ultra tight 15km/h marked hairpin corners that are riddled with potholes, to wide open sweepers laced with the smoothest hot mix I’ve ever seen. As I head up the side of the mountain on the Nuda R, it does feel a bit more flighty and lighter on the bars than the 900, this is because it is sprung stiffer and is higher off the ground – definitely a more race oriented setup with a super motard feel. Braking hard and tipping in to a 45km/h marked corner that has a few bumps on the entry, is not enough to unsettle the R’s Ohlins/Sachs combination and I can’t help but feel that with a bit of time spent tinkering, it would only improve the bikes manners.

But for me, the standard 900 wins when things get bumpy and unpleasant; the suspension is just plusher and absolves the ruts better. Once the Nuda’s on its side it feels well planted even when I hit a bit of rough stuff, this is a feature that has remained from the super stable BMW F 800. On this front, a lot of these style of bikes tend to get out of shape and chatter due to their dirt bike geometry – not so with the Nuda.

Corner exit is where the fun is and it that sort of bike that I can really turn up the wick even when the bike is still laid over, and I can use just about all of the horses available due to the smooth throttle response. Coming out of the corner the rear tyre just digs in and drives and with the bike being so light, it really does get along very quickly and it’s pretty addictive hammering up and down the gears – not only to go fast but to hear the acoustics coming from the two-into-one exhaust.

On the R model I really get to feel the awesome power of the Brembo four-piston monoblock radial brakes, I mean come on, the bike only weighs 194kg fully fuelled – these brakes would pull up a tank… Heading hard into a corner the sintered pads do have a fair bit of initial bite, that takes some getting used to and at first I find myself braking far to early for each corner. Still, once I have my technique mastered and get used to the stopping power, I’m having a ball. The brakes on the 900 are slightly more ‘beginner’ user friendly and are still very powerful, being four-pot Brembo’s and to be honest would be my preferred choice if this were my bike.

I make no apologies by saying I love this style of bike and the Husqvarna Nuda is one of the best of that ‘motard style’ breed. It has more than enough punch to get you into trouble and the brakes to get you out again. The bike looks and sounds amazing, even with the standard exhaust pipe and on a twisty mountain road it would be almost unbeatable in the right hands.

SPECIFICATIONS: 2012 HUSQVARNA NUDA

Claimed power: 75kw[105hp]@8500rpm

Claimed torque: 100Nm[73.7-lbs]@7000rpm

Dry weight: 174kg

Fuel capacity: 13L

Engine: Liquid-cooled, DOHC, inline parallel twin, 90 x 68mm, 898cc, 13:0.1, electronic fuel injection, wet multi-plate clutch

Chassis: tubular steel trellis

Wheelbase: 1495mm

Rake: 65.5 deg

Trail: 101mm

Suspension: Front: 48mm inverted forks (900R: fully adjustable), 210mm travel

Rear: Sachs shock, fully adjustable (990R: Ohlins shock, fully adjustable), 180mm travel

Brakes: Front: Duel 320mm rotors with Brembo twin-piston radial calipers (990R: monoblock radial calipers)

Rear: 265mm rotor, twin-piston calliper

Wheels and tyres: Aluminium, 3.50 x 17in & 5.50 x 17in, 120/70ZR17 180/55ZR17 Metzeler Sportec M5’s

Dimensions: Seat height: 870mm

Overall height: 1220

Overall length: 2190mm

Instruments: Multi-function display

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