“Grab what you need for two nights out, stuff it in your bags and let’s go“. It’s early in the morning. We are two hours from Cape Town, South Africa. We are here to drive the Norden 901 Expedition, an (even more) adventure version of the Norden 901. “We want it to be a real adventure. We will sleep in the campsite. The route is long and mostly offroad. It rained a lot. We will find mud but also dust, rocks, fast dirt roads“.
We hit the fast forward button. The tour is over. Bringing a clear technical suit was not a good idea. It seems to have just come out of a motocross heat run in the mud. We have pure sand and dust in our mouths. More important, however, is to talk about you, the bike. Today as today, in front of the promotional images of the various twins immersed in fairytale scenariosand engaged in crazy drifts, it is legitimate if not physiological to ask how adequate they really are for that type of use and how much, instead, the manufacturers try to leverage our desire to escape. In the case of the Expedition, we can say after this test that the “adventure” title is well deserved. First of all because on the road it is comfortable and pleasant – in reality it’s really funny. It protects the legs and torso quite well from the air (very well; at 130 per hour the shoulders are a bit exposed), vibrates in a perceptible but not annoying way and has a triangulation that gives a pleasant feeling of control. Between the curves it is super: the chassis is precise and makes you want to “bite” the curves, the suspensions are very comfortable yet never compliant, handling is good, the brakes are powerful.
The engine is a great twin. Its performance is in line with the engine capacity and category, therefore satisfying without ever leading to exuberance; however, there is talk of a generous torque at every rev range and a gratifying speed in gaining revs, characteristics that have the effect of vigorous and engaging accelerations – and a certain propensity to indulge “rude” impulses. The clutch, for its part, is soft and the precise change and contrasted the right in the grafts. It must be said that it is a motorcycle that gave us the impression of transmitting a certain amount of heat to the rider’s legs. For the sake of completeness we must add that, in fact, in some moments of our tour (those where we noticed this aspect the most), the air temperature was between warm and hot.
What makes the Expedition an incredible adventure companion is of course – and above all – the… dirty side of the coin. The good things it shows on asphalt are completed, off-road, by one convincing ability to get away with anything. We give Husqvarna the credit for not having prepared an “ad hoc” route for her and, instead, for having let us ride her on the most diverse terrains, some of which are typically disadvantageous for bikes that tend to be large, heavy and equipped with poorly knobbed tires (standard there are the excellent Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR). We are talking about muddy bottoms, sand. And indeed there have been moments where we would have liked now a little less weight on the front end, now a higher handlebar, now a little more traction. The truth is that every bike has situations that exalt it and others that highlight shadows. In this case, having had the opportunity to drive the Expedition almost everywhere, the big picture counts. Which is as follows. While your tester isn’t an offroad handler, we managed to make “broken” and stony climbs; to overcome the steps not bad; we rode slippery descents and held our breath on the soft sand; we fired at highway speed on half-wrecked dirt roads. We even fell a couple of times, placing the bike on the ground in a certainly indelicate way: not even a broken lever. Because of this let’s say the definition “adventure” or “explorer” or whatever the category in which to classify it is called, it is deserved. In detail, off-road we really liked the suspension, never in crisis despite some incautious maneuvers (example: slipping into channels transversal to the direction at non-recommended speeds).
The driving position is satisfactory overall. Probably a slightly higher handlebar would guarantee greater relaxation; as it stands, however, it allows the handles to have superior cornering control, and is spot on for tarmac riding. Throttle response is smooth and the electronics work well, with a careful yet never invasive ABS and a very flexible traction control (ready to intervene or very permissive). The clutch has maintained constancy and modulation in the most stressful situations. The braking power, as well as high, is well dosed.
