Letter From Europe
LETTER FROM Europe
ROUNDUP
The 500ESW Husky: a Thumper in slicks
Single-cylinder roadracing is catching on all over the world, with some pretty unusual bikes being built to contest the various national title series. But not all of them are based on Honda or Yamaha trail Singles. One of the best-looking, most innovative Euro-Singles to appear lately is Swedish engineer Marc Bezzina’s ESW Husqvarna.
Bezzina’s bike is unique because of its engine, a highly modified version of the liquid-cooled Husky 510TE motor. Bezzina himself was a Husqvarna development engineer for the 5 10 en-
gine, but found himself unemployed after Cagiva’s purchase of the Swedish marque. “I had
the chance to move to Italy and continue working on new products there,” says Bezzina, “but my
family and roots are here in Sweden, so it didn’t make sense. Far better to take the redundancy money and use the free time to finish off the roadracer project with the 510TE engine I’ve been working on for the past three years.”
The men who worked with Bezzina in developing the four-stroke Husky engine were fellow engineer Urban Larsson and European four-stroke enduro champion Tomas Gustavsson. The three of them are now collaborating on a new bike (to be called Husaberg), which is effectively an uprated and improved version of Husky’s 510TE. It will incorporate many lessons learned from the development of the Husky roadrace bike. This light, powerful motor is fitted in a sturdy and minimalist chromemoly tubular steel chassis designed and built by Erik Lundin, whose ESW marque is Sweden’s lead-
ing custom frame-maker. The steering-head angle is a steep, 23.5 degrees, the wheelbase long at 54 inches, and the weight distribution a front-heavy 55/45 percent. The front
fork is a Marzocchi, with the rear rising-rate linkage suspended by—what else?—a Swedish-made Ohlins unit.
The result is a small and light roadracer based
on a genuine all-Swedish Thumper, with good topend power and bags of torque. Bezzina has already demonstrated the bike’s competitiveness by riding it to victory in a Swedish Sound of Singles Series race.
But that’s where the story will end for now: Bezzina is selling the Husky roadracer to help fund the Husaberg enduro bike project. Which is not to say there won’t be another Swedish roadracing Thumper in the future.
Alan Cathcart
