Magazine Bike Reviews Racing Videos

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look

Cycle News Staff | May 26, 2017

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look – SWM is back! But most Americans didn’t even know that SWM had even left.

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look
This is the SWM RS 300 R dual sport. Based on the last Italian-built Husqvarnas a few years ago, SWM is hoping to import this bike, and others, into the U.S. at a low price point.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, SWM was a fairly popular brand in Europe, mainly in trials and enduro, but the Italian company struggled to make ends meet and ultimately shut its doors in the mid-1980s. But, 20-plus years later, SWM is making a comeback.

When KTM bought Husqvarna from BMW and moved the company from Varese, Italy, to Austria a few years ago, SWM saw an opportunity to resurrect itself by moving into the Varese factory that KTM had left behind and start ramping up production again. SWM teamed up with Shinray, a small motorcycle company in China, to help make SWM’s revival a reality. As a result, new SWM motorcycles are rolling off the assembly line as we speak, and this is really good new for us, especially if you’re into dual sport bikes and are essentially looking for high-performance street-legal dirt bikea at sensible prices.

Some of these new SWMs look very familiar, and that’s because they are very Husky-ish. In fact, they are nearly identical to the last Italian-built Husqvarnas.

With its new bikes, SMW hopes to fill a niche that definitely needs filling, at least here in the U.S., when it comes to affordable high-performance (off-road) dual sport bikes. Right now, you pretty much have two choices: pay lots and lots of money for a super-performing street-legal dirt bikes, or spend a lot less for more pavement-styled dual sport bikes. There really isn’t much in between. But SWM plans to change that by offering off-road-performance-minded dual sport bikes with reasonable price tags.

At first, SWM will focus on importing three models to the U.S.—the RS (dual sport), SMR 500s (supermoto) and Super Dual (adv bikes).

SWM has not finalized those prices yet but assured us that they are doing everything possible to keep prices as low as possible when they become available here in the U.S.

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look
This is the SWM RS 125 dual sport. SWMs are now being built in the “old” Husqvarna factory in Variese, Italy.
SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look
An affordable adventure bike–that’s SWM’s idea behind its new 600cc Superdual.
SWM will have supermoto variants, as well, like this SMR 500.

SWM Dual Sport And Supermoto First Look

 

 

 

Compare