Husqvarna’s new Norden 901 Expedition

March 6, 2023 by Alastair Sloane

The Husqvarna Norden 901 Expedition is an upgraded version of the base model 901 touring bike, unveiled at the Milan show in 2019 before going into production in 2020.

In a bid to bolster the 901’s go-anywhere, long-range capabilities, the Swedish company (owned by Austria’s KTM) came up with changes, including fitting the trellis frame with WP XPLOR suspension that boosts fore and aft travel to 240mm.

The Expedition also gets a new centre stand, adjustable heated grips and rider’s seat, a taller touring windscreen, a new perforated skid-plate, and panniers that offer up 36 litres of storage space. There’s also a rear luggage rack, steering damper, and a 19-litre fuel tank good for a range of roughly 400km between fill-ups.

Powering the bike is an 889cc parallel-twin engine cranking out 78kW/100Nm via a power-assisted slipper clutch. It gets adjustable traction control, ABS with off-road mode, and four riding modes – Street, Rain, Off-Road, Explorer – one more than the standard Norden 901.

The tubeless spoked wheels are shod in Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR rubber. Husqvarna has also treated the bike to a smartphone-connected TFT display with turn-by-turn navigation. Completing the package is a topographically-themed blue livery with white and yellow accents.

The 2023 Husqvarna Norden 901 Expedition is expected to land in NZ over the next few months. The Norden 901 is priced in NZ at a little over $25,000, The Expedition is likely to add around $2000 to the price.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.