"It's cool,"  said KTM/Husqvarna CEO Stefan Pierer after pulling the cover off the company's new Vitpilen 701. "OK, thank you all for coming."

He didn't need to say more to the EICMA crowd, already a number of us in the press were muttering obscenities of awe and a scrum had formed. Pushing. Shoving. Scrambling to take photos. A woman elbowed me in the face. Everyone needed to see this bike, to be near it.

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Husqvarna has been promising a Vitpilen 401 for some time now. Pierer says that's still coming, in 2017. A 125cc version is coming, too (probably not in the United States, I'd guess). But that news was all but forgotten when the 701 was revealed.

Forget All Other Bikes: Husqvarna's Vitpilen 701 Is The New Hotness - EICMA 2015

The single-cylinder Vitpilen 701 –– no, sorry, according to Husqvarna's media folk it's VITPILEN 701 –– is easily one of the most beautiful motorcycles I've ever seen. It's a fantastic opening shot as the 102-year-old company continues its rebirth under KTM leadership.

Husqvarna says the goal in designing the VITPILEN 701 was to harken back to the company's 1903 beginnings, and the simplicity of motorcycling, while at the same time producing the "most modern motorcycle possible."

The company claims this balance is represented by the thin yellow line, which it calls "the split," that runs down the middle of the bike.

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Forget All Other Bikes: Husqvarna's Vitpilen 701 Is The New Hotness - EICMA 2015

There was no opportunity to hear the VITPILEN 701 roar to life at EICMA, but Husqvarna promises the straight-through exhaust is loud. Its name means "white arrow" in Swedish, and the VITPILEN 701 is utterly minimalist, though still equipped with the modern features we've come to expect from European bikes: ABS, LED lights front and back, and a number of other features that were hinted at but not fully revealed (tech specs are not yet available).

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Husqvarna says the VITPILEN 701 will be available "by the time the snow melts" in 2016, or "spring" for those not speaking in marketing allusions. Whether it will be available in the United States when aforementioned snow melts, however, is not yet known.

UPDATE: Ignore the above paragraph. Apparently the bike I saw at EICMA was a prototype. I screwed up. In my enthusiasm, I appear to have remembered something Stefan Pierer had said earlier in the day at KTM's press event. He was talking about the new KTM Duke 690 R and its already being in production.

All of which may speak to the criticism that some have of KTM's handling of the Husqvarna brand, suggesting new Huskys are really just KTMs in fancy clothes. Even if that is the case, the VITPILEN 701 is still gorgeous.

Forget All Other Bikes: Husqvarna's Vitpilen 701 Is The New Hotness - EICMA 2015

Forget All Other Bikes: Husqvarna's Vitpilen 701 Is The New Hotness - EICMA 2015
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