If you feel like you’ve seen the bastard creation above before, you’re not wrong.
It recalls one of the most famous scenes in the James Bond canon: an alpine chase in which Roger Moore — on skis — attempts to outrun a couple of black-clad baddies riding dirt bikes. As is usually the case, Bond wins.
But he might not have had the henchmen been astride a pair of these custom Husqvarna 256s. Named ‘Thage’ (after the owner’s father), the bike was developed in 1968 for the Swedish defense force. Just 1,000 were produced, and finding one now is super rare.
“I built this bike because my dad had one when he did his compulsory military service in the early 1970s,” Johan told Bike Exif. “And I’ve heard a lot of great stories of his winter adventures on the little bike with skis. Now I want to experience the same adventures.”
But let me just take you through how this rough lil’ mish-mash rides.
The skis spring up automatically if they are not held down with your feet. For those of you who don’t ride, most bikes change gears via foot pedal. Sooo … how do we switch gears while ski-motoring? Well, when the skis are down, you shift with a hand-lever attached to the gear lever. That gear lever is on the right side, which is where the rear brake lives. Meaning you’re clutching with the left per usual, but shifting with your right. Should you want, you can also disconnect the front brake and reconnect it to control the rear brake.
Thus making this Husqvarna the motorcycling equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. But a mighty good looking one at that.
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