I believe Husqvarna put out a 7 speed desert bike in the '60s, correct me if I'm wrong.
Sorry I'm a little late on this, but what you're looking for is the 8-speed Husky. I believe Malcolm had one in On Any Sunday, maybe Steve McQueen's was an eight, too. And I have to say, I love having lots of gears. I've put in a lot of desert miles on my Husky and spent a little time on 5-speed Maicos, and it really feels lacking for that 6th. For me, the ideal thing would be some fairly wide ratios, because as I really noticed last weekend, my 250CR has some DAMN close gears, but 1st is already really high and makes take-off and slow hills tough to deal with. If I could have a much lower first and slightly higher sixth, I'd be loving it. Shifting four times in three seconds is a little ridiculous, anyway.
That reminds me, I'm hoping to write up a Ride Report for every trip this year, so hopefully the first will be incoming later today.