NEWS
By Ben Purvis
For years the bike industry has wondered whether China ' s vast manufacturing muscle will ever rise up like Japan ' s did half a century ago and become a major part of the international scene . If this year ' s CIMA show is anything to go by , then that moment is closer than it ' s ever been . As well as the other impressive looking Chinese bikes you ' ll find on these pages , the CIMA event was the platform for dozens of new model launches , often for bikes that might not appear outside the Chinese market , but which indicate their makers are getting far closer to being able to compete head-to-head with the established brands we ' re used to dealing with . Notable highlights include the DaVinci DC Classic , a high-end electric bike that joins the DC100 in the low-volume brand ' s line-up . Just 50 of the DC Classic models are due to be made , by hand , and it ' s probably the most expensive motorcycle ever to emerge from China with a price of $ 90,000 (€ 77,800 ). Mechanically , it ' s the same as the $ 27,000 (€ 23,300 ) DC100 , which features a 135 hp electric motor , 17.7 kWh Li-ion battery and a range of around 400 km ( 249 miles ) after just 30 minutes of fast charging , but its specs
QJMotor revealed a range of new 550 cc twins
include Öhlins suspension , a carbon fibre chassis , Brembo GP4 brakes and a calfskin saddle , while virtually every metal part is CNC-machined aluminium . At a more realistic end of the market , QJMotor - Benelli ' s Chinese sister company - revealed a range of new 550 cc twins , derived from the existing 500 cc models , including a new retroinspired scrambler based on the chassis of the Benelli Leoncino 500 . No doubt the 550 cc engine will eventually make its way to the Benelli models in Europe , including the Leoncino TRK502 and 502 Cruiser . QJMotor also used the show as a platform to officially launch the longexpected 300 cc V-twin bobber that it has been developing for some time . Looking every inch like a scaled-down Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster , the water-cooled DOHC V-twin engine is a new development for the company .
Once again , the fact that QJMotor ' s range is largely made up of restyled Benelli models surely suggests that Benelli will also be able to take advantage of the new motor for its own range if required . Sticking with Benellirelated news , the CIMA event was a platform for the unveiling of the Lynk & Co 601 - a tie-in between Benelli and Chinese car maker Lynk & Co . Both companies are under the overall umbrella of the massive Geely Group , which owns Benelli parent company Qianjiang and a host of car brands including Volvo and Lotus and is Harley- Davidson ' s partner in China . Lynk & Co is another of its brands , now hitting the market in Europe , and makes cars on Volvo platforms using an innovative subscription model for customers , and direct marketing rather than conventional sales and dealers . For a fixed monthly fee , its customers get a car , insurance , servicing and tax , plus the ability to recoup money , or even profit , by renting their cars out to non-carowning Link & Co ' members ' on an hourly or daily basis . The Lynk & Co 601 is simply a rebranded Benelli TNT600 four-cylinder roadster , intended to be sold in China alongside the company ' s cars . Benda reveals two new V4s by Ben Purvis
A year ago , the Benda name was largely unknown and even in China the firm ' s range encompassed only a handful of quite ordinary small-capacity cruisers . Now the firm is starting to look like one of China ' s most interesting companies and it ' s building on that by revealing not one but two new V4 motorcycle engines . Benda already got into the four-cylinder market for the first time earlier this year , launching the LFC700 power cruiser and the LFS700 roadster , both with their own 680 cc inline four-cylinder engine - but the new V4s come as a surprise . The larger version , dubbed BD476 ( fourcylinder , 76mm bore ), measures 1,198 cc in capacity , combining the 76 mm bore with a 66 mm stroke - figures that match Yamaha ' s old 1,200 cc V-Max . The engine isn ' t simply a V-Max copy though , despite sharing similar
dimensions and 70-degree V-angle ; the castings all appear to be newly developed specifically for Benda . Performance-wise , Benda says it ' s good for 152 bhp at 9,500 rpm and 89 lb / ft at 7,500 rpm . These numbers don ' t put it in the superbike league yet , but still promise to make this China ' s most powerful homegrown motorcycle engine yet . A smaller ' BD453 ' version of the motor , looking identical externally but with a much smaller 53.5 mm bore and 55.2 mm stroke ( for unusually under-square dimensions and a mere 496 cc capacity ), has also been revealed , with performance claims of 56 hp at 10,000 rpm and 33 lb / ft at 8,000 rpm . Interestingly , although Benda hasn ' t shown such a motor , if it was to combine the smaller version ' s shorter stroke with the larger engine ' s bore , it would have
a higher revving 1,000 cc engine on its books , too . With capacity already overloaded with getting the LFC700 and LFS700 production lines up to speed , Benda says the V4 won ' t go into mass production until 2022 - when the company will unveil the first motorcycles to use the engines .
26 INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2021 www . idnmag . com