THE BRADLEY REPORT
THE BRADLEY REPORT
YGMotor 400 coming from China By Ben Purvis
It ' s like the 1980s all over again as a growing number of companies launch 400 cc four-cylinder sports bikes - but instead of Japan , many of the new protagonists are Chinese . This is an upcoming bike from YGMotor , the marketing name for Chongqing Yingang , which also sells bikes under various other brands around the world , including ' Archive Motorcycles ' in France and ' GPX ' in Malaysia . Some of its models have also been sold carrying WK Bikes branding , but the company ' s most notable machine to date has been a miniature , Grom-style machine with Ducati Monster-inspired styling , sold under various names and
' Another Chinese four-cylinder sports bike '
even reaching the U . S . market as the Razkull 125 . Its new 400 cc fourcylinder is a step change for the company , and a huge leap forward in terms of style and technology . The engine was shown in late 2022 , appearing to borrow some of its design cues from the old Honda CB400 Super Four motor , but with the addition of fuel injection and redesigned castings that show it ' s not simply a Honda clone . It ' s not a power-crazed screamer , with a relatively modest 11,000 rpm peak and an output of 54 hp - substantially less than the 77 hp and 16,000 rpm claimed for the leastrestricted versions of the upcoming Kawasaki ZX-4RR , but roughly equivalent to the U . S . -spec ZX-4RR , which manages 56 hp at 11,500 rpm . The YGMotor will be heading into direct competition with another Chinese four-cylinder , the impressivelooking Kove 400RR . That bike is heading into mass-production imminently after last-minute redesigns , including a revised front fairing and an upsized engine , increased from 399 cc to 443 cc and pushing power up from 67 hp to 70 hp in the process . We get a preview of the YGMotor 400 ' s styling thanks to registered design illustrations , showing a conventional but clean-looking sports bike with a steel tube chassis and cast alloy swingarm . The upside-down forks and radial four-pot brakes gripping petalstyle discs tick all the right boxes , and as a Chinese-made machine it ' s sure to be cheaper than we ' ve come to expect in the west . The bike is part of a growing army of Chinese models using four-cylinder engines , a layout that was , until recently , considered far too advanced for the motorcycle-buying public in China . Only a couple of years ago , QJMotor launched China ' s first fourcylinder sports bike , but already we ' re seeing a growing band of Chinese companies entering the four-cylinder market , including Benda , Kove and now YGMotor . QJMotor has also revealed its own V4 engine now , joining its existing inline four , and CFMoto is developing another V4 of its own . It ' s a development that could worry the existing European and Japanese motorcycle industry , which has scaled down combustion engine R & D in recent years in preparation for an expected shift towards electric vehicles . China ' s industry is going in the other direction : most two-wheelers sold in China are electric scooters and mopeds , and the nation already has a head-start in EVs as a result , but as demand for higher performance bikes increases , manufacturers there are pivoting towards multi-cylinder petrol engines .
INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - JUNE / JULY 2023 37