It’s no secret that the Chinese own the Italian motorcycle brand, Benelli. In fact, QJ Motorcycle is the proud owner of the Benelli marque since 2005 and has since been producing most of Benelli’s motorcycles in its Wenling facility in China.
Then, not too long ago, QJ and another Italian marque, MV Agusta, has struck a deal to co-develop the latter’s range of entry to mid-level motorcycles for export. Long story short, QJ has now the technical expertise to build motorcycles that could go head-to-head against its Japanese counterparts.
So, if QJ would be developing a 400cc motorcycle, possibly, sold at half the price of its closest Japanese counterpart, would you buy it?
Just recently, reports have circulated that QJ Motorcycles is developing a new 400cc sportbike for the international market. Yet to be unveiled, the upcoming sportbike from QJ was codenamed “QJ400GS-J”, while the leaked photos suggest that the bike will be named the GS400RR. According to the reports, the upcoming 400cc sportbike will be based on another model, possibly, the model that QJ is developing for MV Agusta’s entry-level bikes.
What makes this model interesting?
Unlike in the past where Chinese motorcycles are just a complete knock-off of their Japanese counterpart, this upcoming motorcycle from QJ is claimed to be developed from the ground up, and has a new parallel-twin 400cc engine producing about 46 Ps (44 Hp) and has a curb weight of 179kg.
Interestingly, since this is based on an upcoming MV Agusta model, QJ will also equip the GS400RR with a single-sided swingarm – a feature that is common in very high-end motorcycles like the F4RR and the Ducati Panigale.
As for the other features, well, the bike is still in its final stage of development and some of the details were not yet revealed as of this writing. But, based on the other motorcycle models that are currently in the market, it is likely that QJ will also extensively use components coming from suppliers such as Bosch and KYB for this new 400cc sportbike.
And since QJ owns Benelli, it is also likely that this 400cc sportbike will have a spin-off model for the 110-year-old Italian make.
Upgrading to a bigger, expressway-legal motorcycle? Well, this is your chance.
