Coming soon to a dealership near you: QJ Motor

There’s an new kid in town!

All of a sudden it seems like everybody and their neigbour are pushing out motorcycles at an alarming rate. But we don’t see this as a bad thing, a bit confusing maybe, but that’s where we come in. Below, we will elaborate on the range of new bikes from the latest addition, QJ motor.

Now when we say new, we actually mean ‘new tot he BeNeLux’, but there’s much more to it. As you may have guessed, QJ motor is Chinese which means you have to dive into its history a little bit to know what you’re dealing with. Being based in the Netherlands, our perspective is limited to the importer – which we feel wouldn’t be very interesting to elaborate on too much. However, it’s safe to say that MotoMondo has stuck out its neck to give us this brand, in collaboration with the Louwman group, who in turn are the importers of Suzuki motorcycles. So these major players in the BeNeLux market trust the brand enough to connect their name to it. And that tells you how well made they believe these bikes are.

Which is not very surprising if you actually do take a deep dive into the brand, its owner and partners and products. As is the case with several other Chinese brands, QJ motor has dished out millions of units and has a portfolio many other brands can only dream of. For instance, Benelli bikes are also made in China, by the same company.

QJ Motor has already made a name for itself in Asia, you may even recognize the brand from competing in the Grand Prix. They aren’t a new player who have built up a pretty sorted range of bikes. One thing that stands out though is the focus of this range. Of course they have plenty of small displacement bikes in their catalogue, but it features quite a few interesting bigger bikes as well. These are the bikes the international market is much more interested in, and so these bikes are coming to us right now. Maybe some readers may find there’s a model missing, but the main reason is likely an impending update which the importer is waiting for. To be sorted before too long, broadening the range in the process. Wait and you shall receive.

Right now we have five different big bikes with some more coming this or next year. Add the 125cc bikes and you can speak of a very decent range. Put them all together (like we did in the picture) and you need quite a bit of space!

So here we go, we’ll just briefly review some of these bikes’ features and say a little bit about how they look, feel or impress us otherwise.

SRT800

Starting off with the biggest of the lot, the SRT 800. This is a 800cc twin cylinder adventure style bike which comes in two guises, either basic or Touring. The difference between the two, not unlike other bikes in this category, is the luggage kit. And IMHO you’d be hard pressed to buy the basic version, as you can always leave the cases at home when you feel like it, but still have them when you’re embarking on a big trip.

The bike itself is BIG. It’s manageable, but yes – it is a handful. All features work as you would expect, right down to the connectivity, allowing you to run navigation on your phone which shows up on the big dash. Honestly, that seems good enough for me. With navigation on your mobile getting better all the time, there is really no need to buy dedicated navigation-tech anymore.

The bike rides like you’d expect a 800 twin, but it does have a smidge of roughness in the injection mapping. Takes some getting used to, but that isn’t a big deal. If you like things just a little bit smoother, there’s the 700 model – which is actually equipped with a more recent and seemingly more finetuned engine.

SRT700

As it turns out, the 700cc bike is really a close match to the 800. And knowing it rides just a little nicer and doesn’t fall far behind in power, this might just be the right one to go for. Like the other bikes, it’s equipped with all the electronics you need, but no frills. So no million step traction control, no wheelie control or cornering ABS, no quickshifter, none of that. But it does come with Showa, Brembo and loads of other parts we have grown to like. It does feel a bit more light-footed compared to the 800, so if I had to choose, I’d probably go for this one. Even if it has a little bit of ‘Konstantfahrtruckeln’ (look it up :-))– it can grow on you.

SRK800RR

This is a surprise for sure. Who would have thought any manufacturer would be bold enough to build a new inline four supersports bike in this day and age? But it’s here and it’s real. And it has some potential; with a modest 100 hp it isn’t the most powerful bike around – considering it has 800cc, not 600 – but that doesn’t matter one bit. This may have been an instant dis-qualifier up until about ten years ago, but times have changed. This kind of output leaves some room for reliability – the engine doesn’t have to work as hard – and for a really satisfying amount of torque.

That doesn’t change the feeling that we’re thrown back about a decade when we swing our leg over this machine. The whole setup just screams: ‘we’ve been here…long ago’. Despite its TFT display, the LED lights and aerodynamic wings on each side, it’s just sort of… nostalgic to sit on a bike that has so much front end focus. But once that image fades, it grows on you. Because remember; these bikes used to be fun, right? They used to be the bike of choice for whatever we were up to, be it a long motorway haul, a three week holiday or a quick dash on a mountain pass, there was no discussion. So maybe… we got old?

Anyway, if you – like me – do remember what it used to be like, well, this is just like that. With the added bonuses of the digital gimmicks we just mentioned – and let’s not forget the looks. It looks really cool. While you may recognize certain styling details, the overall look doesn’t suffer, perhaps even on the contrary. And well, if you like to ride a Supersport within an inch of its life, here’s a new option for you.. and it isn’t that expensive!

SRK 550

This was one I was really looking forward to. It just looks like fun straight out of the box. And really, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s a twin cylinder naked bike, with just slightly smaller displacement compared to the twin cylinders we are used to. So you can imagine what to expect, it’s 60-ish HP of easiness and well, fun. The bike isn’t really big, but it does feel quite different from the Ninja 650, for instance. While that bike has seen a fair bit of evolution over time, its first incarnation was definitely small. The SRK has skipped that journey for the most part, but still feels a bit on the short side lengthwise. It does feels a lot like the other bikes of the brand, but definitely shorter. You get used to it though, it’s not like everbody will be swapping bikes the way we did on our day with QJ Motor, right?

Between the different bikes we tried, it seems like QJ has got the Fuel Injection on point on this one. We only had one example of each model to test, so it’s not really fair to make definitive statements, but it still seemed to us this bike is the most smooth and mature of the range we got to try out.

Then there’s the electronics though – there’s always room for improvement, right? The bike has traction control – which can be disabled of course, but it would have taken me taken me considerably more time than I had to figure that out. And we would like to know how good this is at wheelies, wouldn’t we? Guess we’ll have to wait for that answer…..

Anyway, all other features work like a charm, including the display, connectivity and all other modernisms we can easily do without, however are certainly ‘nice to have’ on a new bike.

Finally, I wonder what this bike would behave on a long haul and with luggage, that’s for another time maybe….

SRV600

The final bike of the range we tried out, turned out to be the biggest surprise. You may think it has a familiar look, reminding us of the motorcycles produced by a certain American manufacturer, and well, that’s no coincidence.

However, the SRV 600 has something else on offer which we even didn’t notice straight away – and this is really its biggest asset: this bike is powered by a V4. See the exhaust system? That’s 4 mufflers, sir. We didn’t notice at first, but were corrected real soon. As the various members of our group of motorcycle-correspondents took turns riding all the different bikes, it took a while for our turn to ride the SRV, but boy – did it ever mess with our senses! Straight from a standstill, starting it up gives you a full stereo sound. And this sound is nothing like the V4 engines we know either. Not in a million miles does it sound like a Ducati, neither like a VFR. Maybe just a little like an Aprilia, but mostly it sounds like a very good nineties V4. Yes indeed, riding this cruiser/bobber type bike with a vengeance makes you feel like you’re going for the lap record at the Isle of Man on a full blown RC30 (or maybe a NC30), even though it doesn’t rev quite as high. Combine that with the knowledge that this engine is fuel injected and Euro5 approved, I am convinced that this engine will find its way into a naked or even a supersports configuration. I’d even be inclined to do it myself, given the opportunity. If this makes me sound overly enthusiastic, that’s because I am.

The ride is pretty fun too. Of course, it’s a bobber, which has its limitations, but you can easily find those limits and be pretty fast at the same time. While I’m not sure whether everyone will like its exhaust note, because it’s very distinctive (will it attract buyers or not?), but the ride is great, the power is all right, even the suspension is just fine. So yes, give it a shot. Go for it. Indulge. And be surprised…