[cycleworld.com] - Benda 250 Roadster

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Chinese company Benda already has plans to enter the US market, but will a 250–300cc naked be headed our way?

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Chinese brand Benda has focused on cruisers for the most part, but intended to add this roadster to its lineup. (Benda/)Chinese brand Benda already has plans to enter the US market in the not-too-distant future, and is making a name for itself elsewhere after launching several unusual production models. Now it has plans to expand its range further with a V-twin roadster that takes its cues from the likes of Ducati’s Monster and Honda’s long-lived VTR250, which is available in other markets.

Design registrations filed in China show the new bike, code-named “250 Street Shooter,” which packs a V-twin engine in a steel trellis chassis. By Benda’s standards, the style is quite restrained—the firm’s previous models have included the LFC700, an inline four-cylinder cruiser with a huge 310-section rear tire, the Dark Flag 500 (China’s first V-4-powered motorcycle), and most recently the Napoleon 500 and Napoleon 250 bobbers. However, while Benda’s cruiser range is already well stocked and due to grow further with a planned 1,200cc V-4 machine soon, the 250 Street Shooter is an addition to the company’s relatively scant roadster lineup.


Benda 250 Street Shooter three-quarter rear view. (Benda/)For the moment, the only non-cruiser model that Benda offers is the LFS700, which uses the same 680cc four-cylinder engine as the LFC700 but in a bike with a shorter-wheelbase with flat-track-inspired styling, but the 250 Street Shooter will add a second option to that range.

As is becoming the norm for Chinese-made bikes, the spec is relatively exotic for a machine this small. There’s a single-sided swingarm and upside-down fork, for example, and although there’s just one front brake disc it’s grabbed by a radial-mount, four-piston caliper.

Although the bike is referred to as the “250? Street Shooter, suggesting its capacity is 250cc, the engine appears to be similar to the company’s 298cc V-twin, as used in its Chinchilla 300 cruiser model. It’s an eight-valve DOHC liquid-cooled motor that puts out 30 hp at 8,500 rpm and 19 lb.-ft. of torque at 7,000 rpm in the Chinchilla, though those figures may well change for the new roadster model.


Three-quarter front view of the Benda 250 Street Shooter. (Benda/)The styling is quite restrained for Benda, with a short-tailed, forward-hunched shape that has overtones of Ducati’s Monster without being the sort of blatant copy that has previously given the Chinese bike industry such a poor reputation. The headlight is slightly unusual, with a distinct bulge in its upper section, but once we see the bike in something other than a grayscale CAD image it might become clearer what the company’s designers are aiming for, as it’s impossible to be certain from these images whether the whole of the front section is made up of the headlight lens or if part of it is body-colored plastic.

The side intakes appear to be functional, feeding air under the tank to the airbox, and the presence of final details like the legally required side reflectors and even the shapes of the grooves in the handlebar grips suggest this is a design that’s very close to being production ready.