QJmotor May Soon Launch a Pair of 700cc Cruisers

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One of QJmotor’s new cruiser designs places Harley-like styling atop a steel tube frame, with a 693cc twin engine for power. (QJmotor/)

We recently saw a duo of new QJmotor 700cc parallel-twin sportbikes set to be launched soon and now it appears the same engine is destined for an upcoming cruiser model. QJmotor is the Chinese-market motorcycle brand of manufacturing giant Qianjiang, which also owns Benelli and has partnerships with both Harley-Davidson and MV Agusta. For the former, Qianjiang is developing 353cc and 500cc parallel-twin models, using essentially the same engines and frames it already employs for the QJmotor and Benelli brands. For MV, Qianjiang makes the Lucky Explorer 5.5, which is basically an up-spec’d version of the Benelli TRK 502. Now the company has revealed two design sketches for cruisers, both using the same 75 hp, 693cc twin that’s already used in a QJmotor roadster model and will soon appear in the “701″ and “701R” sportbikes.

Related: Harley-Davidson 500cc Twin Spotted in China

The other design is for a bagger using the same foundation but switching up the ergonomics and adding a batwing fairing and saddlebags. (QJmotor/)

The two new designs seem to show QJmotor has plans for both a cruiser and a bagger, the latter gaining a batwing fairing and a cut-down, low screen as well as sweeping side bags that match the slope of the rear fender. The cruiser, meanwhile, has a smaller nose fairing with no screen, as well as pulled-back bars and footpegs mounted farther back than the bagger’s forward-mounted highway pegs.

The engine itself is essentially identical to the 693cc twin used in CFMoto’s 700CL-X, itself a development of CFMoto’s earlier 650cc, Kawasaki-inspired twin. Both designs here appear to use the same steel tube frame, which is visually similar to the design already employed on the QJmotor Flash 500 cruiser that’s based around the small Benelli/Qianjiang 500cc twin. It must have been redesigned, as the 693cc engine has different mounting points and dimensions, but there’s an obvious family resemblance between the bikes.

Related: Could This Be Harley-Davidson’s New Mini Sportster?

We’ve now seen at least three “potential” Chinese Harley designs of various displacements over the last two-plus years, including this 300cc sketch from 2021. (QJmotor/)

Of course, Qianjiang’s tie-in with Harley-Davidson inevitably raises the question of whether the bikes could one day be the basis of new H-D models. So far, the 353cc and 500cc models—which have both been spied but are yet to be launched—that will wear the Harley shield are, perhaps surprisingly, based on Qianjiang’s sportier, roadster-style bikes rather than its cruiser models. The 353cc model, which was originally proposed to be called the Harley-Davidson 338R but has more recently been referred to as the HD350, uses the frame from the Benelli 302S. Meanwhile, the HD500 model that has recently been spied is based on the chassis of the Benelli Leoncino.

Given that Qianjiang already has its own dedicated cruiser models in both capacity classes, the V-twin-powered Flash 300 and the parallel-twin Flash 500, the decision to base the Harley-Davidson models on sportier streetbikes instead shows the Harleys aren’t targeting the company’s traditional cruiser market.

We’ve already seen Harley-Davidson’s own attempts at both 500cc and 750c models—the Street 500 and Street 750—come to naught after relatively short lives. They disappeared from the range in 2021, just seven years after the platform was launched around an entirely new, water-cooled engine. However, the company’s Chinese tie-in project, outsourcing both manufacturing and development, is a relatively low-risk strategy requiring far less investment than clean-sheet new design. Allied to cheaper manufacturing and savings on import duties when sold in China, the new Qianjiang-made machines could prove a success for the company, in which case extending the deal to create a 700 model might make sense.

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