Jedi 750 stuns in China
By Ben Purvis
Even in China, Jedi isn't a well-known bike brand, but the company proved the star of the recent CIMA show with a trio of 750 cc machines that look every inch like they've come from a more established company.
That, in part, is because Jedi has followed a tried and tested route in China to fund and develop its technology. The company has, until recently, focussed on supplying 'official' motorcycles to China's police and military, which is a vast and profitable market in the country. Now Jedi is breaking into the civilian market, and at CIMA it showed two production models and a radical concept bike that hints at its future direction.
The Jedi GTR750 sports tourer is the company's mainstay, and a bike that's been shown several times before, albeit with an angle towards the state use. It features the company's own parallel twin, water-cooled DOHC engine, measuring 730.4 cc and good for around 75 bhp. The engine is made by Jedi itself, but clearly shares its general design and layout with the CFMoto 650 and 700 cc parallel twin motors, themselves owning much of their inspiration to Kawasaki's 650 cc twin.
The power output might be relatively modest, but the GTR sets itself aside from the norm by featuring a cast alloy frame that's been designed with the help of Suter in Switzerland, along with Brembo brakes and Bosch ABS. It's all kit that aligns more with European or Japanese norms than those you might expect from China.
While the GTR has been seen before - the company unveiled a new derivative at CIMA in the form of the JFR750, a naked roadster based on the same mechanical parts. It's been revealed in several styles, with wire wheels or alloys and with either a retro-style circular headlight or a rectangular lamp in a small nose fairing. The engine, frame, suspension and brakes are all from the GTR750, but the bike is retuned for fractionally less power - around 68 bhp - and it's lighter, with a wet kerb weight of 220 kg rather than the GTR's 234 kg. According to Jedi, the JFR750 was styled in Italy, which perhaps points at plans to appeal to an international market in the future.
However, the real show-stopper for Jedi was the company's Vision K750 concept, a full-on sports bike built around the same engine as the other models. The company has been quiet about its precise specifications, but it appears to have a new frame, and certainly features a different swingarm to its sister models.
At the moment the bike is clearly still in 'concept' state, with intriguing styling elements including a multi-faceted LED headlight flanked by aero wind deflectors that stand proud of the main bodywork. The headlight's multi-part design is mirrored in the taillamp design, with each light made of dozens of crystal-shaped elements, inset in duct-like cowls in the back of the single seat unit.
Up front, the mudguard has an unusual design that largely encases the forks, but underneath all the exotic elements the bike's main components are all realistic, production-viable parts, including the suspension and the same Brembo brakes that appear on the other Jedi models. While the K750 won't reach dealers looking quite like this, it might well lead to a production model with a very similar look.
