QJMotor SRT550 SX reaches Europe By Ben Purvis
If one design lies at the heart of the success that China's QJMotor has seen over the last few years, it's the parallel twin adventure bike platform that forms the basis of the Benelli TRK502 and the QJMotor SRT550.
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Now the company has updated that idea with the SRT600 - which is already heading to some European markets under the name SRT550 SX. The TRK502 has been a breakthrough model for the Benelli brand, establishing itself as a regular best-seller in the Italian market, and essentially the same chassis and engine forms the basis of the Chinese QJMotor SRT550, as well as the now cancelled MV Agusta Lucky Explorer 5.5 that was briefly intended to become an affordable entry point to that brand, but was cancelled after KTM's parent, Pierer Mobility, took a stake in MV.
The new SRT600/SRT550 SX - both bikes are the same, despite the different names - carries over essentially the same engine but with substantially more performance, and wraps it in a new, lighter chassis and much more accomplished styling.
Power comes from the 554 cc version of QJMotor's long-running parallel twin engine, which was the same unit originally destined for the MV Agusta Lucky Explorer 5.5. It has a 70.5 mm bore and 71 mm stroke, up from 69 mm and 66.8 mm in the 500 cc Benelli TRK502, and power rises to 45 kW (60 hp) for the Chinese-spec model, and a slightly lower 41.2 kW (55 hp) at 8,500 rpm for the initial European version of the bike, on sale now in Italy at an affordable € 5,290. Either way, an improvement over the 35 kW (47 hp) of the previous version.
The bike's weight is down, too, from 235 kg to a much more appealing 215 kg, and peak torque rises from 51 Nm to 54 Nm at 6,000 rpm.
Two versions have been developed, one with wire wheels, the other with alloys, both using a 19-inch front and 17-inch rear for a street-biased adventure style that still has an element of off-road utility usability. The frame is new, and the brakes - four-piston calipers on dual 320 mm discs with Bosch ABS.
The styling is a significant step forward. Where the previous SRT550 adopted ADV cliches including a 'beak' below the headlight, the new SRT550 SX is a more confident design. The entire upper fairing is transparent, with a windscreen that also covers the central headlight - a light that's assisted by two additional units, each made of four separate LEDs, on the sides of the fairing. Despite its modest engine capacity, it's a large bike - that seat is 805 mm high and the fuel tank carries 20 litres, both slight increases compared to the earlier SRK550.
At the moment, the SRK550 SX only appears to be available in Italy, and the near-identical SRK600 in China.
