QJMotor to launch Super4 retro sports bike
By Ben Purvis
China's fast-growing QJMotor brand is planning to add another MV Agusta-inspired machine to its range in the shape of the upcoming Super4 - a 449 cc twin that borrows its styling cues from MV's stunning Superveloce range.
While it would be easy to dismiss it as another example of Chinese copycat design, that would be missing the longstanding connection that's tied QJMotor's Qianjiang parent company to MV Agusta. Back in 2020 the Chinese brand revealed that it had struck a deal to use a licence-built version of MV's four-cylinder F4 engine in future models - which has come to pass with the launch of the SRK921RR sports bike and the mechanically-identical, retro-styled Super9. Qianjiang also partnered with MV the following year to develop the MV Agusta Lucky Explorer 5.5 prototype, shown at EICMA in 2021 alongside the Lucky Explorer 9.5 that's gone on to become the production LXP model.
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The Lucky Explorer 5.5 was to be a cheaper, entry-level MV, built by Qianjiang using its own 550cc twin and a chassis similar to the QJMotor SRT550 and Benelli TRK502 - Benelli, of course, also being a subsidiary of Qianjiang. That cheaper bike project was shelved when KTM took a substantial stake in MV Agusta in 2022, expanding it to a controlling stake in 2024, but the Austrian company's well-publicised financial woes since then have seen it sell MV back to its previous owners, the Sardarov family, bringing the potential to revive the idea of an affordable line of MVs built in partnership with Qianjiang.
The upcoming QJMotor Super4, like the company's Super9, uses styling that's clearly derived from MV's Superveloce 800 and Superveloce 1000 models, and it's not hard to imagine that - had the Lucky Explorer 5.5 gone ahead as planned and led to a Chinese-made range of affordable MVs - it could have appeared with MV Agusta branding rather the QJMotor badge.
Further QJMotor links to MV come from the company's use of C-Creative in Italy as a styling house for some of its models, a company that was set up by former MV boss Giovanni Castiglioni - son of Claudio Castiglioni who revived the brand in the 1990s - and MV's former styling chief Adrian Morton, as well as ex-MV research boss Paolo Bianchi. C-Creative was responsible for the SRK1000RC Ten78 concept shown a couple of years ago, which is expected to lead to an MV-powered SRK1000RR production superbike in the near future.
Mechanically, the Super4 borrows its 39 kW (52 hp), 449 cc parallel twin from multiple other models in QJMotor's rapidly-growing range, as well as an existing tubular steel chassis. The result is a 169 kg retro sports bike with appealing styling that sets it aside from more mainstream offerings.
However, there's more to it than that, as sharp-eyed readers might notice that the bike lacks a conventional, foot-operated gear shifter. Yes, it's a semi-automatic, using QJMotor's own automated manual transmission to allow computer-controlled or pushbutton-commanded gearshifts via a servo-operated clutch and gearchange.
The lever on the left bar, therefore, is likely to be the rear brake - a design that's well suited to the Chinese market where a large number of upwardly-mobile motorcycle buyers are stepping up from twist-and-go scooters to 'real' bikes. An auto box and bar-mounted back brake make the move easier and less intimidating.
