If you’ve followed Chinese motorcycles over the years, you’ve probably seen plenty of designs that look like carbon copies of something Italian, Japanese, or German. QJ Motor’s new Super4 is no exception at first glance. It’s basically a diet MV Agusta Superveloce. But here’s the twist: this time, the resemblance comes with some receipts.
QJ Motor is no garage-brand hustler. It’s the crown jewel of Qianjiang, a company that started off cranking out utilitarian commuter bikes in China before going global. Today, thanks to its deep pockets and backing from the Geely Group (yes, the same automotive giant that owns Volvo, Lotus, and a chunk of Mercedes-Benz), QJ Motor presides over the biggest Chinese motorcycle empire around. It runs Benelli out of Pesaro, Italy, has MBP (Moto Bologna Passione) as its boutique spin-off, and seems to roll out new models every other week. In other words, QJ isn’t playing small ball anymore—it’s dead serious about becoming a world power in motorcycling.
That brings us back to Italy, and to MV Agusta.
QJ and MV had a technical partnership that was supposed to yield smaller, more affordable MV-branded bikes, like the Lucky Explorer 5.5 adventure model. That plan got iced once KTM bought into MV and pivoted the brand back toward boutique exotica. Now that MV has slipped out of KTM’s grip and returned to its previous owners, the QJ partnership looks all but over. And yet, here’s QJ Motor still dropping bikes that look straight out of MV’s playbook. Are they milking that partnership dry? Maybe. But at least they’ve got the paperwork to show they were in bed with MV once upon a time.
The Super4 itself, first reported by our friends over at Cycle World, is built on familiar QJ hardware. Power comes from a 449cc parallel twin making 52 horsepower at 9,500 rpm, bolted into a lightweight chassis that keeps curb weight down to 373 pounds. It’s good for a claimed 118-mile-per-hour top speed. Specs are par for the course in the entry-level sportbike game, but the fairing? This one looks like it was pulled straight out of the Superveloce catalog. And this isn’t QJ’s first time doing it, either. The bigger Super9, launched last year in China, already borrowed MV’s older four-cylinder engine and design cues.
So what does this mean for the sportbike market? Retro-styled bikes have always been in vogue. Think Triumph’s Speed and Scrambler 400, Yamaha’s XSR series, Ducati’s Scrambler lineup. They all prove that accessible, good-looking bikes can move units. But Triumph has racing and heritage to back it up. MV has an actual grand prix history with one of the most iconic racers in history.
But QJ Motor? Not so much—at least not yet. Without that pedigree, the Super4 could easily be dismissed as a styling exercise. But maybe that’s missing the point. If it looks good, goes decently quick, and comes in at the right price, does it really matter that it doesn’t have Isle of Man TT trophies in its past?
That’s the bigger picture with QJ Motor. We can poke fun at their Italian cosplay all we want, but they’ve got the resources, the reach, and the ambition to make these bikes global contenders. The Super4 may not be a “real” MV Agusta, but it’s no cheap knockoff either.
Source: Cycle World
