Italjet has always lived on the fringes of the scooter world, building machines that look less like everyday commuters and more like rolling design experiments. It occupies that strange little space where performance meets art school energy, and its bikes never blend in, even when they probably should. That’s why when the Roadster 400 was launched, you can bet the scooter world stopped and stared.
The first thing that jumps out is how confidently it leans into being weird. Not weird in a bad way, but weird in that bold, charming way only Italjet ever seems to get right. The standout feature here is its whole identity. It looks like it crawled out of a retro futurist comic, half vintage Italian artwork and half sci fi sketchpad. Most scooters pick a side. This one refuses to.
It sits somewhere between old school steel and chrome and a bit of steampunk attitude, and somehow it works.
A lot of scooters are inching up the displacement ladder these days. Bigger engines are creeping into the lineup because riders want more grunt without giving up the convenience of a twist and go. Aprilia has the SR GT 400, and now Italjet slides into the same zone with a 394cc single that makes 41.5 horsepower and 30.4 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers give the Roadster enough muscle for real commute duty and even short highway stints, as long as you keep expectations realistic. Power goes through a CVT with a dry centrifugal clutch, so the operation stays simple and familiar.
What makes this scooter even more interesting is the hardware behind that styling. The front end uses Italjet’s DLAS system. It’s a patented steering setup built around a two-piece scissor linkage that separates suspension movement from steering duties. The wheel spindle and brake mount sit on a stiff lower element, and the whole thing is designed to keep the steering angle consistent when the suspension is working. It sounds complicated on paper, but the idea is to give the Roadster sharper accuracy without losing the quirky character Italjet bikes are known for.
The rest of the chassis sticks with the theme. There is a tubular steel trellis frame and a set of spoked alloy wheels measuring 13 inches. The front tire is a 120 section and the rear is a 150, both slapped onto a 13-inch rim. Suspension travel sits at 90 millimeters up front and 120 millimeters out back. Braking is strong for a scooter in this class thanks to twin 280 millimeter discs with ABS up front and a 260 millimeter disc out back. A TFT display rounds out the cockpit.
Dimension-wise, the Roadster comes in at 151 kilograms wet, with a seat height of 790 millimeters and a wheelbase of 1540 millimeters. Fuel capacity is 12 liters, which should be enough to stretch errands or weekend rides without babysitting the gauge. It also gets traction control, full LED lighting, and a few modern touches like dealer readiness for heated grips and an anti-theft system.
Will it sell in huge numbers? Probably not. Then again, that has never been Italjet’s game. This is the same company that made the Dragster, a scooter so sharp Italjet straight up says it isn't a scooter.
The truth simply is that Italjet bikes have always lived in their own bubble. They’re niche, strange, creative, and cool in a way that doesn’t care about mass appeal. And that’s probably exactly why the Roadster 400 was able to make its way from paper to the boardroom and into production. It’s stylish, chaotic, and unmistakably Italjet. And it proves once again that cool doesn’t really need to make sense.
Source: Italjet
