Back in July we brought you design images of an upcoming Chinese four-cylinder cruiser and now that very bike has been officially unveiled in the form of a prototype that perfectly matches those early renderings. Going under the name “Benda LF-01,” the new machine is a rarity among Chinese machines thanks to its four-cylinder engine. Until now, only one firm—Qianjiang—has built four-cylinder bikes in China, based on an Italian-designed engine it inherited when it bought Benelli more than a decade ago.
The new Benda engine, on the other hand, is a 680cc, DOHC four that owes more than a little of its inspiration to Honda’s CB650 unit. While not a part-for-part copy, its overall design is remarkably similar to the Honda powerplant, as are some of the internal dimensions.
The Chinese unit gets its extra capacity (as compared to the 649cc Honda unit) via 2mm more stroke, upping it from 46mm to 48mm. The 67mm bore is identical to the Honda CB650′s, suggesting that the pistons could also be the same. Even the compression ratio, 11.6:1, is the same as the CB650′s.
However, the engine’s differences are as notable as its similarities. The castings for the block and head are far from identical to the Honda design, and where the Japanese engine sticks to a conventional intake design with one throttle per cylinder, the Benda follows a car-style route of using an intake manifold leading to a single plenum chamber, with one large throttle positioned at the chamber’s intake. It’s an unusual layout for a multicylinder motorcycle, but not unique, as bikes like Honda’s Gold Wing have also used car-style manifolds in the past.
When it comes to performance, the firm claims the new engine is good for 96.6 hp (72kW) at 12,000 rpm, which is just a fraction more than the 94 hp that the CB650 can muster. The LF model itself features what appears to be a massive cast-alloy chassis that merges into the seat unit, creating a long, low stance with the unmistakable overtones of a Ducati Diavel. A similarly hefty swingarm spreads wide to accommodate an enormous rear tire that’s more than a foot wide. That rear donut is a 310/35R-18, while the front is a much more modest 130/70R-19, spinning at the end of an inverted fork and flanked by Nissin radial brake calipers governed by a Bosch ABS system.
If you’re wondering what’s going on with that turbine-style headlight design; it’s actually the bike’s ram-air intake. The headlight itself is just the tiny unit in the middle, and air is drawn through the 20 slots that surround it, going straight through the bike’s steering head and into the airbox. The exhaust is just as unusual. The four header pipes merge into a single, large collector box under the engine and the gases are released into the atmosphere via four rectangular exits facing sideways on the right-hand side.
According to the official specs, the bike’s curb weight is 215 kilograms (approximately 474 pounds), while the top speed is a disappointing-sounding 112 mph, perhaps suggesting it’s electronically limited. While the LF-01 is officially called a “concept” at the moment, it’s clear that Benda has plans to build something very similar, and once the four-cylinder engine is in production it’s likely to emerge in a host of other models. Will any of them be sold outside China? That’s a huge unknown at the moment, but the availability of a low-cost, Chinese-made four-cylinder might well be enough to tempt importers to invest in the brand.