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Chinese motorcycle manufacturer Benda officially launched its cruiser, the LFC700, a year after unveiling it at China International Motorcycle Trade Exhibition as a concept.

Interestingly, the production-ready LFC700 looks pretty similar to CIMA’s concept and comes in two variants, Standard and High-Power.

The Benda LFC700 s powered by an 680cc inline-four liquid-cooled engine with the Standard making 84.4hp @ 10,000rpm and 60Nm @ 8,000rpm while the High-Power offers 92.5hp @ 11,000rpm and 63Nm @ 8,500rpm.

According to Benda, the base variant can reach a top speed of 170km/h and 195km/h for the flagship version.

While both variants get a 20L fuel tank, only the High-Power variants come equipped with a slipper clutch.

Unlike the concept, the production version does not come with a ride-by-wire and cruise control function, which we assume keeps the cost low.

The High-Power variants also get an inverted front fork and rear monoshock from KYB, Brembo callipers (Nissin for the Standard variant) and ABS dual-channel.

Other notable features include:

  • all LED lighting
  • TFT display with navigation function
  • 310mm rear tyre
  • 235kg (kerb weight)

You can get your hands on the all-new LFC700 for a starting price of CNY38,800 (RM24,000) for the Standard and CNY45,800 (RM29,400) for the high-end model.

Meanwhile, the LFC700 is expected to be available in selected countries across Asia and Europe soon.

Vespa Malaysia introduces new colours for its Vespa range from the 150cc to 300cc model.

According to Didi Resources, the sole distributor of the Vespa brand in Malaysia, the new colours consist of:

  • Grey Delicato (Primavera S and GTS Supertech)
  • Orange Tramonto (Sprint)
  • Blue Audace (Sprint S)
  • Grey Materia (GTS Supersport)

For those interested to get up close with the new colours, Vespa ownership experience, service maintenance, accessories and merchandise, you can do so by watching a two series video by Vespa Malaysia below.

Meanwhile, customers can enjoy special deals if you buy the new Vespa range via Lazada and Shopee and get them delivered to you via the nearest dealers available nationwide.

Together with Norton Motorcycles, Warwick University has built an all-electric motorcycle capable of competing at the Isle of Man TT.

To help with the engineering students effort, Norton has donated a motorcycle frame from the Norton V4 along with some crucial data for the university project.

*Norton V4

According to reports, the electric powertrain designed to work with the frame has a power output of 201hp and 400Nm.

The power comes from an immersion-cooled battery pack with 16Wh capacity designed to last longer, thanks to robust thermal management strategies.

The cooling system will allow the motorcycle to operate at an efficient temperature rate based on the requirements of the track.

Interestingly, it took just seven months for the students to develop a functioning electric motorcycle based on the Norton V4 frame.

The motorcycle has since undergone a significant amount of tests and is currently in the process of mitigating the risk of failure.

Bonhams has listed more than 800 classic motorcycles ahead of their three-day Summer Sale’ auction set to take place on the 2nd to 4th of July.

Among the long list of classics, motorcycles include a Honda VFR750R (RC30), Vincent HDR 1000 Black Shadow, 1979 Mike Hailwood Replica Ducati 864 and Brough Superior.

According to reports, Bonhams will also auction off some memorabilia, spare parts and project bikes.

There is also a list of affordable bikes available, including a Honda Monkey, Yamaha TZR 250, Yamaha FZR600, and Honda VFR400R (NC30).

If you feel lucky and have some money lying around, head to Bonhams.com to check all of the 800 motorcycles available.

If you have seen 1994 Dumb and Dumber, you will instantly recognize one of the most iconic scenes in the movie, when Lloyd and Harry rode to Aspen on a mini-bike to return a lost briefcase.

While the two actors (Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels) did not actually ride to Aspen (obviously), Zack Courts and Ari Henning from RevZilla went ahead and recreated the scene for real.

In the movie, Lloyd and Harry took just 3-minutes to reach Aspen, Colorado, but in reality, Zack and Ari had to travel more than 600 kilometres in a span of 3-days on a 4hp mini-bike capable of topping just 50km/h!

In the 30 minute video available at RevZilla YouTube channel, you can witness the pair faced mountains of challenges from uneven pathways to gravel roads and occasionally had to change the rear tyres a few times before reaching their destination.

“The rider triangle is more accommodating than it looks, thanks to Ari stretching the frame to match the movie bike.

“The seat, on the other hand, is worse than it looks and the paint-shaker vibration rattled our joints to numbness.

“Ari had predicted that the novelty of the bike and the journey would wear off after about 15 minutes on the road, but I’m not sure it even lasted that long.

“On some motorcycles, the thought of open pasture might be appealing, but aboard our hog, it was exciting enough just staying on the straight and narrow,” said Courts.

So if you consider riding to Lemang To’ki or the occasional run to Starbucks at Genting Highland onboard your precious BMW GS as an adventure, you might want to hold that thought.

Back in December, the folks in Rimini, Italy was busy carrying out some tests on the all-new KB4.

Still in its early prototype stages, the motorcycle was clad in an all-white panel in an effort to hide all the little details.

 

The company also releases a couple of renders as a teaser, but recent photos reveal the Bimota KB4 in finished form, thus providing a better insight into the new motorcycle.

Thanks to Kawasaki owning a minority stake in the Italian company, the KB4 was build based on the Ninja 1000 SX.

However, apart from the engine, the KB4 does not share many similarities with its Japanese cousin.

Nonetheless, Bimota did not reveal further details on the new motorcycle instead, we expect the KB4 to make its official debut later this year, perhaps at EICMA.

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