Sixty years ago it was unfathomable that Japanese manufacturers would change the world of motorcycling. Sure Honda and Suzuki were known for their humble little commuter bikes, but when it came to the best motorcycles in the world, it was BSA, Norton and Triumph who ruled the roost. Snobby bikers dismissed it as ‘Jap Crap’ and the idea these British brands could be deposed seemed impossible, but the 1969 Honda CB750F changed the game and the 1970s saw Japan’s Big Four sweep almost all aside. They would go on to enjoy a near monopoly for around four decades.
Globalisation saw European manufacturers hit back in the 21st century, with Aprilia and KTM stepping up their game and BMW, Ducati and Triumph all reestablishing themselves as major players. Indian brands, previously happy regurgitating outdated designs to satisfy demand in their huge domestic markets, went international.
Royal Enfield started featuring at the top of European sales charts after bringing out a range of competitively priced and hugely authentic modern classics developed in the UK, while other Indian companies scooped up historic but dormant brands from the past, like BSA, Jawa and Norton.
BSA, under Mahindra ownership, made a comeback in 2022, while Nortons should appear back in European showrooms in 2026, with the company now under the ownership of TVS. Meanwhile Hero, one of India’s biggest domestic bike makers, is heading to the UK in 2026 with its Hunk 440, a simple single developed with international markets in mind. The motorcycling landscape has changed, and will undoubtedly change even more in coming years.
But while Indian brands seem happy to occupy the lower-to-middle end of the market, China’s emerging manufacturers appear to be targeting every single sector of motorcycling – including the high end adventure and sports bikes segments.
Chinese bikes were traditionally a laughing stock, using knock off designs based on ancient tech. The few which were imported here were cheap as chips and usually had to be scrapped at a young age, due to their poor quality and almost non existent aftersales support.
Lexmoto, a Devon-based importer which has been around since 2003, started to turn that image around, creating a trend of importing learner legal bikes from China, but taking their domestic designs (often based around a copy of a 1980s Suzuki engine) and tweaking the style and quality for British riders.
With keen prices and good parts supply, Lexmoto have been key players in the British motorcycling scene for over two decades, but, despite their success, the idea that Chinese companies could supply anything more than cheap runarounds based on outdated designs seemed fanciful… at least until a few years ago.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. Just as Indian manufacturers collaborated with established players to assemble ‘European’ models in their factories (KTM and Triumph working with Bajaj and BMW having a tie-up with TVS), the big players have been using Chinese factories to assemble engines for many years.
BMW work with Loncin to assemble its F-series parallel-twin engines, while CFMOTO, which has been around for over 35 years, builds motors for KTM. Behind the scenes, the Chinese motorcycle manufacturing industry has been massive for many years.
A look at the review pages on this website shows just how much product is coming out of Chinese factories these days. Where once they were mere oddities, in the past year we’ve had dozens of new models go on sale on these shores and, for the most part, they’ve been pretty darned good bikes.
In recent years these Chinese domestic brands have upped their game. They’ve hoovered up a lot of classic (mainly Italian) names like Benelli, Morbidelli and Moto Morini and knocked out some decent enough budget middleweights based around an evolution of the old Kawasaki ER-6 twin-cylinder engine, while electric scooter start-ups like NIU and ZEEHO have come along with products which, while not exactly mainstream, can hold their own against anything from Japanese and European companies.
CFMOTO and Loncin, through its Voge brand, leveraged their ties with Euro manufacturers to put out bargain interpretations of KTM and BMW adventure bikes under their own banner, but the circle is now almost complete with China’s biggest brands coming up with high-tech designs of their own and delivering high-performance machines which are packed with spec and priced to sell.
There’s the oddly named Benda, building (mainly) cruisers with bold styling and lairy engines, not to mention the ambitious QJ Motor and ZXMOTO, who are going mainstream with a range of middleweight adventure and sports bikes. Kove’s offerings run from 125cc learner bikes to 900cc ADVs, while CFMOTO is arguably the most determined of all. Their current line up is the most comprehensive of any Chinese manufacturer and their recent appearance at Milan’s EICMA show suggests they’ll be mainstream players in the not too distant future.
The idea that a Chinese manufacturer could win a motorcycle racing world championship might still seem implausible, but that’s exactly what happened in 2025, when Spanish rider Benat Fernandez won the final World Supersport 300 title on a Kove. Along with CFMOTO, they’re moving into the new World Sportbike championship in 2026, with a racing version of their 450cc, four-cylinder sportsbike, while in World Supersport (the category below World Superbikes) both QJ Motor and ZXMOTO will be operating high profile teams with bikes of their own design.
And in the bigger classes, who would be surprised to see Chinese companies moving in and eventually dominating in the way Japanese makers did in the 1970s? CFMOTO have been leveraging their relationship with KTM to sponsor teams in Moto3 and Moto2 racing in recent years, albeit with rebadged machinery, but recently the company has shown a prototype superbike which wouldn’t look out of place with BMW or Ducati badges, and which could well form the basis of a future World Superbike racer.
There’s even talk of CFMOTO buying KTM’s beleaguered MotoGP project, which would give them two coveted spots in the world’s most prestigious race series, and make them the first Chinese motorcycle manufacturer to enter the premier Grand Prix class.
If it seems unlikely, just remember how they scoffed at the Japanese when they took on the world. They went on to rule the motorcycling world, and there’s no reason why the Chinese can’t follow in their tyre tracks.
If nothing else, these new generation of Chinese motorcycles will force the legacy players to adapt. Already we’re seeing the likes of Honda and Suzuki lowering their prices, no doubt in part as a response to their new competition, and if these new companies can build trust with buyers and develop solid distribution networks, maybe we’ll all be riding Bendas in years to come. Maybe…
