QJ Motor Just Quietly Unwrapped Its First Automatic Gearbox Motorcycle
The bike is heavily related to the QJ Motor SRK 500 RC, although the key difference is the new bike’s paddle-shift gearbox
QJ Motor could be the next in line to join BMW, Honda, KTM, and Yamaha in the automatic motorcycle gearbox sector, as its self-shifting SRK 500 RA is revealed.
The bike owes a lot to a sibling in the range, the manual transmission SRK 500 RC. Sadly, little is known about the business end of the system, meaning we can’t tell you if this is like the Yamaha Y-AMT system, with mechanical clutch and gear actuators, or a more complex set-up like the Honda DCT - but we are leaning to the former, heavily.
We can, though, tell you that it stands alone in the alternative transmission segment, in that the QJ auto gearbox bike does away with all of the bike’s traditional foot controls. So, no gear lever on the left side of the bike, as is the way with the Yamaha Y-AMT system, but nothing on the right side footpeg either. Instead, the brake is shifted to the left handlebar (commonly called a scooter brake), leaving your feet free of any and all duties - until you come to a stop, obviously.
It’s a bold step from the Chinese brand, but when you break it down and look at the reasons that manufacturers give for moving to automatic bikes, it kind of makes sense. Bike makers are constantly banging on about how gearboxes like this make bikes easier to ride and more familiar feeling, to a generation of riders who might have been zipping around on lightweight electric bikes or e-scooters. It’s about making the transition from those forms of urban mobility to larger capacity machines as easy as possible. And with the new SRK 500 RA from QJ, they might have made the most easy to transition of them all!
The QJ also has a trick up its sleeve, and as with the gearbox, we sadly can’t tell you too much about it, but it learns from your riding and shifting style. A short post on the QJ social pages claims the bike is “Smarter: Learns your driving habits for a truly personalised ride”. We are assuming that means in a specific riding mode, it’ll learn where and when you like to shift up and down, although until more detailed information is released, that is speculation.
While we are in the dark about the gearbox, we do know some things about the rest of the bike. Assuming the engine and chassis specifications are as per the SRK 500 RS, it’ll be powered by a 449cc parallel twin-cylinder engine, producing 53bhp and 31lb ft. The chassis spec isn’t stellar but should be okay on the road, with USD forks and a monoshock taking care of the suspension, while a pair of Nissin two-piston calipers and 300mm discs do the work at the front axle.
While QJ as a brand doesn’t have much of a footprint in the UK, it does via Benelli, which is distributed in the UK via MotoGB. It doesn’t take too much dreaming to see how this could one day morph into a middleweight sports bike from the Italian-born (now Chinese-owned) brand.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
