Chinese manufacturer BENDA Moto has officially entered the Australian market, opening its flagship Melbourne dealership on Saturday with a cruiser-heavy range and its entry level bike available from $8990 plus on-road costs.
The line-up leans hard into bobber, modern-cruiser aesthetics, and it is anchored by the LFC 700, a $16,990 machine that BENDA Moto claims wears the widest rear tyre fitted to any production motorcycle at 310mm. It looks monstrous.
For context, that is wider than the rubber on Harley-Davidson’s Breakout, a figure made striking given the LFC is a 700-class motorcycle rather than a big-cubes muscle cruiser.
Speaking to INFO MOTO at the Melbourne opening, BENDA Moto product specialist Sylvester Lim positioned the LFC 700 as a halo model designed to pull attention toward a new brand rather than a volume seller.
When asked whether a rear tyre of that width could be practical for performance and efficiency, Lim was candid that the bike is the hero piece meant to draw people in.
While I can’t see that rear wheel doing the bike any favours in the handling department, I can somewhat buy into BENDA’s point here. A new entrant has to make an impression if it wants to take attention away from established players, and the LFC does that.
In the metal it looks commanding, big and premium, with this long gold chain acting as a styling feature and underlining the bike’s sheer physical presence.
The LFC 700 is powered by a 677cc liquid-cooled inline-four producing 63kW and 60Nm, which Benda markets as the world’s first inline four-cylinder cruiser. It rolls on a 130/70 19-inch front and that 310/35 18in rear, runs Brembo brakes front and rear, KYB suspension, a 5-inch TFT display and Bosch ABS with traction control. Wet weight is a substantial 287kg.
Benda (which for the editor’s sake we will now refer to in sentence case: Ed) also used the Melbourne opening to unveil an LFC 700 Pro variant, which is expected to be offered in Australia in time. The unit shown was a pre-ADR example. The Pro adds Benda’s dual-chamber air suspension and proprietary connectivity system.
Benda’s broader range adds a genuinely unusual entry for the learner market. The Dark Flag 500 Commander, priced at $12,990, uses a 496cc V4, which is LAMS-friendly with outputs: 35kW and 42Nm.
A V4 at this capacity and price is rare. Recent lower-capacity four-cylinder models from CFMOTO, ZXMOTO and Kawasaki have all been inline-fours, which makes Benda’s V4 layout the more interesting talking point. The Dark Flag also carries electronic air suspension, cruise control, a belt final drive and a TFT dash.
Rounding out the cruiser range is the cartoonishly-named Napoleonbob 250 at $8990, the Chinchilla 500 at $9990 and the Napoleonbob 500 at $11,990. The 249cc Napoleonbob 250 is a liquid-cooled V-twin making 19kW, and Lim indicated it is shaping up as the volume seller, with orders already coming from barbershops and cafes wanting the bike purely as a display piece. That speaks to where Benda is pitching itself, with styling doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
On supply, Lim confirmed stock is readily available and said that even brand new models revealed by the global company could be expected to land locally with less than a three-month turnaround.
Benda’s arrival follows a now familiar pattern. CFMOTO has built a strong foothold in Australia, and more recently the race-winning ZXMOTO is soon-to-enter via distributor Urban Moto Imports.
Who is ZXMOTO, and what does its Australian arrival actually mean?
What stands out with Benda is the component quality at the price. Brembo brakes, KYB suspension and TFT dashes are not what the market has come to expect at this end of the price ladder, and on paper the value is compelling.
We are yet to throw a leg over one of these things, so we cannot make any claims on how they perform on the road. On the strength of the showroom impression, the specification and the pricing, we are very keen to. A ride review will follow when we get the opportunity.
Editorial Director at infomoto.com.au. Loves Rally bikes.
