RED ALERT!

A fun new motorcycle from an all-new brand...from China. Interested? You should be

- Kartik Ware

Motorcycle  are one of the best ways to find out that people can't do without each other. It's not every day that a new brand comes to India, which already has more than its fair share of motorcycle makers.

The context for those previous two seemingly unconnected statements is formed by the neighborly friction between the world's two largest two-wheeler markets - India and China.

Zhejiang Qianjiang Motorcycle Group Co. is the company under which fly the flags of QJ Motor, Benelli and Keeway, and the latter pair has already made its way to India with Adishwar Auto Ride’s Moto Vault. And when I was out riding the Motor SRK 400, everyone seemed impressed with a Chinese motorcycle at last. I could almost see the jokes evaporating from their heads.

Qianjiang’s mission statement on the China Chamber of Commerce website is ‘European design and Japanese quality at Chinese cost’. or our country, they might as well add, ‘ But not in India.’ The way things work here, it’s never going to be Chinese cost, right? Nonetheless, the SRK 400 does hit the design and quality nails right on the head, even if the former looks more Japanese to me than European. The face, mid-section and tail looks like an amalgamation of three different apanese design influences (can you tell which ones?), but it comes together quite well, especially in that Manifesto Red… okay, I made that up. But I certainly didn’t make up the Engrish on the bike’s tank. It’s hilarious.