Chinese brand thinks forced induction is the future
Boosted bikes have had a torrid history – ranging from pre-war competition success with BMW’s supercharged racers to the disastrous flirtation with turbocharged street bikes from all four Japanese brands in the 1980s – but there’s a growing movement back towards forced induction as modern technology and increasing demands to reduce emissions and fuel consumption conspire to push manufacturers in that direction.
Honda’s V3R E-Compressor is edging closer to showrooms. Yamaha and Suzuki are both working on boosted designs. Kawasaki continues to offer its supercharged H2 range. Now Chinese brand Benda has filed patents showing its own supercharged motorcycle project is underway.
Benda has forged a spot as one of the leaders of the Chinese bike industry in terms of adopting new engine designs. It was the first to make its own four-cylinder motorcycle engine, the inline-four LFC700, and later put its own V4 motor into production before any other Chinese company. More recently it’s shown a BMW-inspired inline six-cylinder motor, plus 250cc and 700cc boxer twins, also destined for production.
The company’s new supercharged engine appears to be an overhead cam ‘V’ design – either a V-twin or a V4 – but only a section of the engine is shown in the patent so it’s impossible to be certain of the actual number of cylinders. It features a centrifugal supercharger, the same type used by Kawasaki’s H2, but with the blower mounted low down in front of the engine, rather than above the transmission like the Kawasaki.
The supercharger is gear-driven from the crankshaft, with the gears housed in an extension that’s cast into the engine cases, also acting as the mounting bracket for the supercharger itself.
The brand’s interest in forced induction dates back at least five years. As early as 2021 it teased a planned 300cc twin-cylinder sports bike, the VTR300 Turbo, as an upcoming model, but never released it. CAD design registrations of the machine emerged in 2022, wearing the ‘VTR300’ name on the licence plate, and it’s quite possible that the ‘Turbo’ element of the name comes from mistranslation, as a supercharger is a more logical route than an exhaust-driven turbo.
Could the VTR300 still be in the pipeline after all these years? It’s possible, as a complex project like this will take a long time to reach fruition.
