New Lulang 500RR type-approved

Last year the founder of China’s Kove brand left his position at that company and set out to create another bike brand – resulting in the ZXJC 500RR four-cylinder sports bike that appeared at shows in the country. Now a second version of that bike has been revealed in type-approval paperwork in China.

While the original version debuted under the name ‘ZXJC’, reflecting in part the initials of its founder, Zhang Xue, the latest type-approval shows the manufacturer’s brand as ‘Lulang’ with a company name of ‘Chongqing Jinyichangbo Vehicle Industry Co’ and includes pictures of a lower-spec version of the same bike.

Like last year’s machine, it’s powered by a purpose-built, 470cc four-cylinder engine, listed as being manufactured by ‘Chongqing ZhangXue Motorcycle Industry Co’. The combination of the engine maker ‘ZhangXue’ and the bike manufacture ‘Jinyichangbo’ leads to the ZXJC title of last year’s show version. However, the Lulang branding, reflected in the bike’s ‘LL500GS’ codename, looks more likely to be used for the production version.

The main differences of the latest model are its lower-spec chassis design including a dual-sided swingarm instead of the original single-sided setup. The brakes are also revised, with axial-mount Taisko four-pot calipers instead of the previous radial-mounted units. Meanwhile, the engine’s power has been revised downwards, dropping from 62kW for the first version to 56kW on this variant, and weight has increased from 168kg to 175kg. The quoted top speed, which was listed at an ambitious 235km/h for the original single-sided swingarm version of the bike, has dropped to 205km/h.

Details of Zhang Xue’s production plans for his new company remain unclear at the moment, but with two models now type-approved for sale it seems certain that the bikes will be reaching customers in 2025.