I wanted to do something more positive and now all the madness of EICMA and Motorcycle Live has died down a bit and the reality checks have had time to sink in, I thought I would look at some of the bikes you might have missed in the furore about all the new big things
These aren’t big, or particularly fast, and they certainly weren’t at the top of any big marketing budget, but they are worth noting, and maybe, one of them might just fit your needs.
They are much more affordable than the average bike and will all hopefully attract new riders into the industry, because we need those more than anything right now in the west, as the average age of riders steadily climbs, but I can see all of these bikes finding homes in the garages of more seasoned riders too.
From commuting to trails and even lightweight touring, they show the work being put in by various companies in the less flamboyant and less expensive sectors of the industry.
So if you are after your first motorcycle, or something different to fit into your garage, hopefully one of these bikes might be just what you want.
The thing they have in common, is that compared to many bikes on the market, they won’t break the bank, and come at a price that doesn’t even get close to a five digit number.
They make the world of bikes more accessible to more people, and that is something many of the established manufacturers seem to have forgotten.
Before I go on, I have to say a quick happy new year, and a thank-you for all the support, and especially to the BareBonesMC family on the Ko-Fi page.
You can find more videos there, and on the Rumble channel, as well as the back up channel here on youtube, but for now, grab a cuppa and settle in.
I’m recording this just before Dakar starts so i’ll jump straight in.
Heres to 2026.
First we have a new version of an old bike so there won’t be too many surprises.
The AJS Imber.
The AJS Imber is basically a Honda CT125 Trail with a different badge, built by Loncin for the UK market.
So after years of never getting the delightful chance to tear through the woods on the CT125 over here, the Chinese have beat Honda to it. With tech that was licenced to them many years ago.
The word rugged appears a lot in the marketing and it looks to have been put together pretty well, which you would expect from a company who makes both bikes and engines for BMW, Honda, it’s own brand Voge among others.
The AJS Imber will be priced at just £2349 in the UK for 2026 and it has the same four-speed semi-automatic gearbox as the CT125 Trail, with a centrifugal clutch and a heel and toe shifter, so there is no left-hand lever, you just ride.
You get both an electric and kick start too which is refreshing by today’s standards.
Powered by a tiny and simple air-cooled two-valve SOHC 125cc four-stroke engine that produces a claimed 13.3hp at 8000rpm, it is within the first bike CBT limits for youngsters and should be a whole lot of fun.
You get an 8.5 litre fuel tank, and the whole bike weighs in at a claimed 115kg ready to ride.
Ground clearance is 190mm, and you even get a centre stand, along with spoked wheels and a linked braking set-up with discs both front and rear.
Seat height is a manageable 810mm with the thickest padding on the seat or there is a lower seat that pulls that figure down to 760mm. That is 32 down to 30 inches for my American friends.
You also get plenty of space for storage, with a thick metal rack situated in front of the rider’s seat, and a larger rear luggage rack fitted as standard. There is also a small base plate for additional cargo above the single round front headlight, so you get plenty of storage for a weekend away on the trails.
It’s affordable, looks the part, and could be worth a punt for anyone wanting a bike that’s a little bit quirky – either for light green lane use, or buzzing around town.
With that luggage space you could even do some slow speed touring if you so desired and you would undoubtedly get to some places the bigger bikes just won’t get to.
Next we have a new bike from an old name that is another brand resurrected by the Chinese.
The Morbidelli T352X.
Morbidelli took the covers off its brand-new T352X adventure motorcycle at EICMA but it was overlooked because of its bigger brother the T502X.
Before the T352X and its bigger sibling, the only adventure model in Morbidelli’s range was the big, heavy T1002V and T1002VX, with their big 997cc V-twin engine.
The T352X provides a smaller alternative and features a 349cc twin-cylinder engine that produces 40.9hp and 23.2Ib ft of torque.
These numbers make it A2-licence compliant, and it goes into direct competition with the CF Moto MT450 as well as all the 400 and 450cc singles on the market.
You get a six-speed gearbox with a slipper clutch and an 18-litre fuel tank for long journeys, and it does seem more road biased than the MT450 Ibex.
A seven-inch TFT display integrates with the Morbidelli Connected app, in theory creating a more user-friendly digital experience for customers. But you know my thoughts there.
The T352X also features upside down front forks and an adjustable multi-link rear shock. You get a floating disc with a four-piston calliper on the front and a single-piston calliper on the rear which should give plenty of stopping power, and the Bosch ABS is fitted as standard.
Price is yet to be announced, but to succeed, I think it will have to come in significantly cheaper than the MT450 Ibex and Himalayan 450 which both come in at £5,700. They have both already established themselves on the market.
If Morbidelli can bring it to market under £5,000 then it could well steal some sales from the others in what is a very competitive sector.
One thing is for sure, even though it was only just launched, it will still probably beat the BMW 450 twin to market.
Another old name comes next.
The BSA Thunderbolt.
Late to the party in several ways, the BSA Thunderbolt is basically a Yezdi Adventure in a different dress, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for those of you that don’t know.
The Yezdi Adventure has been around since 2022, so all its early problems have now been worked out and it is a solid reliable platform.
The revvy short stroke 350 will in my opinion suit the Bantam better, but the Thunderbolt delivers a comfortable upright riding position at a price of just £3500.
That is where it can win, with a price that makes the Himalayan and MT450 Ibex look positively expensive.
It will sit below the Himalayan when it comes to performance but I am sure it will win fans and I quite like its quirky styling.
The Bantam has caused quite a stir, and I see no reason why this little soft roader won’t have a similar impact, but with the Himalayan and Honda CRF300 Rally as competition, it is entering a full and very competitive market sector, so we will have to wait and see how it sells.
The price does make it significantly cheaper than the MT450 and others, but for someone who just wants to plod along the back roads all day, it will be more than enough.
I say plod, but the BSA engine is revvy, so give it a handful and it will go. It isn’t going to break any records, but it will be a fun little bike at a price that will be hard to beat.
Next we have a bike that takes that approach even further.
The Hero X Pulse 200.
Now if it wasn’t for the AJS Imber, this would be the oldest new bike to arrive on western shores for years, because it has been on the market in India since 2019, and is based on the old Hero Honda 150cc engine from the CBZ which was being sold in 1999.
Just as with the AJS Imber and BSA Thunderbolt, this is not a bike that will be breaking any records at the drag strip, but it will be a cheap easy way for new riders to get on the road, and with a price tag of just £2500, I can see it attracting a fair few older riders who just want something cheap, light, easy to maintain and economical.
The simple air cooled engine is a breeze to work on and parts are available quickly from India, even if stock isn’t available in the UK.
The fact it still comes with a kick start should tell you something about the philosophy behind this bike. The old air cooled engine is as bombproof as they come and with a long stroke design, even though it only has 19hp on tap, it will chug along all day pulling a trailer full of potatoes if needed.
The Pro model gives you better suspension and a few other nice touches, including a bash plate that is more fit for purpose. And for just £200 more I think it will be the one to sell best.
Complete in its Hero Dakar livery it looks a great little bike.
The standard model will make a great commuter and the Pro model will be perfect for most green lanes in the UK.
I hope Hero have the parts and servicing in place to do it justice and it is nice to see them finally make that step out of India.
With some luck we will get the water cooled X pulse 210 soon, and India is still waiting for the X Pulse 440 using the 440cc engine from the Hulk, so that will still be a wait, but be sure that if Hero have got the distribution and parts sorted, they will have an impact on the market.
I’m sure you are seeing a pattern here by now, and the next bike although new, has its roots in a bike that has been around the world and back again.
That bike is the Honda CRF300, but it now has competition from Spain.
The Rieju Aventura 307 Rally.
The Rieju Aventura 307 Rally is a more aggressive, better-equipped version of the Honda CRF300 Rally. Some I am sure will say it is the bike that the CRF300 Rally SHOULD have been.
So if you wanted a CRF300 Rally with a big fuel tank, some extra power and better suspension, then this could be the bike you have been waiting for.
The new Rally 307 is powered by the 293 cc liquid-cooled 4-stroke single-cylinder engine we know from the CRF300 and Voge 300 Rally.
Built by Loncin, the Rieju version has a reworked head design that raises the compression ratio for a bit of extra power.
The Honda puts out 27hp and the Voge 28, but the Rieju Aventura 307 Rally pushes that up to 33.5hp with 27Nm of torque on tap.
That might not sound much, but it is a 25% increase on max power which is significant.
Paired with a 6-speed gearbox and slipper clutch, and with a dry weight of just 138 kg, the Rally 307’s performance is just a little bit more than the others.
The Honda has a kerb weight of around 152 kg, so it is significantly heavier, and Rieju’s years of building bikes for the off road market has obviously helped them here.
The increase in power and decrease in weight makes a big difference in the overall performance, and the differences don’t stop there.
Tested at the Rallye du Maroc, the Rally 307 has proven its reliability and performance in one of the world’s toughest rally raid races.
Long-Travel 43mm upside down forks and a progressive rear shock are both fully adjustable and you get a full 235mm or 9 and a quarter inches of travel both ends. So in theory at least you will get both comfort and control whatever you are riding on. Having the ability to adapt it to suit the trail or road and your riding style is a major improvement on the Honda.
A steel frame, 21” front and 18” rear wheels with Dual Rim Locks and MICHELIN Tracker Tyres, plus an aluminium skid plate that has been developed in collaboration with ACD Racing Parts, it is designed to withstand big impacts, not just to look good.
Seat height is 890 mm but its stand out feature has to be its 21-litre fuel tank, which gives it an almighty range of around 500km or over 310 miles to a tank full.
This is a bike built for long distance travel, as well as hooning around in the dirt, and I like the fact they went with a traditional metal fuel tank and didn’t take the lazy way of loosing weight by using a plastic tank.
High-Performance 300mm front and 240mm rear disc brakes with dual-channel switchable ABS give you maximum safety on the road, and total freedom off it.
The vertical TFT instrument panel with day/night mode, adjustable brightness, ambient temperature sensor and smartphone connectivity, provides navigation and advanced functions to keep everything under control on every ride.
The Rieju Aventura 307 Rally comes in at £4500 to £5000 depending on extras and specs, and with Honda charging £6,500 for the CRF300 Rally and not even fitting a cush drive they will now have a hard job to compete, especially when the Voge 300 Rally comes out at just £4,000 too.
This would have been the top of the list today and is one of very few new bikes that I think might possibly prise some money out of my wallet, but I will end the list today with a wild card.
The Benda P51 Hybrid
We are unlikely to see the Benda P51 before 2027 I think, and it is a bike from a brand with a name that has been spoken with much frivolity, but I have to say that despite the name, this is a company that people really should be taking more notice of.
So far, none of their designs have been what I want personally, but they do offer something of a different approach, and their styling is unlike any other brand anywhere I am aware of.
I will say that until this bike, I saw their range as all show and no go, but if this bike comes to market it will be so far ahead of the competition it will be impossible to ignore.
We hear a lot about new concepts in the world of bikes,and hybrid tech is a route few have gone down.
The Kawasaki attempt has been a complete failure with new owners issued a DO NOT RIDE instruction, and the project itself looks dead in the water.
But Chinese company Benda have been working on their own Hybrid called the P51. A 250cc water cooled boxer twin with an onboard electric motor.
It pushes performance up to the level of a 600cc bike, but with faster acceleration, and lower emissions to meet new standards.
It looks to have better performance in some ways than many of the recent barrage of mid sized parallel twins, and is yet another example of how it is China as well as India now leading the charge in the motorcycle industry.
This new bike is a radical build, and Benda, despite the name, are a serious company who have been building genuinely good bikes for the home market for years now, and they have definitely broken the mould when it comes to styling.
No one could describe their bikes as being cheap Chinese copies, as they are in general very different both in style and engineering when compared to any other brand on the market.
This new Hybrid is no exception. Yes it is a boxer twin which in itself is nothing new. But this 250cc Hybrid boxer twin bears no resemblance to anything else on the market.
Still in prototype stage it looks much further along the line to production than many of the bikes at EICMA, and at the rate BMW are moving it may still hit the market before the new BMW 450 twin does.
With a projected output of around 62hp, it doesn’t sound too impressive, but with over 100Nm of torque on tap from low in the rev range and a projected weight of around 180kg with fluids, acceleration of zero to 100kmh or around 60mph in just 3.7 seconds as is being quoted, sounds more than possible.
Putting it into perspective, that’s like putting a big block Harley engine in something with the weight of an old RD400, which sounds like an exciting prospect to me.
If the price is right and the performance as good as it sounds, this could possibly be the first low emissions bike I would even consider.
It certainly makes Honda’s woeful attempt at a new electric bike, with the performance of a slug and less than 75 miles of range, look absolutely pathetic.
Will it tempt me away from what I know best? Probably not, but that is me talking. I cut my teeth on internal combustion engines and each year I hope, but it is not often any new bikes get my attention these days.
Anyway, let me know below what you think.
Will these five bikes help to draw in more new riders?
Which would you choose?
Which would be your first motorcycle if you had to start from the beginning again?
Thanks for watching and I look forward to hearing what you have to say in the comments below.
And no I am not joking or making inuendo’s when I ask, would you ride a Benda?