Benda Apparently Decided Motorcycles Weren't Weird Enough, So Here's A 1,000cc ATVThe company with a V4 cruiser is cooking up a liter-class ATV. What could possibly go wrong?There are motorcycle companies that carefully study the market, identify a proven formula, and build something they know people will buy. Then there's Benda, a company that seems perfectly happy asking questions nobody else thought needed answering. What if a cruiser had an inline-four and a cartoonishly huge rear tire? What if another one had a V4? What if we just kept doing stuff like this until everyone learned to stop asking why?That approach has produced some exceptionally odd motorcycles. The LFC700 is probably the poster child, pairing a 680cc inline-four with a 310mm rear tire that looks like it escaped from a custom bike show. The Dark Flag went another direction with a 496cc V4, while Benda's Napoleonbob machines took the company's fascination with low-slung, heavily stylized cruisers somewhere even stranger. Conventionality clearly isn't much of a priority around there.Which makes Benda's latest move rather interesting. The company is getting increasingly serious about powersports, and one of the machines leading that expansion is the Redstone 1000 R2, a liter-class ATV headed for a European media launch in Saalfelden, Austria, this September. Benda plans to let journalists loose with it on pavement, gravel, and Alpine terrain, so this isn't merely a concept vehicle sitting underneath flattering convention-center lighting.Benda Apparently Decided Motorcycles Weren't Weird Enough, So Here's A 1,000cc ATVAnd by Benda standards, the Redstone is almost suspiciously normal. Its 997.1cc V-twin produces roughly 101 horsepower, while selectable four-wheel drive, differential locks, power steering, riding modes, heated equipment, and a winch give it the hardware you'd expect from a serious ATV. It'll also tow roughly 2,160 pounds with a braked trailer and can be fitted with 27-inch beadlock wheels. In Europe, T3b homologation also opens the door to road registration in applicable markets.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Redstone isn't alone, either. Benda's powersports ambitions already extend to other ATVs, including the smaller Redstone 550, plus side-by-sides and even a snowmobile. Suddenly, the company responsible for some of China's strangest production motorcycles isn't merely trying to sell more motorcycles overseas. It's building a much broader powersports business.The Next Big Powersports Players?This Chinese Motorcycle Brand Wants To Be a Full-On Powersports ManufacturerBMW's Chinese Manufacturing Partner Is Cooking Up An Electric ATV MenaceThat's where things could get entertaining. There's no indication Benda is about to shove a four-cylinder motorcycle engine into an ATV or build a V4 side-by-side, and we're definitely not claiming it will. But this is also a manufacturer whose motorcycle catalog suggests somebody occasionally walks into a product meeting with an objectively ridiculous idea and receives funding instead of being escorted from the building.For now, the Redstone 1000 R2 seems remarkably sensible. It's big, powerful, well-equipped, and aimed directly at established players in the ATV market. But if Benda's motorcycles have taught us anything, it's that the company's definition of sensible is very flexible. So enjoy the "normal" Benda ATV while it lasts. Somewhere in Hangzhou, there's probably already a whiteboard with far too many cylinders drawn on it.Source: Benda
