This Chinese Scrambler Uses A 40-year-old Suzuki Engine!

‘Anything that you can do, an Asian kid can do better’ goes the old saying. We’re not going to argue the legitimacy of this aphorism in other walks of life, but in the world of motorcycling, the Chinese are certainly lagging very far behind. Nearly 40 years, in fact, because this, the Breston C1, is a newly-launched (yes, really) Chinese scrambler powered by a 249cc Suzuki motor that can be traced back to 1982.

First, a little background. Breston is the ‘premium’ sub-brand of Wangjiang Motorcycles, formally known as the Chongqing Wangjiang Motorcycle Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The company is based in Zhongqing, Chongqing Municipality, China, and manufactures everything from motorcycles to scooters to underbones to mopeds and three-wheelers.

Coming back to the C1, it borrows its heart from the Suzuki GN 250 which made its debut 38 years ago (okay so it’s not quite 40 but close enough). And aside from the addition of fuel-injection, the motor seems to be pretty much unchanged. The air-cooled single manages 19.7PS and 18Nm in this application, which though abysmal by global standards still manages to trump this other Chinese 250cc twin-cylinder bike we checked out yesterday.

The GN 250 is a popular choice for project builds and custom jobs, many of which look better than this Breston C1. With its odd proportions and square-ish fuel-tank, the bike just looks a bit awkward. The clumsy exhaust system looks like it was stitched together from leftover bits of plumbing and finish levels overall seem to be distinctly sub-par.

The rest of it is pretty standard fanfare: an upside down fork and twin shock absorbers, wire-spoke wheels (most likely 19-inch/17-inch in size) wrapped in knobby tyres and disc brakes at both ends. We can’t be sure but going by the images, the C1 doesn’t seem to get ABS. On the plus side, it does weigh only 155kg kerb and has 190mm of ground clearance, both of which should help out with the light off-roading that it seems to be intended for.

Breston is asking for 18,800 of your Chinese yen (approx Rs 2 lakh) for the C1, which doesn't seem like very good value to us. There are pockets of the Chinese motorcycle market that are technologically progressing at a brisk pace, with manufacturers like Benda and Haojue churning out some products that are at the very least, respectable. But, as we’ve seen with the Tairong GP1 250R yesterday and this bike today, there’s still a whole lot of catching up to do.

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