QJMotor SRT 600 S (2025) – Review

The QJMotor SRT 600 S is a significant step forward in Chinese motorcycling. It doesn’t bring new technology or thinking to motorcycling but brings together the elements of what makes motorcycling special and appealing in a package that is affordable to pretty much anyone with the right licence. 

A middleweight adventure-style all-rounder with enough performance, economy, comfort and equipment to be useful in town or on longer commutes, but also enjoyable on a weekend blast and surprisingly capable of thrilling on a twisty back road too.

It’s a jack of all trades and not a master of anything in particular, but for many riders who’ve never been able to afford a new bike it also represents the chance to enjoy that box-fresh feel of a machine where everything is sharp and tight for the same cost as a five-year-old Japanese equivalent. 

Pros & Cons

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Price & PCP Deals

List price is £4899 otr and for an initial period that price includes a full set of aluminium luggage. That’s £2000 less than Honda’s NX500 which doesn’t have the luggage, heated grips/seat or adjustable suspension. 

One of the big challenges to owning a Chinese bike has often been their unpredictable resale values. Buying on PCP finance is a way around this because you have the option of handing the bike back at the end of the deal and there’s an agreed final value (subject to mileage and condition). The sample deal quoted on the QJMotor SRT 600 S is a £1500 deposit and then £57 a month for 37 months with a final payment of £2071 to own the bike at the end. You can adjust the amount of deposit to alter the monthly payments up or down. Interest rate is 8.9%APR and if you hand the bike back at the end, it will have cost you £3611 for the deposit and payments and the pleasure of owning a brand-new, well-equipped bike for three years. 

As a comparison, Honda’s NX500 with a similar deposit (£1378) would be £89 a month with a final agreed value of £3506 and a total cost of £4671 to ride it for three years. Honda is currently (November 2025) offering a £500 deposit contribution, which brings that cost of ‘ownership’ to £4171 and narrows the difference to around £500, which might be swallowed up with the cost of three years’ additional servicing (the QJ’s service intervals are twice as frequent as the Honda). So, the reality of ownership is closer than it appears. However, if you want to add full luggage and heated grips to the Honda it’ll cost an additional £1400 and that will swing the deal for many people.

Flexible power delivery, easy to use, and slick gearchanges. Chinese engines are getting better

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Engine & Performance

QJMotor SRT 600 S engine, gearbox and performance 

Not too long ago any review of a Chinese bike would start with an educated guess on which Japanese bike the engine had been copied from. Thankfully, those days are mostly over. The QJ’s 55bhp, 554cc parallel twin, 8v, DOHC engine is a familiar layout in as much as there are plenty of parallel twins of all kinds of small and middleweight capacities out there. But, as far as I can tell it doesn’t resemble any other engine more than any other. From a performance point of view Honda’s long-running 500cc twin is probably its closest competition and the QJ’s motor offers similar on-road performance despite having 83 additional ccs and 16% more bhp. 

The QJMotor engine has a 270-degree firing order compared to the Honda’s 180-degree. In simple terms that means the QJMotor feels a little more throbby, a bit like the ‘character’ of a v-twin engine, while the Honda is smoother but with less ‘character’ (if such things matter to you).

If you’re fresh off a 125cc bike, the QJMotor will feel like the fastest thing ever. For those riders downsizing to something more manageable or affordable, there’s plenty of power and enough speed for almost any kind of riding, but you might have to work a bit harder using more revs for your mph than on the bigger bike you traded in. 

If you’ve just passed your A2 licence, look elsewhere. The SRT 600 S is very close to being A2-compliant and can probably be restricted down to 47bhp, but as standard it is 8bhp too many for A2.

80mph on the motorway is around 6000rpm, a little-over two-thirds up the rev range. The clutch action is light, throttle response is smooth and reasonably consistent. You’ll feel a little jerkiness in town or driving through a turn on a B-road, but nothing that’ll bother you after a week or two of getting used to it. 

The gear change is positive, finding neutral is easy and it just feels like a different version of a dozen other bikes. In refinement terms the QJMotor feels somewhere between a Triumph 400cc single cylinder motor and Honda’s NX500 twin. 

Suspension and brakes are excellent for this price with some adjustability to suit rider preference

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Handling & Suspension (inc. Weight)

Some people see handling as a bike’s ability to defy gravity at MotoGP lean angles down a twisty road. Some riders are more interested in roadholding and ability to deal with bumps, mixed road surfaces and slippery white lines. For others it’s the way a bike can turn sharply, duck and dive through traffic and get us from here to there in the quickest, most enjoyable way. 

There’s a lot of engineering involved to make all that happen. Some of it is suspension, some of it is weight distribution, some of it is the fundamental design of frames, dimensions and the compromise between this and that. 

Adventure-style bikes generally prioritise comfort and stability over quick-steering and lean angles. The SRT 600 S is a good example of this. Like many Chinese bikes the QJMotor is on the heavy side at 215kg (Honda’s NX500 is 19kg – an overweight Jack Russell - lighter).  

My priorities for bikes like this tend to be more around the functional than the spectacular. On a typical twisty back road, the SRT 600 S is reassuringly confident. It steers predictably, doesn’t bounce around too much on its suspension and holds a line through a corner even when the road surface is inconsistent. It’s good, but not outstanding. The QJ-branded brakes are effective but need a strong pull on the lever to feel the first chunk of stopping power. Likewise, the Maxxis Maxx Venture tyres are ok for commuting, motorways or touring – which is what most owners will buy the SRT 600 S for. Those who want to lean further will choose a different replacement when the originals wear out. 

Where the QJMotor shines is in town, where it handles the bumps and threading through traffic with ease. Filtering on motorways is equally enjoyable. I did most of the test without the panniers fitted because they add a lot of extra width. Even without them the pannier frames still add some (mostly unwarranted) nervousness and gap-anxiety. 

The SRT 600 S is a good bike in a tight spot. There’s enough power low down to dart through traffic, the steering is easy, and brakes are about right to scrub off speed without crashing the forks down onto their stops.

Heated seat is comfier than it looks. Riding position allows a couple of hours before fidgeting sets in

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Comfort & Economy

The SRT 600 S’ riding position is interesting. A sort-of adventure-lite where the rider sits upright but the 805mm seat is low for an adventure bike, meaning your knees are a little more cramped than on Honda’s NX500. The benefit of the low-and-narrow-ish seat is that shorter riders will feel more confident throwing a leg over the SRT 600 S than the Honda.

There’s a little more to it than that though because the Honda’s suspension is softer and so the tall seat becomes more manageable when you sit on it, where the QJMotor has firmer suspension that doesn’t sag as much. Once aboard the two bikes feel quite similar foot-to-foot and the NX 500 is less cramped on the road for a six-footer like me.

Having said that, I did four long motorway journeys on the SRT 600 S, each of around 150 miles and those two and a half hours in the saddle were fine. The seat is comfier than you’d imagine at this price and although my middle-aged knees were complaining, it was no worse than most other bikes.

Fuel consumption averaged 61mpg, which should give around 275 miles from the 20.5 litre tank. Honda’s NX500 averages 75mpg in similar riding and can theoretically squeeze 300 miles from its smaller (18-litre) tank.

Servicing costs will also be higher with the SRT 600 S needing a service every 4000 miles when the Honda goes twice as far between dealer visits.

Easy to use controls and easy to read TFT dash make life simple for the rider.

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Equipment

The SRT 600 S is very well equipped. It comes with crash bars, exhaust bash plate, centre stand (not sexy, but essential for regular chain maintenance on bikes used all year round), fog lights, tyre pressure monitors and LED lighting. Then there’s the heated rider seat, heated handlebar grips, 12v power socket, USB-C port, turn-by-turn navigation (via Bluetooth) and a 7in TFT dash. Oh, and there’s free three-piece aluminium luggage included too, for a limited time. All for £4899 on the road.

Most of it works really well. The lights are excellent for a budget bike; the luggage feels substantial and well-built although not as big as some systems.

The heated grips and seat are very welcome but don’t get as warm as many other systems. However, the 12v power socket allows easy use of a heated vest and gloves without having to wire in a separate harness to the battery. 

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Rivals

Honda NX500 (2025) | Price: £6899

Read more

Power/Torque

47bhp / 32lb-ft

Weight

196kg

Voge DS625X (2025) | Price: £6199

Read more

Power/Torque

63bhp / 42lb-ft

Weight

206kg

CFMoto 450MT (Ibex 450) (2025) | Price: £5699

Read more

Power/Torque

41bhp/31lb-ft

Weight

175kg (dry)

2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Verdict

2025 has been the year when Chinese bikes started to become serious contenders. We’ve seen a dozen or more new mid-large capacity models hit the UK market for less than £10k. The Chinese manufacturers are appealing to budget conscious riders with some novel designs while the build quality of the bikes improves with each new model. QJMotor are the first that I’ve seen that get the price/build quality and spec together in a way that make them a serious contender. The SRT 600 S is a good bike with no other qualification needed. Add in the competitive pricing and it’s a hard bike to ignore. 

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2025 QJMotor SRT 600 S - Technical Specification

What is MCIA Secured?

MCIA Secured gives bike buyers the chance to see just how much work a manufacturer has put into making their new investment as resistant to theft as possible.

As we all know, the more security you use, the less chance there is of your bike being stolen. In fact, based on research by Bennetts, using a disc lock makes your machine three times less likely to be stolen, while heavy duty kit can make it less likely to be stolen than a car. For reviews of the best security products, click here.

MCIA Secured gives motorcycles a rating out of five stars (three stars for bikes of 125cc or less), based on the following being fitted to a new bike as standard:

• A steering lock that meets the UNECE 62 standard

• An ignition immobiliser system

• A vehicle marking system

• An alarm system

• A vehicle tracking system with subscription

The higher the star rating, the better the security, so always ask your dealer what rating your bike has and compare it to other machines on your shortlist.

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