Europe is home to several small motorcycle manufacturers that make the two-wheeled lifestyle accessible to a wider audience. A lot of these brands set up shop in Europe, but in reality, outsource their production to China.
One such brand is Leonart.
Headquartered in Spain, Leonart’s model catalog consists of retro-inspired, beginner-friendly models that give off a custom, handmade aesthetic. Its newest model is particularly eye-catching, as it seems to blend styling cues from a certain British manufacturer.
Dubbed the Lobo 450, which translates to wolf, for some reason, this retro-inspired roadster could very well be the Triumph Bonneville 450 we’d been hoping for. In fact, it looks more Triumph than the recently launched Triumph Speed and Scrambler 400—or at least it does to me.
Clearly, the folks who designed this bike paid some serious attention to the details. It gets muscular retro styling, sort of reminiscent of the sporty look of the Triumph Thruxton. It also gets beefy inverted forks and tubeless wire-spoked wheels, giving it a premium aesthetic. Looking at this thing from a distance, you’ll notice that it has a level boneline, meaning the line from its head to its tail is parallel to the ground. This gives the bike a sporty scrambler look.
And if you take a closer look at the engine, you’ll notice that it’s actually liquid-cooled, with a slim radiator discreetly mounted onto the front of the frame. But to retain its retro look, the engine has faux cooling fins on the cylinder head, and even a faux carburetor sitting just underneath the fuel tank.
So yeah, it clearly looks the part. And according to Leonart, it goes as good as it looks, too. The 446cc parallel-twin engine delivers a respectable 37 horsepower and 30 pound-feet of torque, putting it squarely within Europe’s beginner-friendly A2 segment. It also gets a six-speed gearbox with legs long enough to get it cruising at freeway speeds with relative ease.
But as is the case with most things made in China, it can be all too easy to fall for the allure of this bike’s aesthetics and spec sheet. It’s important to remember that in the grand scheme of things, the Lobo 450 is a brand new machine with tech that nobody’s really tested extensively before.
That said, only time will tell if this neophyte in the entry-level retro roadster segment has what it takes to go up against the more established models in the market.
