It’s been exactly one year since Italian motorcycle manufacturer Moto Morini unveiled the X-Cape 650 at EICMA 2021. The mid-size adventure bike is built around a basic and robust platform and features all the hallmark characteristics you’d expect to find in an ADV-enduro machine. As such, it’s more biased for road use than it is for off-road riding.
At EICMA 2022, however, Moto Morini once again showcased the X-Cape 650, but this time in a special ADV-R trim, which presumably means Rally. The X-Cape 650 ADV-R, just like most other rally editions of other adventure bikes, features a whole host of off-road goodies and further accentuates the bike’s Dakar-inspired styling. The first thing you’ll notice is that the ADV-R sits much taller than the standard X-Cape, and that’s thanks to a raised saddle designed to give the bike better off-road ergonomics.
Other add-ons include an aluminum sump guard to better protect the belly of the engine when traversing rough terrain at high speeds. There’s also a redesigned fairing complete with crash guards that run all the way up and down the bodywork. Moto Morini has also fitted the bike with an SC-Project exhaust system, as well as a rally navigation system designed to track your routes off-road. You’ll also notice that the ADV-R rolls on really thick, knobby tires, indicating that this bike is more oriented towards off-road riding rather than street use.
Apart from what essentially is a suite of bolt-on accessories, the X-Cape ADV-R is built on the already solid foundations of the standard X-Cape. As such, it’s powered by a 649cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected parallel-twin engine that pumps out 59 horsepower. It rolls on fully adjustable suspension components from Italian company Marzocchi. As with all adventure bikes, the X-Cape gets switchable ABS allowing you to disable ABS when riding off-road. Other goodies include a full-color TFT screen with Bluetooth pairing.
Whether or not the Moto Morini X-Cape 650 ADV-R will become a production bike you can purchase from the factory isn’t clear just yet. However, given the rising popularity of rally-style adventure bikes such as the KTM 890 Adventure R and Yamaha Tenere 700, Moto Morini may just be convinced enough to push the ADV-R into series production.
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