Lifan Just Shrunk Ducati’s Bike
Are you a huge fan of the Ducati Scrambler, but you want to ride 125cc motorcycles? Lifan had the bike for you. It was the Lifan Hunter 125. The bike almost perfectly morphed Ducati’s Scrambler styling onto a small 125cc motorcycle.
The bike had the same trellis frame, the round headlight, the paint scheme, the leather saddle, and the silhouette of the Ducati Scrambler. Even the license plate holder is the same. The way the tank is shaped and colored looks more or less identical.
The bike came with an 125cc air-cooled single-cylinder engine that’s fuel injected and has a one into two exhaust that looks like a cheap version of what you’ll find on Ducati’s bike.
This little bike was launched in Thailand a couple of years ago, and it recently it was removed from the Lifan website. The question that RideApart and others asked is if Ducati reached out to the company to get them to change the bike. Right now things are unclear. Ducati hasn’t said whether or not it took action against Lifan, though I’m keeping an eye out for any word on it.
This has been a recurring issue. Chinese companies take popular motorcycles from Italy or the U.S. or Germany, and they recraft them. There’s a clear copyright infringement in some cases. In others, it’s not so clear. It will be interesting to see what happens with this. It will likely be an issue that keeps happening.