BEST OF BOTH

Scramble the streets in style with FB Mondial’s HPS 300.

Bigger and better

Italy’s historic trophy brands are currently enjoying a resurgence with Benelli, Fantic and now Mondial the latest to exit the freezer section of that country’s motorcycle history store. Mondial joined this comeback club almost two years ago when manufacture began of the neo-retro HPS 125, a very different product to the svelte Honda SP-01-engined Piega 1,000cc V-twin Superbike, which last carried the Mondial badge.

This well-made, good-looking single-cylinder Street Scrambler is built using Zongshen-made engines. In its first full production year it was a showroom success according to Cesare Galli, CEO of Mondial’s parent company, Pelpi International. Shipments have headed to Germany, France, Spain, the UK, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, plus outlets further afield in South Africa, Brazil, India and various Asian markets.

The HPS 125 kick-off model has now been joined by its HPS 300 sibling (even if it is just 249cc). Costing €4,490 tax paid in Italy, it uses the same chassis and running gear as the HPS 125, with the same good looks, courtesy of designer Alessandro Tartarini (son of the legendary Leopoldo Tartarini, founder of Italjet). Cesare Galli has been working with Tartarini Jnr since 2007, originally on a Pelpi model range made in Taiwan, before his 20-year friendship with Count Pierluigi Boselli (today’s owner of the Mondial trademark) led to the idea of reviving the brand.

The HPS 125 was the first model to hit the marketplace in both Street Scrambler and Supermoto guise, now followed by the 250cc version of each model, with other capacity platforms and models to follow.

The HPS 300’s fresh, modern Tartarini styling has period design cues and close attention to detail that sets it apart from other Chinese neo-retro models.

Its liquid-cooled fuel-injected, four-valve 249cc single-cylinder wet sump motor, with chain-driven SOHC and Magneti Marelli EFI, was designed in Italy by Piaggio, but is entirely manufactured in China by Zongshen.

In Mondial guise it delivers 24.5bhp/18.5kW at 9,000rpm, making it suitable for A2 licence holders.

The bike’s sleek looks gives it substance, with its stacked twin exhausts and the meaty-looking non-adjustable Chinese-made 41mm inverted front fork. The vaguely vintage-looking brown seat with prominent stitching is surprisingly comfortable, although there’s precious little room for the passenger.

A proper fit

This is a proper-sized motorcycle, and for a 1.80m/5’10” rider like myself there’s a spacious riding position, which felt comfortable without being cramped. The 785mm high seat allowed me to put both feet flat on the ground at traffic lights. The quite wide taper-section handlebar delivers a relaxed, fairly upright stance with room to tuck my knees into the recesses of the aluminium fuel tank. The radiator is hidden behind the headlight and those exhausts don’t obtrude too much, thanks to a longer right footrest with which to operate the rear brake pedal. This initially seemed awkward, but you soon get used to it, and it means you can tuck the toes of both feet on the well positioned footrests. I had no issues with heat radiating off the exhausts on to my right leg.

Rolling on 18-inch front and 17-inch rear tyres, the HPS 300 tips the scales at 135kg dry (5kg more than the HPS 125) and its handling is stable and well balanced. The front wheel with its skinny 100/90 tyre delivers light, precise steering slightly slower than on rivals equipped with a 17-inch front.

That’s not such a bad thing, as the wide handlebar gives you the leverage you need to flick the HPS 300 round tight hairpin corners.

The 130/80-17 rear tyre delivered the grip required by the eagerrevving motor.

Like the Zongshen-built HPS 125 motor, the bigger 249cc engine is a gem, without the need to use its sweet-shifting six-speed gearbox as intensively to extract satisfying performance.

Clutch action is light, making this an ideal town bike, thanks also to the upright riding position and high-ish 1,800rpm idle speed. Pick up from a closed throttle is smooth and easy, and engine braking is controllable.

It picks up acceleration briskly and more willingly and torquier than on the 125, so it doesn’t need to be revved hard. Fuel mapping is pretty refined; it’ll pull wide open in top gear from 2,500rpm, building revs smoothly and cleanly with no transmission snatch all the way to the 10,200rpm hardaction limiter, making this an easy bike to ride, especially with the light-action clutch and smooth pick up from the well-mapped Marelli EFI.

The HPS 300 is ready to oblige with a strong pull from 4,000 revs upwards. This flexibility means it’s often easy to save gear changes if you’re riding hard. It’s on a par with the longerstroke, slightly more powerful (30.4bhp/22.7kW) and torquier (27Nm) 76 x 63mm Thai-built 286cc Honda CB300R (its most obvious rival) and arguably better performing, thanks its lighter dry weight. There’s no vibration until around 8,000rpm (when the footrests start tingling), thanks to the single gear-driven counter-balancer. The engine is Euro 4 compliant with the well-disguised catalyst hidden in the belly pan.

The Mondial has good stability on fast sweeping turns, even with Chinese semi-knobbly tyres (which do squirm a little), while that relatively high handlebar gives great leverage on twisting country roads. The non-adjustable Chinese-made front suspension irons out road shock, giving good ride comfort. But while the nostalgic looking twin rear shocks deliver 120mm of travel, their high speed damping feels rather stiff.

Most owners never take a passenger, so the rear suspension doesn’t need to be as stiff as it is. That being the case, the single 280mm front disc gripped by a radially-mounted four-piston caliper is more than sufficient to stop the Mondial in everyday use, although it and the 220mm rear disc might be marginal with a passenger aboard. ABS is also fitted to give Euro 4 compliance.

The bar-end mirrors deliver a good rearwards view (not as intrusive as they might look). The large round digital dash is well designed and informative; the tacho reading is shown around the circumference of the large-digit speedo with a gear selected readout above it; there’s a single trip beneath the speedo, with the time at the bottom, fuel level on the left and water temp on the right.

The Mondial HPS 300 exudes a quality of manufacture unexpected from a 100% Chinese-built, Italiandesigned motorcycle. ‘Made in China’ no longer means cheap and nasty, but often well priced and well made.

Willing and torquey, its Zongshenbuilt engine is the equal of larger capacity motors powering rival models, making this new addition both bigger and better than its HPS 125 sibling. The promised HPS 500 version coming next is ready to receive the 449cc 43bhp/32kW Zongshen SOHC motor found in the rival Fantic Caballero 500.

With the help of its Chinese partners and Cesare Galli’s experience, Mondial is building an increasingly appealing model range.