Italian company Fantic has been relatively quiet in recent years. Known perhaps by many for making children’s off-road bikes and mopeds in the 1970s and 1980s, they’ve made infrequent forays into the mainstream in recent years with road bikes like the current 500cc Caballero.
And Fantic have been making some waves in recent years. They’ve bought engine manufacturer Minarelli from Yamaha and have announced that they’ll be entering a team in the Moto2 Grand Prix World Championships next season, but at heart they remain predominantly a manufacturer of off-road motorcycles, as their latest model demonstrates.
The XEF Rally is not so much a Dakar inspired machine as it is a proper Euro 5 compliant, road legal, version of Fantic’s rally raid motorcycle, which is due to tackle the infamous event next year. With a 450cc single cylinder engine, it’ll probably be a little buzzy for long distance road riding but if you fancy some genuine off-road riding and dune bashing there’s very little on the market like it.
The twin fuel tanks hold 30 litres of unleaded and there’s a removable dashboard which works on the Android OS. It’s claimed to be shockproof, waterproof and dust proof, and can be controlled through the switchgear or by touch screen.
As a rally raid machine it is of course a tall and intimidating motorcycle, with a 955mm seat height and over 300mm of wheel travel from the fully adjustable KYB suspension.
So as a practical day to day ride, the Fantic XEF Rally probably isn’t going to tempt riders off more mainstream offerings, but as a very special race replica machine it will provide a real talking point and something completely different to even regular adventure and enduro bikes.
And if you actually fancy taking part in a real rally raid, or the standard XEF Rally isn’t quite special enough, Fantic are also producing a limited edition (of 50) ‘Factory’ version. The main differences are the addition of mounts for the infamous rally roadbook, a larger oil radiator, hydraulic steering damper and a full titanium exhaust system from Arrow. You also get a fancy 144 litre tool box and race jersey. Niche, but very cool!
