Catalonia-based Rieju will be bringing its tantalizingly priced Aventura Rally 307 to the UK market soon, according to a report from MCN.
Ever since I spent a week riding the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 Mana Black in India (review on that bike coming soon) I have been converted to the idea of owning a small-capacity dual-sport for light exploration of dirt roads and country lanes.
The Suzuki DR-Z4S that I’d like to own costs too damn much, but with a starting price of £4,599, the Rieju feels a little more tolerable.
Compare that to the £5,750 you’d pay for the (admittedly more powerful) Himalayan 450, and it’s an attractive deal. Compare it to the £3,799 you’d pay for the Voge Rally 300 – which uses the same Loncin-built 293cc liquid-cooled single-cylinder engine and, uh, well…
Although it uses China-made engines from Loncin Holdings (the powerhouse behind Voge Motorcycles, as well as the maker of most the F-series engines that BMW uses) and Qianjiang Motorcycle Group (the powerhouse behind QJMotor, Benelli, Keeway, and Morbidelli), Rieju is a Spanish outfit, with a history stretching back more than 90 years.
It was founded in 1934 by Luis Riera Carré and Jaime Juanola Farrés, the company name being an amalgamation of their family names (RIEra and JUanola).
That was kind of a bad time to be starting a business in Catalonia, which, you may remember from European history, was one of the strongholds of the Republican movement in the Spanish Civil War. Pretty much every industrial site was put to use in the unsuccessful fight against Franco and the Nationalists, which meant that Rieju’s motorcycle factory didn’t actually start making motorcycles until the 1940s.
Up to the early 1990s, Rieju was largely a Spain-only affair, but won some recognition in the ‘80s when a number of its enduro bikes won international competitions. Jumping ahead to the modern day, it’s not been a huge player in the UK, with most of its line-up not being available. For the most part, the bikes sold in the UK have been off-road-only models.
Although, there have been exceptions, like the £7,499 Aventura 500 (which runs on a parallel twin engine that is a copy of Honda’s CB500 platform), which has been available in the UK since 2024.
Now, though, the line-up appears set to expand, with a number of new models coming our way – including the aforementioned Aventura Rally 307.
To counter the “Why not just buy a Voge?” argument, Jamie Masterman, the commercial director of Rieju’s UK distributor (Urban Moto) told MCN that the bike is, in fact, very different.
“All the upper parts: piston, head, cams, valves… inlet and outlet ports are different, we also have a bigger airbox with more airflow, and different exhaust.”
I’d be interested to know how much that sort of thing matters to the average consumer, but the upside is that the Aventura Rally 307 claims peak outputs of 33 bhp and 20 lb-ft of torque. Compare that against the 28 bhp and 18.5 lb-ft of torque claimed by the Rally 300.
MCN says that the Aventura Rally 300’s aesthetics are “the spit of Honda’s latest CRF300 Rally,” (which is another bike that I’d like but which costs too damn much), but I’m not quite seeing it. There are similarities, in the sense that all bikes of this segment look similar, but I don’t see a direct copy of Honda’s work.
The bike comes equipped with a 21-liter tank, which Rieju says will result in your being able to travel 310 miles without a fill-up. Though, I doubt very much that you’d want to stay on the bike’s saddle for that long.
Whatever the case, I’m intrigued.
Rieju Aventura Rally 307 specs
| ENGINE | 293cc liquid-cooled single cylinder |
| POWER | 33 bhp at 8500 rpm |
| TORQUE | 20 lb-ft at ???? |
| TRANSMISSION | 6-speed |
| SEAT HEIGHT | 890 mm |
| WEIGHT | 137 kg (dry weight) |
| FUEL CAPACITY | 21 liters |
| FRONT SUSPENSION | 43mm upside-down fork, adjustable in compression and rebound, 235mm travel |
| REAR SUSPENSION | Progressive shock absorber adjustable in preload, compression, and rebound, 235mm travel |
| FRONT TIRE | 21-inch – 80/100 |
| REAR TIRE | 18-inch – 120/80 |
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