The EICMA show came back with a bang at the start of November, after the 2020 show was canceled and the 2021 show was… weak. But in 2022, we saw a return to business as usual, and that means a lot of Italian bikes on display (makes sense, the show is in Milan) and a lot of concept bikes.

The Moto Morini X-CAPE ADV-R combined both those ideas. Moto Morini is an Italian brand with a long history (interrupted by financial difficulties from time to time, as all Italian brands have been). It has been building the X-CAPE for a while now, an adventure bike with 19-inch front wheel. Cool bike, kind of an Africa Twin look to the bodywork, but probably not for aggressive off-road riding, with that small front wheel.

Now, Moto Morini has the ADV-R concept version of the bike, apparently aimed at more aggressive riding (Paolo was there, and took the photo above). It has a big wraparound crash bar that protects each side of the engine, and aluminum skid plate and rad guard. The handguards seem to be built around aluminum wraparounds, which is exactly what’s needed for serious off-roading. There’s a plastic guard on the front brake discs, LED accessory lights, and SC Project exhaust (probably too loud to be street legal, so almost certainly not production-ready). And, there’s a new rear shock from Ohlins.

All very cool, and Moto Morini gave the bike a good splashing of mud before putting it on display (a classic EICMA trick!). But would it sell?

The X-CAPE uses a liquid-cooled parallel twin by CFMoto, with roughly 60 hp and 40 lb-ft of torque pushing around 500 lb of bike, once it’s fuelled up (give or take 10 lb). It’s been well-rated by Euro reviewers, and it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t welcome an even better-spec’d version, as long as Moto Morini keeps the price down.

But would you buy it? All these Chinese-built bikes are slowly taking over the middleweight ADV market in the EU, but they aren’t gaining popularity here in North America, mostly because they are not available. But if they were, would you buy one?