Clear the dead spot, and the throttle response
is smooth and progressive, whether you're thread-
ing through city traffic or charging over loose dirt
on the many SoCal canyon passes.
There's a neater, slimmer exhaust system
fitted to the larger motor, although it sounds
rubbish, almost like you're shooting a BB gun
that's run low on gas.
The X-Cape runs the usual six-speed 'box,
and it's geared relatively tall, mainly so it has
ample room to reach freeway speeds. The gear
-
shift is smooth enough, and there are no giz-
mos like a quickshifter or anything to play with.
It's a case of what you see is what you get.
The X-Cape is far from small, and it's rather
heavy, given it punches out less than 70 horse-
power once it has all reached the rear tire. At a
claimed 514 pounds and with a seat height of
33.2 inches, the X-Cape is one for a rider who's
got a bit of off-road experience. It'll go most
places you'll want to take a bike of this size, and
with no traction control and ABS switched to
off-road mode that disengages ABS at both the
front and rear, there's nothing holding you back.
Chassis numbers tell their own story. A
wheelbase of 58.7 inches and that 514 pounds
of weight give the Morini a planted, stable
demeanor. Ground clearance is adequate at
7.5 inches, although I did have a few instances
where I ground down the factory-fitted CFMOTO
while we were shooting the bike off-road.
Suspension hardware is pretty much the
same as it was on the 649cc X-Cape. Up front
is a beefy 50mm Marzocchi upside-down fork,
The seven-inch dash is a gem. Easy to use,
and you can mirror your phone on it.
P104
RIDE REVIEW I 2026 MOTO MORINI X-CAPE 700
