[cycleworld.com] - Chinese Eight-Cylinder Motorcycles Launching Soon

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Chinese car company Great Wall Motor is working on a new flat-eight engine that will power a Honda Gold Wing competitor, as well as a power cruiser.

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The new GWM engine design is a flat-eight that is configured in a similar manner to Honda’s flat-six Gold Wing design. (GWM/)Imagine you’re an established giant of the global motor industry and want to spread your brand from four wheels to two. How do you make a splash? In the case of China’s GWM group (Great Wall Motor) the answer is to build a pair of flat-eight-powered motorcycles that can outdo even that epitome of two-wheeled luxury, the Honda Gold Wing.

Rumors and spy pictures of a pair of flat-eight machines started to circulate in China last year, one resembling a Gold Wing, the other a cruiser reminiscent of the old Honda Rune, but now we’ve had the first semi-official glimpse in the form of a video posted to social media by GWM’s chairman, the billionaire Wei Jianjun. In the footage he’s showing his R&D staff a new Xiaomi S7 electric car that was gifted to him (that’s Xiaomi, the smartphone brand, which has now turned its hand to cars). But in the background—carefully positioned to be in shot and with its cover partially pulled back—there’s a finished-looking example of the upcoming eight-cylinder tourer. At around the same time, Jianjun posted a clip of engine sound to social media which has been interpreted as belonging to the bike. With the Beijing auto show due to kick off on April 25 and this ramping up of publicity, it’s not a huge leap of logic to suggest the first GWM bike might make its debut at the event.


Chinese billionaire Wei Jianjun was recently seen on social media with the not-so-conspicuously-hidden touring machine set up in the background. (GWM/)The bike itself is unlikely to go under the GWM brand, which already has multiple arms. The GWM name is used on pickup trucks, while the company uses the brands Haval and Tank on its SUVs, Ora on its electric cars, and Wey on its luxury people carriers. The bikes are expected to get their own distinct brand name when officially launched.

Of course, with the new eight-cylinder machines now all but confirmed for production, we’ve had a dig around in the patent filings to see what information is out there. It turns out Great Wall has filed several patent applications for elements of the bikes. The images accompanying the patents clearly show the flat-eight engine, with a design that takes its cues from Honda’s Gold Wing but ups the ante in several areas. The engine capacity is believed to be around the 2,000cc mark, a little higher than the 1,833cc of the current Wing, and of course it has two extra cylinders, but the layout—with the transmission mounted underneath the engine to keep the package shorter than it would otherwise be—is much the same. Just like Honda, GWM intends to use a dual-clutch, semi-automatic gearbox in the bike with a shaft final drive.


This complex engine is believed to be around 2,000cc. (GWM/)While the Gold Wing uses a single-overhead-cam layout, the GWM features two cams per head. Along with the extra cylinders and capacity, that should help increase the performance. When it comes to cooling, the engine’s longitudinal crankshaft and flat cylinder layout lends itself to the same solution that Honda uses, which are ducted radiators mounted above the cylinder banks on each side.


Unlike the Gold Wing, this engine utilizes double-overhead cams for each cylinder bank. (GWM/)The tourer is the only model seen in Wei Jianjun’s video, and it clearly has a similar shape to the Gold Wing. That’s not surprising given the engine layout, but the Honda tribute seems to go a step further as it appears that the front suspension uses a Hossack-style girder fork rather than a telescopic, just like the latest Wing. The frame, seen in earlier spy pictures, also follows a similar pattern to the Honda’s, and appears to be cast in aluminum. China’s motor industry is well aware that aping the best existing technology is a valuable shortcut when it comes to entering new parts of the market, and it would be no surprise if some real Gold Wings have been reverse-engineered to arrive at similar solutions for the chassis as well as the engine.


Like the Gold Wing, the new engine will use a pair of side-mounted radiators that are fed air by ducts on the side of the motorcycle. (GWM/)The second model wasn’t seen in the latest video, but spy shots taken last year showed it had very similar styling to the old Honda Rune. It also has a different chassis to the tourer, with a longer, lower stance and—unlike the Rune—conventional telescopic forks.


A second model said to resemble Honda’s Rune from the early 2000s is also thought to be in production. Motorcyclist MagazineWe’ll be watching with interest to see where GWM’s motorcycle plans go. It’s a company with no shortage of funds (Wei himself is listed by Forbes as China’s 13th-richest billionaire, with a fortune of $12.2B) and huge R&D and manufacturing resources. While massive flat-eight tourers and cruisers might not be big sellers, they’re an ideal halo product range and instantly one-up rival Chinese companies, many of which are just starting to launch their first four-cylinder bikes.