GWM Patent Engine Designed to Take on V6
These days there seems to be only one certainty, and that is that change is occurring faster than most people are willing to accept. Over the last eight years in particular, there has been a huge blowback in North America, and to a lesser extent in Europe against both electric motorcycles and foreign-built motorcycles both electric and ICE designs, notably those from China and India.
Well, get prepared for their entry into the heavy-weight bagger market. GWM (Great Wall Motor) is an established giant in the global motor industry that intends to take its expertise in building motors into the motorcycle world. Wei Jianjun, a Chinese Billionaire provided a glimpse of the new motorcycle on April 25th. In very short order, Harley Davidson, Indian, and Honda will all likely need to take note.
Cycle World discovered the patent applications for some of the bike’s components, including a new eight-cylinder machine that they claim is now “all but confirmed for production.”
The engine seems to take its design from Honda’s Gold Wing. The engine displacement is believed to be around 2000cc, with the transmission mounted underneath the engine to keep the entire package compact. It illustrates a dual-clutch, semi-automatic gearbox with shaft drive.
The engine also illuminates a dual overhead cam for each head or four overhead cams. Two ducted radiators one for each cylinder bank will provide the cooling.
Rather than offering telescopic forks, the bike’s suspension uses a Hossack style girder fork as seen in the following photograph.
GWM’s motorcycle plans are a quantum shift from other Chinese motorcycle manufacturers who are just beginning to manufacture their first four-cylinder motorcycles. It’s obvious with the resources that Mr. Wei brings to this endeavor (his net worth is 12.2 Billion dollars) that the necessary R&D and development dollars won’t be hard to come by.
Cycle World suggests that the result may have some resemblance to Honda’s Rune motorcycle from the early 2000’s (as seen at the top of this article). Time will tell. One thing is for certain, and that is that Chinese motorcycles are entering the market in North America and Europe in ever-increasing numbers. and if CFMoto is any example, they are here to stay.
Thanks to Cycle World for the inspiration and the photographs.
One last thought is called for. On Sunday I was at a Show and Shine event in Grand Forks, ND. As I was looking at a beautifully restored Honda VFR Interceptor 800, a Harley Davidson owner, wearing every piece of Harley clothing available to man, said. “I’d never own a piece of Jap Crap.” I couldn’t contain my smile.
Last year Harley Davidson sold 0.93333% of Mr. Honda’s motorcycles.
Yup, less than 1%. I wonder where HD will be in ten years compared to the Chinese products?
Ciao…
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