Rightly or wrongly, it’s often assumed that Chinese motorcycles are copies—sometimes even outright rip-offs—of popular, more established models. And while this is true in many cases, there are a few made-in-China bikes that seek to break the mold.
A new touring machine from automotive giant Great Wall Motors (GWM) looks to be the perfect example of this.
GWM is a brand I’ve had quite a lot of experience with, as it’s gaining a lot of traction here in the Philippines, as well as in other Asian markets. It sells a wide selection of cars, hybrids, and EVs under two main brands: Haval and GWM. But motorcycles? No way.
As it would turn out, GWM is serious about entering the motorcycle market. Heck, it’s even put up a new subsidiary called Great Wall Souo Motorcycle. And it has quite a daring concept as its debut model. Something with eight cylinders.
Yeah, you read that right.
As of the moment, the bike doesn’t yet have a name, but it’s set to be a grand-tourer a la Honda Gold Wing—but even bigger. For some reason, someone in China thought that a 1,833cc flat-six engine was too small. The solution? A boxer eight-cylinder engine. And while the exact displacement remains to be disclosed, it’s expected to be north of 2,000 cubes. Pretty crazy, right?
This information was revealed by GWM’s Chief of Design Andrew Dyson during a company conference highlighting the brand’s plans for the future. Having made the rounds in the automotive industry, Dyson previously worked with Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler, and Opel.
He says he’s ridden the prototype of this eight-cylinder monstrosity and that it was amazing—obviously a biased comment, but I won’t be surprised if it is amazing to ride.
As for the bike itself, we don’t know just yet what sort of tech and features it’ll be rocking; we only have a silhouette to go by. Nevertheless, it’s clear that it's a honker of a bike, with its streamlined bodywork giving off cruiser/tourer vibes akin to that of the Honda Gold Wing or BMW K 1600. As such, in true Chinese fashion, we can expect this thing to be chock full of techie gadgets—perhaps even the latest adaptive cruise control we’re seeing from top-grade tourers.
Seeing Chinese manufacturers roll out crazy innovations like this is proof that these companies aren’t going anywhere. If anything, they’re just getting bigger, stronger, and more technologically advanced. That being said, the question remains: do we really need an eight-cylinder grand tourer? I don’t think anyone finds the Honda Gold Wing lacking in terms of long-distance capability.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see to find out.
