It is precisely on this latter theme that the Chinese company Zongshen has been making headlines in recent years with its premium Cyclone brand, and the latest news revealed by our colleagues at Cycleworld speaks of a further expansion of the range.
I don’t think many can object to the liveliness of the Chinese market and the “biodiversity” of proposals coming from the East. For many reasons – including a huge market capable of absorbing tens of thousands of units, even for a small public order – Chinese manufacturers are one of the few who, in addition to platform logic, are pursuing ambitious projects such as 1000 cc V4 engines or, through agreements with other manufacturers, can bring back engines or entire vehicles that are no longer current or have not found a market in Europe.
But let’s go in order, so that we have a better idea of what’s happening in Asia and what could also have repercussions in Europe. Zongshen, in addition to producing a wide range of small-cylinder motorcycles, is a true colossus with a partnership of more than twenty years with Piaggio through Piaggio Zongshen Foshan, mainly dedicated to the production of some models of the Aprilia, Piaggio and Vespa brands, such as the Aprilia GPR250R, aimed at the domestic and Southeast Asian markets. But there’s more, as we saw at the 2021 Chongqing Motor Show, Zongshen, through the Cyclone brand, presented new models and the RA9 concept, a naked bike based on the Aprilia Shiver/Dorsoduro 900 platform. What’s more, it seems that, at least in Asia, the Gilera brand may find a new lease of life, since about a year ago “strange” prototypes were found on Chinese roads that would confirm this hypothesis.
In parallel with this collaboration, in 2017 Zongshen signed an agreement with the British company Norton (then headed by Stuart Gartner) to exploit the 650 cc Atlas twin-cylinder engines from the front end of the 1200 cc liquid-cooled twin-shaft V4 used in the V4SV super sports bike and the V4CR streetfighter. Norton was subsequently bought by India’s TVS in 2020, but under the previous agreement, Zongshen was able to develop and present its Cyclone RX6 in China in 2021, a crossover equipped with the Norton-derived in-line twin-cylinder engine (among other things, displaying the entire 1200 cc V4 engine on its stand at the 2021 Chongqing Motor Show) and then its 850 cc big sister developed on the same technical basis.
The Cyclone RX6, which later evolved into the RX650, has top-of-the-range equipment, including an inertial platform and a front camera, as well as QuickShift, traction control and cornering ABS.
To complete the range and in the same platform logic, drawings are now emerging that would show how this platform is evolving, with a Scrambler very similar in terms of general layout to the RX6, thus sharing the performance of the 650 cc in-line twin-cylinder engine with 71 hp at 8,500 and 62 Nm of torque at 7,000 rpm (and who knows, maybe it could also be born directly from 850 cc, with an impressive 98 hp). Apart from the drawings, no other news is known about this bike, which could also be presented at one of the upcoming Chinese shows.
Will it also be imported here? At the time of the RX6’s launch, it was stated that, after the start of sales in the Chinese market, the Crossover would also arrive in Europe: it’s logical to think that the same could happen with the Scrambler, although we await further news.