For over a year now, there has been persistent talk of the Gilera brand returning to the market. The Arcore brand is part of the same Piaggio family that includes Moto Guzzi and Aprilia, not forgetting Laverda, another name that is not yet actively present on the market.
Rumors of a Gilera comeback have also been fueled by some test photos showing a family motorcycle parked near Zongshen’s headquarters in China. For those who don’t know, Zongshen Piaggio Foshan Motorcycle is the joint company of the Piaggio Group and Zongshen Industry that produces some Piaggio and Aprilia vehicles, as well as its own specific range. Some of its vehicles don’t or won’t see our market, although at EICMA 2023 the presence of Zonsen (the brand’s new name) drew attention to its Cyclone brand with the Adventure RX650 and the RE5 roadster.
Those test photos have now been followed – more than a year later – by some renderings published by Cycleworld colleagues (which have reached us thanks to Chinese homologation documents) that show two different versions of this bike, which is definitely derived from the Aprilia Shiver 900 (or, in any case, from the platform that the naked bike shared with the Dorsoduro 900) in terms of frame and 900 cc twin-cylinder engine, not to mention the fairings. A bike that was never updated to Euro 5 standards and was therefore withdrawn from the market, but which with the Gilera brand (which we see in the patent drawings of a Zonsen engine apparently very similar to the one that equipped the Shiver, an engine then exhibited with the same markings at the Chinese Motor Show in Chongqing) could have a second generation, especially in eastern markets.
Why two different versions? It’s highly unlikely that the Gilera-Zonsen will be presented in two different versions on the market – if and when it reaches production – but it seems possible that the second version, with a more modern set of headlights and different radiators (in almost every other respect, the two versions look identical), will renew a look that was conceived at least a decade ago and in which under-seat exhausts (now rare in current production) were the main feature.
It is known that Zonsen, through the Cyclone brand, is about to put the RA9 into production, a “power cruiser” presented a few years ago as a concept and based on the same platform as the Shiver 900, but the – alleged – Gilera would be a very different bike and the same use of the Arcore brand could open the door to international markets more easily. For the moment, there are no official statements or confirmations from Zonsen, so it’s very difficult to imagine if and when we’ll see the hypothetical Gilera 900 in its final form.