This Motorcycle hailing from China gets an 8-cylinder engine – To Rival Honda Gold Wing
Where four-wheel manufacturers are looking to downsize their engine capacities, Two-wheel manufacturers are going big with their lineups.
Ever thought the Honda Goldwing with its six-cylinder engine is just not enough for a production motorcycle? Folks at Great Wall Motors thought so and decided to do one better or two better in this case – GMW a Chinese Automobile Company is in the process of building a rival to Honda’s infamous Gold wing the epitome of two-wheeled luxury and in a bid to take the fight to Honda, GWM’s challenger will get a eight-cylinder engine in its arsenal, that’s two more than Gold Wing.
This unnamed Tourer hailing from China will reportedly get an eight-cylinder engine Unfortunately, it won’t be a V8 as some petrol head would’ve assumed by now –but, it’ll be in a straight-line configuration, regardless still an eight-cylinder motor.
Exact Power figures are still under wraps but considering the Honda Gold Wing makes around 125hp, this one should also be around those figures –it’s not just in the numbers of cylinders GWM is trumping the Honda it also doubles up on cams – GWM gets a double-overhead camshaft whereas the Gold Wing gets a single cam configuration.
The patent documents that have been circulating illustrate a Semi-automatic gearbox that’s placed underneath the engine presumably to keep the overall length of the Motorcycle in check, an Engineering design preference taken from the Honda Gold Wing –Other engineering elements that are inspired by the Honda are the Aluminum cast frame and a front girder fork quite similar to the Gold Wing.
This 2000cc or so eight-cylinder engine is also set to be deployed in a Cruiser-type motorcycle also built by Great Wall Motors- but so far only a glimpse of the tourer has been sighted in the background of a video posted on the social media channels of Wei Jianjun, Worlds 13th Richest individual and a owner of Great Wall Motors.
What exactly will this motorcycle be called is still a secret and knowing GWMs’ course of actions with their varied automobile arms named under different nomenclature – it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume this Motorcycle may or may not be guised under a new brand name under GMW umbrella.
Regardless of what it’ll be called or will it even be as good as the Honda Gold Wing – One thing I realized during the research for this piece that i felt a certain degree of satisfaction from the mere fact that in a world where reputed brands known for their bratty engines are shifting their focus towards more sustainable yet boring alternatives Motorcycle such as these tourers are still sticking to their basics and even perhaps going up a notch in GWM case with their 8 cylinder Engine.
Now, this is no news -Motorcycles with extremely high capacity and cylinder real estate in their engine block there are quite a few examples out there, but those bikes were shackled by their heritage but a brand like GWM which hasn’t shied away from being innovative or slightly left fielded choosing to go all out in their Motorcycle endeavor is quite satisfying and that’s something I’ll take away from this article.
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