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Great Wall Motors is a huge automaker out of China. I’ve already reported on its compact pickup trucks with catchy names such as the Great Wall Wingle and King Kong Canon. It also builds SUVs such as the “Tank” under its Haval brand. Well it looks like GWM is getting into the motorcycle game. In a big way.

You might think of Chinese vehicles as compact affairs. But GWM is busting out of this mold with oversized rigs such as its trucks and SUVs. It is applying much the same formula to its first motorcycle. It appears GWM has benchmarked the Honda Goldwing, with its flat-six engine, and one-upped it in every way.

GWM revealed the first images of its motorcycle in an interesting way. GWM’s owner, billionaire Wei Jianjun posted a video about a completely different vehicle, but carefully positioned a motorcycle in the background. It is mostly covered, but an upturned corner of the cover shows a large red cruiser motorcycle.

If this wasn’t enough confirmation, Jianjun then posted an audio clip of a motorcycle engine. A little digging shows a GWM patent for a flat-eight engine. Unlike the Goldwing’s single cam design, the GWM motor uses two cams per head. And of course it also has eight cylinders. A ballpark calculation says it ups the Goldwing’s 1,833 cc displacement to about 2,000 cc.

Blueprint of a flat-eight motorcycle engine by Great Wall Motors
Flat-eight motorcycle engine patent | Great Wall Motors

Like the Goldwing, this GWM has a dual-clutch, semi-automatic transmission packaged beneath the engine to keep the powertrain shorter. The bike in the video even has front suspension very similar to the Goldwing’s Hossack-style girder fork. I wouldn’t be shocked if GWM actually reverse-engineered some Goldwing components on this bike. It’s “Wingle” did, after all, start life as a Toyota clone. But it has evolved in subsequent generations.

There may well be a similar model in production. Spy shots have shown a stripped-down GWM bike, though it still has the flat-eight engine. In Honda parlance, this would be the Rune.

So, would your ride a 2,000-cc eight-cylinder cruiser motorcycle made in China? Let’s hope it takes a page out of the King Kong Canon’s book with a dope name. Great Wall Motors Godzilla, perhaps?

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Staff Writer

Henry Cesari

Henry Cesari joined MotorBiscuit in 2021 and brings his deep interest in vintage cars, trucks, and motorcycles to the site. Having restored his first classic car at just 16 years old, Henry has wrenched on everything from overland campers to Japanese motorcycles and even pre-war Bugattis. Henry is also an avid attendee at local car shows and genuinely enjoys connecting with fellow auto enthusiasts.

Henry earned a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and English from the University of Vermont. He has since incorporated his love of the written word with his admiration of classic cars. While Henry is interested in vintage cars, he believes the golden age of cars is yet to come. He is confident journalists will play an important role in this revolution by exposing the industry as it is now and envisioning its possible future.