Chinese Boxer 8 Cylinder Engine

[sodbuster]

Chinese Flat Eight Cylinder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K5o-eApDzQ

https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-n ... ming-soon/

[Whiskerfish]

Interesting. Seems a lot of the basic design is borrowed from the Wing.

[CYBORG]

A lot of Chinese looks good on the outside, but I would take it apart and check the inside before I would be comfortable with it

[Lucien Harpress]

That's more compact than I was expecting. Definitely interesting.

[sodbuster]

You have to admit .... it's a smart looking power plant

Screenshot 2024-05-07 8 cylinder.png

[dontwantapickle]

It looks like a reverse engineered Goldwing engine.
Dual overhead cams sound like a possible improvement.
I'd think that if a 8 cylinder engine was a good idea, Honda would have already done it.

But like they say... Bigger is Better, right?

[Sidecar Bob]

Nearly everything is inspired by something else. I was once told a story that Honda sent one of their people to the US to learn what Americans really wanted in a motorcycle. Among other things the people from American Honda took him to several of the large rallies and at one of those he saw a bike with a VW engine, probably with a BMW conversion. The story goes that he became very excited, bought the bike and had it shipped to Japan and a few years later the first GoldWing rolled off the assembly line.

Whether that actually happened I have no idea but it was very possible. From what I've read, Dr. Porsche based the engine/transmission interface for the VW (& later the cars with his own name) on the design used on BMW motorcycles. This not only facilitated a number of weird & wonderful military vehicles during the war but also made possible the many VW engined BMW bikes people built after the war (heck, I even contemplated putting a VW engine into a Dnepr before I bought my first 'Wing).
GoldWings have their shafts on the right like the BMW boxers (most other shaft drive bikes have the shaft on the left) and if you have ever looked closely at a VW engine you will know that the 'Wing engine has a number of similarities.

All of which is to say that I doubt that the GWM actually reverse engineered a 'Wing but more likely is (wisely) taking heavy inspiration from the closest thing to what they are building that is already on the market.
I also wonder if this is intended as a serious production model or if it is intended to make a statement in the marketplace (along the lines of Honda's Rune).

[CYBORG]

Tiime will tell

[Sidecar Bob]

As long as it isn't another Amazonas