Shut up and take my money (new chinese bike that needs my butt)

GWM Souo S2000.

GWM Souo Flat-eight Tourer Revealed | Cycle World

This thing DRIPS style to me.  Pricing will keep me out of the loop for a while, but jeezis I like this more than I should.

Looks like they put too much air in it.

They don't say what it weighs but I bet it's a lot. Yamaha's last Royal Star came in over 780lbs.

Flat eight should be impressive. 

Dear god they actually are trying to take on Harley and Honda. I wish them luck but the Goldwing and the Ultra's are just about perfect after decades of refinements. 

Is there any indication they intend to export this or will it be solely for the home market?  

I already want to put that engine in places it does not belong...

At a glance, it looks like it says "Squid" on the fairing.

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

Is there any indication they intend to export this or will it be solely for the home market?  

There will probably be people in China who buy one, but I can't imagine trying to ride that behemoth in a country full of scooters.  (I once spent most of a year riding a Vespa around in Taiwan so I have some relevant experience.)

In reply to stuart in mn :

I watched a small Asian man try to back a Honda Rune into a parking space at bike night.

I'm sure that barge is made for export.

While I may be stuck buying Chinese made things like Harbor Freight items, when it comes to big ticket purchases like cars and bikes I just won't give them my money. I know they are capable of making decent products these days, but...just can't. 

I'm also seeing the prices of a lot of these things not offering the substantial savings over similar bikes they have blatantly copied. 

nocones said:

I already want to put that engine in places it does not belong...

This is one of my favorite reactions on the forum when talking about a new vehicle.

"Forget the rest of the thing, when can I get my hands on the engine?"

In reply to Colin Wood :

True... the idea of a 2 liter, H8 backed by a DCT (that I'm sure has a reverse gear) with shaft drive to the rear wheel can generate a ton of day-dreaming possibilities... 

stuart in mn said:

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

Is there any indication they intend to export this or will it be solely for the home market?  

There will probably be people in China who buy one, but I can't imagine trying to ride that behemoth in a country full of scooters.  (I once spent most of a year riding a Vespa around in Taiwan so I have some relevant experience.)

Details right now are very limited.  I probably read 6 or 7 articles on it hoping for that info, but they haven't released it yet.

I do find it strange that they would design and engineer something so ridiculously North-American looking and not ship it over here.  I can't imagine it has much of a market in Asia.  The West has that craving for bloated, overpowered, flashy, bacon-wrapped chunks of vehicle that doesn't seem to be shared anywhere else.

ddavidv said:

While I may be stuck buying Chinese made things like Harbor Freight items, when it comes to big ticket purchases like cars and bikes I just won't give them my money. I know they are capable of making decent products these days, but...just can't. 

I'm also seeing the prices of a lot of these things not offering the substantial savings over similar bikes they have blatantly copied. 

 

I don't disagree.  Part of me is happy that China is slowly moving in a more democratic direction, but they're still pretty low on the humanitarian scale.

My big hangup would be parts availability.  Unless GWM starts a massive endeavor of dealers and parts distribution in the states, I'm not buying a bike out of a crate if I can't get an oil filter or a spark plug.

nocones said:

I already want to put that engine in places it does not belong...

Truth. I've drooled over the Honda flat 6 for a while but a flat 8. 

Make sure you have friends riding with you, one mere human ain't lifting that up!

I don't get the appeal of big cruisers, but that's ok. To each their own. I'd love to put a motor like that in a small car -  makes me think of the Alfa-Romeo 2.6 V8, one of the greatest sounding cars ever. But I fear that this motor is so detuned and civilized that it's personality wouldn't match a little Fiat/Locost/whatever.

To my eye, it is indistinguishable from a 1-2 generation old Goldwing, minus the LED headlight redesign and blacked out trim/engine:

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I likely won't own one as a daily, but I just love the styling, and I love the excess.  I'm in the market for a ST or AT bike, and this just happened to make me drool.

It's kind of like seeing a Ferarri.  I admire it, but I don't want to own one

Ok, I kinda want to own one of these bikes, though.

Along similar lines, there's this (older):

https://www.visordown.com/news/new-bikes/cfmoto-cf1250j-biggest-chinese-motorcycle-ever

and this:

https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-news/china-big-bike-revolution

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I likely won't own one as a daily, but I just love the styling, and I love the excess. 

Your bike was already built, and it's 'Murican.

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

But I fear that this motor is so detuned and civilized that it's personality wouldn't match a little Fiat/Locost/whatever.

Nothing a set of cams and a little compression can't fix :) Although it's always going to be longer than a V8 and considerably wider, which might make the Locost packaging a challenge.

A flat 8 is not a common engine format (is it flat or a boxer?). But one place it was used was the Porsche 906 in 2l form, just like this one. Hmmm, who do we know who's building a Porsche 906?

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/porsche-906/268990/page1/

In reply to Keith Tanner :

But I'm assuming the 906 engine was air-cooled? 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Details.

In reply to ddavidv :

Those Visions are hideous. 

Keith Tanner said

.....A flat 8 is not a common engine format (is it flat or a boxer?). But one place it was used was the Porsche 906 in 2l form, just like this one. Hmmm, who do we know who's building a Porsche 906?

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/porsche-906/268990/page1/

I think the Porsche factory also built a 914-8 for one of the Porsche family that was road legal ,  Aircooled of course :)