Chinese V-twin was first shown four years ago
The Cyclone SR1000 – first shown back in 2021 as the RA9 concept bike – is nearing production at last and has been type-approved in China in its showroom-ready form.
Cyclone is the brand used by Zonsen (formerly Zongshen) for its higher-end models, and the SR1000 will be the biggest machine it’s made yet.
The styling might be new, but sharp-eyed bike-spotters might find there’s something familiar about the V-twin engine and the half-trellis, half-alloy chassis it sits in: they’re from the Aprilia Shiver that was discontinued back in 2021 when it was forced off the European market by Euro4 emissions rules.
That’s because Zonsen and Piaggio, Aprilia’s parent company, are partners in the Zongshen-Piaggio joint venture in China, manufacturing several Aprilia models for the Chinese market. Most recently, the venture has revived the Shiver 900, launched as a 2025 model in China, and the same components also feature in the new SR1000.
Not exactly the same, though. As well as its own styling, the Cyclone gets a single-sided swingarm and a different engine spec. Where the Aprilia uses the same 896cc engine that last featured on the old Shiver 900, with 70kW, the Cyclone SR1000 has a 996cc version with 78.5kW. That increase is achieved by boosting the bore from 92mm to 97mm, retaining the same 67.4mm stroke. That’s not a tough challenge, as the essentially the same engine was also developed in the past into 1197cc form for the Aprilia Shiver 1200 and Dorsoduro 1200, with a 106mm bore.
The new SR1000’s curb weight is listed in its type-approval as 225kg, which is 5kg more than the reborn Shiver 900, with a top speed of 235km/h, up from 210km/h. As well as the single-sided swingarm, it also gets a vast 240/45-17 rear tyre instead of the Shiver’s 180/55-17, and much more aggressive styling than the Aprilia model.
Previously, the same V-twin engine and Shiver chassis was expected to appear in a Chinese made bike that would revive the Gilera name, with multiple design registrations emerging showing Gilera-branded engine covers and a complete bike – the GLR900 – built around the same components.
