China readies yet another CBR650R rival
It’s increasingly hard to keep up with the onslaught of impressive new bikes appearing from Chinese companies that seem to appear from nowhere with readymade ranges to rival big-name brands from Europe and Japan and now Cyclone – the upmarket arm of Zongshen – is set to expand into the sports bike arena with the upcoming RC700.
Seen here in design registration images, the RC700 has been in Cyclone’s plans for a while. The company previewed the bike as the RC680R at shows back in 2023, following that with a revised version, the RC700R, at 2024 events. These new images, labelled simple ‘RC700’ in their accompanying paperwork, appear to show a more advanced version of the idea that’s likely to be closer to the final production model.
Like several other Chinese brands, Zongshen appears to be drawing more than a little inspiration from Honda’s CB650R/CBR650R four-cylinder engine for the new model. That motor has already provided a blueprint for an array of models appearing from rivals, with both QJMotor and Benda offering models that have very similar motors – each built by their respective manufacturers, but with clear ties to the original Honda engine that suggest they’ve been reverse-engineered. Details like clutch and generator covers that share the same bolt-pattern as the Honda engine, not to mention the same, distinctive exhaust layout with four header pipes sweeping to the righthand side, all provide clear hints that the Cyclone engine borrows from the existing Japanese design.
The earlier RC680R and RC700R show bikes both claimed a 674cc capacity and a power output of around 100hp, and the same is expected to apply to the version seen here, but the new bike makes a distinct shift away from the earlier show versions when it comes to the chassis and styling.
Both the previous designs featured a beam frame that looked, like the engine, very much like it had come from a Honda CBR650R. The initial RC680R paired it to a single-sided swingarm, while the RC700R had a toned-down, dual-sided setup. For the new design seen here, the chassis is completely new, with an MV-style arrangement of a tubular front section mated to a cast alloy rear part clamping the swingarm pivot. The swingarm, too, is new, appearing to be cast aluminium and with a substantial underslung brace, in turn requiring a redesigned exhaust system, which exits from twin, stacked silencers high on the righthand side where the earlier iteration of the bike had a belly-mounted silencer and exhaust exit just ahead of the rear wheel.
The new styling clearly takes its cues from MotoGP, with vast front winglets and a front mudguard that extends down to form a cowl around the four-pot, radial-mount brakes. At the front a small, central headlight is flanked by two large air intakes, a sharp step away from the earlier prototypes, which each had dual, side-by-side headlights.
While Cyclone is Zongshen’s high-end brand, promising bikes including the RX650 adventure bike – built around a liquid-cooled parallel twin engine that was developed for the stillborn Norton Atlas 650 models that were shown in 2018 but axed after Norton’s collapse and subsequent buyout by India’s TVS – and the upcoming RA1000, a 996cc V-twin developed from the Aprilia Shiver, the company’s global expansion is a step or two behind rivals like CFMoto and QJMotor. In China, however, Cyclone is already a direct competitor for those companies, and its plans include expansion in Europe and other markets in the coming year.