There's Now A Flat-Eight-Powered Bike From China

Coming from Great Wall Motor, the Souo S2000 GL looks to go two better than the Honda Gold Wing

21 May 2024

It’s not often you see a motorcycle with more than four cylinders. Flat and straight-sixes have cropped up from time to time, but the engine powering this bike is even weirder - it’s a flat-eight.

Built by Great Wall Motor, the company we know best in the UK for producing the car no longer called the Ora Funky Cat, it’s called the Souo S2000 GL. The name, by the way, means ‘Search Own, Unlimited Outlook and is the chivalry spirit of self-pursuit, unlimited vision’, which perhaps doesn’t work as well in translation as we imagine GWM would have hoped.

But anyway - the engine. It displaces around 2,000cc, features dual overhead camshafts, and yes, there are separate crank pins for every piston making it a 'proper' boxer engine as opposed to a flattened V8. Power makes its way to the rear wheel via a dual-clutch transmission with what sounds like a crawler gear for manoeuvring. Handy, as this thing isn’t going to be light.

Looking at the bike, it’s clear GWM wants to pinch some Honda Gold Wing sales. From a technical standpoint, it betters the Gold Wing not just in terms of cylinder count, but also by displacement (1,833cc vs ~2,000cc), camshafts (the Honda is SOHC) and even the number of gears – eight compared to seven. That’s a game of Top Trumps well and truly won, although we don’t yet know how much power or torque the S2000 GL makes.

We do at least know there’s a fancy, widescreen 12.3-inch touchscreen digital cockpit, and an electronic parking brake. You also get an electrically adjustable windscreen, heated seats, an eight-speed sound system and 118 litres of cargo capacity.

The front suspension system is particularly interesting, featuring a Hossack-style setup with a girder fork and single shock absorber which makes it possible to soften up the damping without the bike pitching or diving so much under acceleration/braking. The suspension is also electronically controlled.