The new eight-cylinder Great Wall Souo S2000 ST and GL tourers will have 113kW engines and weigh as much as 461kg. This makes them around 20 percent more powerful and heavier than their main competitor, Honda’s Goldwing. While Great Wall Souo hasn’t revealed any details, AMCN has secured this information via leaked type-approval documents seen in China.

Designed specifically to take on Honda’s GL1800 Goldwing and Goldwing Tour, the two Souo models are hugely ambitious. They’re the first motorcycles that Great Wall Motor has ever made but designed to go head-to-head with the biggest flagship models in Honda’s range. It makes for an impressive statement of intent, and the new figures show that as well as out-gunning the Goldwing in cylinder-count and capacity, the two models are more powerful and heavier.

RECAP

In case you missed the S2000 GL and ST’s launch at the Beijing International Motorcycle Exhibition last month, they pack a purpose-made, DOHC, flat-eight engine – giving two extra cylinders and a couple of hundred cubic centimetres advantage over the Goldwing. It’s bolted to an eight-speed, dual-clutch, seamless-shift, semi-automatic transmission – that’s one gear more than the Honda’s seven-speed DCT can offer – and a chassis that mirrors the Goldwing’s design with aluminium spars and a Hossack-style girder front fork set-up. Throw in technology, including a vast 12.3-inch TFT screen that oversees at least as many electronic gadgets as the Goldwing has, and it’s undeniably impressive. 

The S2000 GL compares with the Goldwing Tour, with a top case and armchair-style pillion seat, while the S2000 ST is a slightly lighter model with side cases only, more like the base-model Goldwing currently in Honda’s line-up.

TECH DETAILS

Great Wall Souo, a subsidiary of carmaker Great Wall Motor and created specifically as the company’s motorcycle-making arm, hasn’t released the power or weight of the two bikes, but those figures are now in the public domain thanks to leaked official type-approval documents.

They confirm that the flat-eight engine’s exact capacity is 1999cc, with a bore and stroke of around 68mm by 69mm to give nearly ‘square’ internal dimensions. This will put the emphasis on low-rev torque rather than high-end peak power. 

Honda’s Goldwing, by comparison, has 1833cc from six cylinders, with a square 73mm x 73mm bore and stroke measurement. While the ’Wing manages 93kW (124.7hp) from its six, the Souo bikes hit a peak of 113kW (151.5hp) – a 21.5 percent power advantage over the Honda from only nine percent more capacity – which bodes well for the performance of the two Chinese bikes. 

Both versions have a certified top speed of 210km/h, while the Goldwing is electronically limited to 180km/h.

DIMENSIONS

The Chinese bikes are also bigger and heavier than their Japanese counterparts.

In DCT form, the Goldwing Tour weighs in at a hefty 390kg ready-to-ride, but the full-fat S2000 GL that competes with it is rated at 461kg. Meanwhile the non-Tour version of the Goldwing, with the DCT box, is 367kg, while the S2000 ST weighs 450kg. 

That extra mass is due to physical dimensions that are also substantially larger than the ’Wing’s.

Both versions of the S2000 sit on a 1810mm wheelbase, a substantial 115mm more than the 1695mm of the two Goldwing models. 

The overall length of 2660mm compares to 2475mm for the Honda, and the Chinese bike is wider, too, at 950mm instead of 905mm.

The new type-approval documents confirm that the Souo bikes ride on the same wheel and tyre sizes as the Goldwing – 130/70-18 at the front, 200/55-16 at the rear – and that the Brembo brake system uses Bosch ABS, showing that the company is happy to use top-spec European components rather than Chinese-made equivalents.

WHEN AND WHAT ELSE?

Production is due to begin in the next month or so.

Souo is already planning a third model based on the same eight-cylinder engine but with cruiser-style bodywork reminiscent of the Honda Rune and F6C Valkyrie.     

WORDS: BEN PURVIS