Zongshen Cyclone RX6 hits the market
By Ben Purvis
It has been a while since Norton showed the 650 cc parallel twin developed from its 1200 cc V4 superbike engine, and thanks to the company's subsequent bankruptcy and rebirth under TVS ownership, it's going to be a while longer before you can buy one. But riders in China can now get their hands on the same engine thanks to Zongshen's licence-made version powering the company's new RX6 adventure bike.
Recently given a press launch in China, the RX6 looks impressive, not only thanks to that British-developed engine, but due to some high levels of equipment, including at least one idea we've yet to see on any Western production bike.
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The engine itself started life being engineered for Norton by the experts at Ricardo, who had also created the V4 superbike engine it's derived from. However, the Norton bankruptcy clearly interrupted its development and Zongshen, which names its version 'ND650', had to invest its own R&D into turning the designs into a showroom-ready engine, altering some internal components. It was also a learning journey for Zongshen and the Chinese bike industry as a whole, since the advanced design of the twin included wear-resistant coatings that were not previously mass-made in China.
Zongshen says its version of the engine has completed 33 reliability tests, including 20,000 cycles of the electric starter and a 400-hour intensive dyno run as well as four 1600-hour endurance runs. Zongshen is also manufacturing the transmission, which the company points out was developed for the original Norton 1200, and therefore massively strong for the 650 engine.
There have been suggestions in China that in the longer term, Zongshen also intends to manufacture a licence-built version of the Ricardo 1200 cc V4, and its experience with the 650 will certainly put it in a good position to do so.
The RX6 sees the engine making 70 hp. It is bolted to a steel frame fitted with upside down forks, radial Nissin brakes with Bosch ABS. Despite the adventure-style stance, the 17-inch alloy wheels and road-oriented tyres show that it is really aimed at on-road touring; 17" wire wheels are an option. Coming in at 245 kg complete with fuel, it's not a lightweight machine, but Zongshen has packed the RX6 with kit, including an unusual twin camera set-up - one front facing, one at the back, both able to simultaneously stream images to the TFT dashboard.
At the moment, the big remaining question is whether the RX6 will be sold outside China. With strong demand inside that country at the moment, and production expected to ramp up over time, it may be a while before we're able to get our hands on the machine, but Zongshen has often sold bikes in Europe, so it's likely that the RX6 will be available in other markets eventually.
