A new three-cylinder literbike is promised from this Chinese bike brand.
A three-cylinder 1,000cc naked superbike to rival the likes of Triumph’s Speed Triple RS sounds like a tempting proposition—but it’s not the sort of thing you’d expect to emerge from China’s motorcycle industry. While there’s no doubting China’s ability to build cheap bikes, the country’s manufacturers aren’t renowned for either high quality or high performance. Even so, Zontes—one of the country’s newer motorcycle marques—has now shown the first images of a three-cylinder engine, around 1,000cc in capacity and promising serious performance potential, that’s set to be the basis of a whole range of models intended to compete directly with Japanese and European brands.
Zontes is one of China’s younger bike brands. Its parent company, Guangdong Tayo Motorcycle Technology, was founded in 2003, with a focus on high tech and advanced manufacturing. Tayo has three brands under its umbrella: Haojiang, which makes unremarkable, small-capacity commuter bikes and scooters; Kiden, which focuses on higher-spec small bikes with more advanced tech including DOHC water-cooled engines and cast alloy chassis parts; and Zontes, which tackles larger-capacity models.
“Larger” is relative though; Zontes’ current range is made up of a selection of 312cc DOHC water-cooled single-cylinder machines, albeit with unusually high-spec components including single-sided alloy swingarms on some models and KTM-style, externally braced, cast alloy swingarms on others, all allied to upside-down forks. Zontes already sells those bikes throughout Europe, where they’ve been met with generally positive reviews, but the company has been open in acknowledging that it lacks a larger-capacity multicylinder engine to step up to the next class.
While several rival Chinese brands are launching twin-cylinder bikes between 500-800cc—most notably Zongshen, which has bought rights to use Norton’s new 650 twin, and CFMoto, which is using KTM’s 799cc twin—Zontes has decided to develop its own three-cylinder engine to leapfrog those competitors.
The firm first mooted the idea last year, showing a design sketch on its company blog, and has now released a video showing the final engine and several of its internal components apparently in production, including engine blocks, crankshafts, and camshafts. The intention is to offer the engine in multiple capacities, but Zontes has made specific reference to a 1,000cc version, which appears likely to be the first version.
In its overall layout the engine takes some inspiration from the original Yamaha MT-09 847cc triple, but there are enough differences to show it’s not a direct copy. Like the MT-09, the engine’s cylinders and block are cast in one piece, but Zontes claims to use a different process that makes for a stronger casting. As a result, the firm is able to use a higher 13.5:1 compression ratio, compared to the 11.5:1 used on the MT-01. That same ratio points to the engine’s outright performance levels, as no rival triple has such high compression. Triumph’s Street Triple RS’s 765cc engine has 12.5:1 ratio, while its Speed Triple 1200 RS uses 13.2:1, and the MV Agusta F3 800 triple’s ratio is 13.3:1.
Zontes says the 1,000cc version of its three-cylinder has more power and torque than 80 percent of similarly sized rival engines, suggesting it’s not aiming for the 200-plus hp peaks of the most powerful literbikes, but will probably achieve north of 150 hp. That would instantly make it the most powerful Chinese bike, outstripping the 1,200cc, 135 hp Benelli 1200GT and the 140 hp CFMoto 1250TR-G, both of which use engines derived from existing European designs.
At the moment, there’s no definitive timeline on when the first Zontes triple will be launched, but the engine’s development is clearly approaching completion. Once in production it’s likely to appear in a range of bikes similar to Zontes’ existing single-cylinder lineup, which spans the 310R naked sportbike, the 310X sport-tourer, 310T adventure bike, and the unusual 310V, a sort of miniature Ducati Diavel with forward-mounted pegs and wide, flat bars.
While there’s reticence from Western consumers when it comes to buying Chinese bikes, particularly in the USA, the country already manufactures more than 40 percent of all imported goods sold in the States. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if the motorcycle market follows suit in years to come.
