Despite an illustrious history , Gilera has been shuffled to the sidelines in Piaggio ' s vast group of brands - the name appearing only on occasional scooters in recent years . Now Gilera is set to make a return to large displacement bikes as the Chinese Piaggio-Zongshen venture is developing a reborn version of the Aprilia Shiver 900 that will go under the Gilera name . The first clue came last year when Zongshen showed its RA9 concept bike , a futuristic-looking machine built around a repurposed Aprilia Shiver V-twin engine and chassis . Alongside that concept , the company mysteriously showed a standalone version of the same engine wearing Gilera badges . Another clue appeared at the start of 2022 , when Piaggio bosses visiting China from Italy |
confirmed that a 900 cc twincylinder bike would be manufactured later in 2022 by the Piaggio-Zongshen joint venture that already makes a range of smaller scooters and motorcycles wearing Aprilia badges . Shortly after that , patents emerged showing the Gilera-branded V-twin engine , and now spy photographs of disguised prototype Gilera 900 cc V-twins have appeared on Chinese social media . The new Gilera 900 is identical to the final iteration of the Aprilia Shiver 900 , which was dropped in Europe in 2021 . The headlight is slightly updated , with more modern-looking LED running light strips on either side , but other than that , the changes from Aprilia Shiver 900 to Gilera 900 are non-existent . While the Shiver is far from a cutting-edge design , having first |
appeared in 2008 , the 900 cc version was only launched in 2017 , so it remains a relatively modern machine . By minimising design changes but transplanting production to China , Piaggio will massively reduce manufacturing costs and eliminate the costly import duties imposed on bikes imported to China , where demand for larger-capacity machines is on the rise . Piaggio-Zongshen already manufactures several China-only models under the Aprilia name , so a Chinese-made Shiver 900 wouldn ' t raise many eyebrows . However , if Piaggio has ideas to sell the bike internationally , using the Gilera brand may make more sense , distancing the Chinesemade machine from Italian Aprilias . |
With the Shiver engine and chassis back in production , spinoff models like the supermoto-style Aprilia Dorsoduro and touring-oriented Caponord - both Shiver derivatives - could also be revived to give the Chinese-made Gilera brand an instant broad model range . In its old Aprilia guise , the Shiver ' s V-twin engine was also sold in 750 cc and 1,200 cc versions as well as the 900 cc form , so there ' s scope for a very broad , modular range with the bare minimum of R & D expense . |