The Zontes 703RR sportbike is going into production. Finally.
It has been five years since we visited the Zontes factory in Guangzhou, China, where we spotted their engineers designing a three-cylinder engine. But the boss told us to keep it a secret so we did not publish about it until it became official a year afterwards.
There was plenty of news about the engine since then, but nothing tangible came out until EICMA 2023, when the Zontes 703RR and Zontes 703F concepts were unveiled.
Why did it take so long? Well, it is because the philosophy held by Zontes’ President to build almost everything in-house rather than outsource components elsewhere. Building in-house means they can control the quality of their components and finished products, as well as cutting the red tape to get problems solved.
Back to the Zontes 703RR, the bike’s type approval document have been sighted along with its performance figures.
Its three-cylinder engine is homologated to 101 hp. The bore and stroke dimensions are 70mm x 60.6mm, giving it a 699cc displacement (“70” means 700cc, “3” mean three cylinders). The crankshaft is space at 120-degree intervals, like all other three-cylinder engines, except the T-Plane crank in the Triumph Tiger 900.
A top speed of 230 km/h was cited in the said documents, putting the bike in the same region of the Honda CBR650R, Aprilia RS 660, Triumph Daytona 660, while beating the Yamaha YZF-R7. However, the CFMoto 675SR may be higher.
It is a great move for Zontes when the 703RR is launched because it has allowed them to break out of their single-cylinder rut. Still, they had better launch this quickly as many more manufacturers, including Chinese rivals that have or will launch their own sportbikes.
