China’s motorcycle industry has come such a long way in a remarkably short time. It wasn’t even 15 years ago when most riders would consider a Chinese motorcycle only as a last resort. Now, they’ve gotten so good that some people cross-shop Chinese bikes with the motorcycle establishment. One of the newest bikes to come out of China is a real oddball. This is the Bashan BS1200-G, and it’s a motorcycle that tries its hardest to be an old Harley-Davidson. It doesn’t have a rear suspension, isn’t very fast, and even uses an engine that’s basically a modernized version of the Harley-Davidson Evolution.
One of the neat things about the Chinese transport industry is how the vehicle type approval process works. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) requires manufacturers to request government approval for every new model. You cannot sell a new vehicle in China without this approval, and you even need to get facelifts approved. As contributor Tycho de Feijter has written before, this is an artifact of the old Chinese planned economy.
Every month, MIIT publishes a list of the latest type approvals, which includes photos from the manufacturer. The great thing about this is that you can check out a new vehicle before it even goes on the market, and sometimes before it’s even announced. That’s the situation with the Bashan BS1200-G. This bike that’s trying so hard to be a Harley-Davidson was just approved for sale, and honestly, it’s weirdly pretty awesome.
What’s A Bashan?
The Chongqing Astronautic Bashan Motorcycle Manufacturing Co. isn’t exactly a well-known name here in America, or really much of the world. Yet, it has had a presence here for quite a while. The company was founded in 2002 and, despite having “Astronautic” in its full name, Bashan has been just a motorcycle company right from its start. Exports to Europe began in 2005, and Bashan sent motorcycles to America not long after.
Early Bashan motorcycles were usually 250cc dual sport bikes and scooters. In 2018, I bought a brand-new 2008 Bashan MC-16-150T scooter. The original owner rode it three miles home from the dealer, put it in his garage, and then didn’t touch it again for 10 years until he moved out of his house. I got it running with nothing more than a new fuel tank and a new carburetor. Total cost to get it running? $40. That’s how gloriously cheap Chinese bikes used to be.
My scooter was hilariously low-buck. The plastic was similar to that of a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy, and the chrome was fake through and through. Chinese bikes from this era broke a lot, but you could repair them with duct tape and a hammer.
The Bashan of today makes four-wheelers, gas motorcycles, electric motorcycles, utility trikes, tillers, generators, and small motorcycle engines. Really, the BS1200-G is just a perfect example of how far this company has come. But it still has some of those weird Chinese moto quirks.
American Looks, Maybe An American Engine
The Bashan BS1200-G is sort of an anachronism. Some Chinese motorcycle brands have been obsessed with the past of American, British, and Japanese motorcycles. As a result, motorcycle designs are coming out of China that haven’t been used by household moto brands in years, if not decades.
This is immediately apparent when you examine the BS1200-G’s chassis. There’s a springer fork up front. No mass-produced motorcycle that I can think of from a brand outside of China uses these forks. Springer forks date back to the 1900s, were popular until about the 1940s, and were reintroduced by Harley-Davidson in 1988 and again in 2008. Harley’s springer forks made their final appearance as a production feature with the 2011 Crossbones. Today, springer forks are more of a thing on custom bikes.
The frame is a steel double-cradle affair. It’s simple, classic, and works. But what’s interesting is that it terminates at the rear wheel without a suspension. That’s right, this bad boy is a hardtail! That’s another anachronism. There are hardtail-style motorcycles in production today, but they have hidden rear suspensions. This Bashan does not. It’s a true hardtail, which means you have nothing but that thin saddle and its springs as your rear suspension. Add in the springer forks, and I cannot imagine that this cruiser would be a comfortable ride by any nation’s standards.
The rider who has it the worst is the passenger. Amazingly, this thing does have a passenger seat bolted to the top of the rear fender. Your poor passenger has nothing but a thin slice of foam and tire sidewall as their only suspension.
The most interesting part of the BS1200-G is probably the engine, because it’s using a pushrod 1200cc V-twin from Shineray, the motorcycle brand that currently owns Italy’s SWM.
This engine, which made its debut in 2022, is suspiciously similar to the Harley-Davidson Evolution engine that powered Sportsters and Buells for decades. Coincidentally, 2022 was also the final year for the Evolution engine.
The Shineray V-twin has a similar aesthetic to the Evolution, right down to the cooling fins. But then there are the traits that are identical between the two engines, including the oil filter location, plus the 88.9mm bore and 96.8mm stroke. Also similar is the output. The Shineray V-twin makes a 60 HP and 67 lb-ft of torque, which is low by today’s standards, but was on par for old Harley. For comparison, a Harley-Davidson Sportster Forty-Eight’s Evolution made 67 HP and 73 lb-ft of torque.
This engine is also used in the European market SWM Stormbreaker V1200 (above), which looks like a Harley-Davidson Sportster Forty-Eight.
There are some differences between these engines. The Shineray has a 9.1:1 compression ratio and is Euro 5 emissions compliant, while the Evo runs a 10:1 compression ratio and isn’t Euro 5-compliant. Shineray has never said one way or the other about how its 1200cc mill came to be, but it’s pretty much a continuation of the Evolution engine, even if it isn’t based on one.
Despite the retro build, there are some modern bits, including fuel injection and dual-channel ABS. The bike is slightly longer than an old Sporty with a 63-inch wheelbase and an overall length of 91.3 inches. Yet, it weighs slightly less than the old Sportster at 540 pounds. The Sportster had a 58.9-inch wheelbase, an 85.2-inch length, and a 556-pound weight.
Put it all together, and Bashan basically created an old Harley-Davidson Sportster that’s just as slow as the Harley, yet likely more uncomfortable. At least you get a pair of 5.00-16 retro-style tires to hopefully provide something resembling damping.
It’s Silly, But Maybe In A Good Way?
Bashan has taken prototypes of this motorcycle onto the Chinese motorcycle trade show circuit since October 2025 and appears to be gearing up to put this on the market. Sadly, since MIIT often publishes type approvals long before manufacturers begin marketing, we have no idea where Bashan will want to sell these things. But bringing them to America would make sense. Bashan already sells motorcycles in America, and there’s probably a niche market of people who want a bike like this.
Personally, I sort of dig it. I think Bashan BS1200-G nails the vibe it’s trying to go for while being sort of stupid. Someone, or multiple people at Bashan, really decided to make a motorcycle with basically no suspension. Then there’s that engine that’s suspiciously like an Evolution. I wonder if Evo engine mods fit on it? Could I make it as powerful as my Buell? The more I think about it, the more I want to giggle.
This bike is part of why I follow the Chinese motorcycle industry. Lately, it seems like Chinese motorcycle companies are building silly bikes just to show they can. Does the world need this? No, and it doesn’t need Great Wall Souo’s flat eight motorcycle either. But I’m happy they exist because they at least seem fun.
Top graphic image: Bashan
The post China’s Answer To The Harley-Davidson Sportster Is A Motorcycle With No Rear Suspension, A Suspicious Engine, And Weirdly Good Looks appeared first on The Autopian.
