If 2025’s end-of-year
motorcycle shows taught us anything, it was that Chinese manufacturers are now
serious players in the global motorbike market. Whether under the banner of
their own brands, or using acquired names steeped in motorcycling history,
there’s some serious engineering and creative thinking going on in China’s
R&D departments.
One of the lesser
known names looking to make an impact is SWM, the niche Italian brand which is
now under the stewardship of the giant Shineray Group, which has come on a long
way since their days of producing knock off Suzuki 125s
SWM might not be the
best known of historic motorcycle brands but, like Benelli with Qianjiang
Motorcycle, part of the huge Geely automotive group, and Moto Morini with Zhongneng,
they give the Chinese company an Italian headquarters, with a design centre
close to Milan helping them develop machines for European tastes.
What Europeans make
of the company’s concept bike, shown over the winter, is another matter. The quirky
‘Transformers’ inspired Bumblebee cruiser showcased at Milan’s EICMA show
certainly raised some eyebrows and got people talking about the brand.
According to SWM, the
Bumblebee Concept ‘embodies the high-end, racing-inspired spirit of the brand’.
SWM started out making trials bikes in the late 1970s, and was moderately
successful across various off-road disciplines before going bust in 1984, but the
Bumblebee owes nothing to those lithe little dirt bikes.
Whether deliberately
or not (we’re going with the former!) the SWM appears to be inspired by its
namesake, Bumblebee – the character from the Transformers series of cartoons
and films. For those not in the know, Transformers are ‘robots in disguise’ and
Bumblebee robot changes into a yellow and black car (usually a Chevrolet
Camaro, but sometimes depicted differently) as it fights the villainous
Decepticons.
Whether that is
relevant to our story or not is up to you to decide, but it might help you
better understand what this mad SWM is all about.
It’s a sort of… well
look at the picture and decide for yourself. It’s yellow, and black, obviously,
with a kind of pumped up power cruiser look to it, like someone’s taken a
Diavel or Rocket 3 down to Shoreditch and given a hipster bike builder a sack
of money and far out brief. There are semi-knobbly tyres, big cartoon like
features and a Harley-Davidson style 1202cc 45-degree V-twin engine. With just
60bhp hauling what’s likely to be over 250kg it’s hardly a performance machine,
but it is definitely getting chins wagging.
Under all the
cartoonish features appears to be the mechanicals of SWM’s Stormbreaker, a
traditionally styled cruiser which very much apes Harley’s old air-cooled
Sportster models. It’s a really authentic looking custom bike and one of the
few remaining big air-cooled machines on sale today. They’re Euro5+ compliant
and on sale in Europe, meaning they could find their way here.
SWM’s presence in the
UK is currently tiny, with only Merthyr Tydfil and Newton Abbot dealer
Trago2Wheels listed on the company’s website, but we imagine that, like most
ambitious Chinese manufacturers, they’ll start making a play globally in the
years to come. While the Bumblebee is unlikely to make it into production, has
created a buzz (sorry) online and at the big EICMA motorcycle show in Milan –
helping raise awareness in what is an increasingly crowded marketplace for new
and reborn motorcycle brands.
It wasn’t just the Bumblebee that Shineray presented in Milan. Star of SWM’s 2026 line up was the smart looking Versante 550, a highly-specced A2 licence compliant adventure bike powered by a 494cc parallel-twin engine and which wouldn’t look out of place with the logo of an established Japanese manufacturer on the tank.
