Zhang Xue's motorcycle, a legendary performance!

From March 28th to 29th, the engine roared at the Portimão circuit in Portugal. The 820RR-RS independently developed by Chinese motorcycle brand Zhang Xue Motorcycles won consecutive championships, breaking the decades-long monopoly of European, American and Japanese brands.

The camera panned to the sidelines. Zhang Xue was crying like a child. This dark-skinned man, who often wore work clothes and spoke with a Hunan accent, was the creator behind this racing car. In an interview, he said, "I have been waiting for this moment for 20 years."

"If you don't do it when you are young, you will regret it when you are old."

Zhang Xue's starting point is not legendary. 20 years ago, he was an apprentice in a car repair shop in a rural area in western Hunan. Full of mobile phone oil, working with parts all day long. At that time, domestic motorcycles were still regarded as "cheap" and "imitation" in the eyes of many people, but this young man had an unrealistic idea in his heart: to build a high-performance motorcycle that truly belonged to the Chinese.

In 2006, in order to get a chance to join a professional team, he rode a second-hand motorcycle that was older than himself and chased the interview vehicle for more than 100 kilometers in the cold rain. From Huaihua to Mayang, the mountain road is long and windy and rainy. At that time, he said: "If you don't do it when you are young, you will regret it when you are old."

It was this energy that brought him into the world of professional racing. From a motorcycle repair apprentice to a national motorcycle repair competition champion, he moved forward step by step. But what really stayed in his heart was not the best performance, but another more stubborn question: Why are there always foreign brands on the track? Why can’t the Chinese build their own high-performance motorcycles?

Go to Chongqing! Dreams fall on drawings and parts

In 2013, Zhang Xue came to Chongqing with 20,000 yuan. Talking about this choice, he said bluntly that what he liked was the background of Chongqing’s “Motorcycle Capital”: a complete industrial chain, strong supporting capabilities, and a concentration of talents. “Although I don’t know anyone here, if I walk into a motorcycle parts market, I can buy all the accessories for motorcycles.” What this city gave him was the confidence to turn his dream into reality.

From modification and entrepreneurship, to team building, independent research and development, and then to the establishment of Zhangxue Motorcycles, he invested the experience and vision accumulated over the years, as well as all his net worth, into research and development and motorcycle manufacturing.

Before a car actually starts running, it often experiences countless "failures to start". Parameters need to be adjusted, the structure needs to be changed, core components need to be tested over and over again, and the matching of the entire vehicle needs to be honed. On the surface, it's the speed of a few laps on the track, but behind it is the repeated deliberation on the drawings and countless late nights in the workshop. It was in this kind of polishing that Zhang Xue Motorcycles grew up step by step. In 2025, Zhang Xue's annual sales of motorcycles will exceed 25,000 units, with a total output value of 750 million yuan and an investment in R&D of nearly 70 million yuan.

After winning the championship, what people saw was the Chinese red on the track; and behind this bright color was a team’s long-term polishing and dedication.

Behind a car, you can see the accumulation of a city

Behind Zhang Xue’s motorcycle, there is also the accumulation of many years of Chongqing motorcycle industry. Chongqing has 51 motorcycle companies above designated size and more than 410 parts and components companies. Major assembly facilities such as engines, clutches, frames, shock absorbers, wheels, tires, and instruments are relatively complete, and the local supply rate for fuel motorcycles exceeds 80%. A high-performance motorcycle can find strong support here from research and development to mass production and iterative upgrades.

In 2025, Chongqing's motorcycle output will be 7.857 million units, ranking first among cities in the country; exports will be 6.109 million units, with an output value of 108.83 billion yuan. Whether it is industrial size, export capabilities, or continued efforts on the large-displacement and high-end track, Chongqing has become an important pole in China's motorcycle industry.

It is precisely for this reason that Zhang Xue Motorcycle's victory is not only good news at the corporate level. It is more like a window that allows people to see the changes that are taking place in Chongqing's motorcycle industry: from "being able to manufacture" to "being good at creating", from "having scale" to "having technology", from "making products" to "building a brand". Zhang Xue’s breakthrough is a vivid epitome of the high-quality development of Chongqing’s motorcycle industry.

“My life is more exciting because of my bravery.”

Zhang Xue has been waiting for twenty years. From repairing cars, chasing cars, modifying cars, and building cars step by step, he encountered doubts and puzzlements time and again along the way. What has supported him to this day is his love, patience, and his unwillingness to admit defeat.

He once said: "My life is more exciting because of my bravery." The young man chasing a car in the cold rain, the apprentice with greasy hands in the car repair shop, and the entrepreneur who came to Chongqing with 20,000 yuan in his pocket finally waited for his own moment beside the world's racetrack.

The touch of Chinese red on the Portimão circuit not only witnessed Zhang Xue's dream come true, but also reflected the rise of China's motorcycle industry. The significance of this victory has long transcended the sports competition itself. The WSBK competition requires participating vehicles to undergo limited modifications based on mass-produced models, and has always been regarded as a touchstone to test the ultimate performance of mass-produced cars. 

Zhang Xue Motorcycle's victory not only broke the long-term strong pattern of European, American and Japanese brands in the world's high-end motorcycle events, but also allowed more people to see that Chinese companies are fully capable of producing high-performance motorcycles that are comparable to the world's first-class standards.

The competition will eventually come to an end and the track will eventually return to calm, but those things that have been repeatedly tempered by time, technology and love will not fade easily. For Zhang Xue, bravery makes life more exciting; for the Chinese motorcycle industry, daring to think, dare to venture, and dare to try also leads to a broader road ahead.