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- Damn, that’s a stunning motorcycle,<\/li>\n
- Gresh’s current resurrection effort is focused on (sort of) a Buell Cyclone, and<\/li>\n
- Zongshen also uses the Cyclone name (the RX1, RX2, RX3, RX4, and RX6 motorcycles are all branded as Cyclone motorcycles).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The above had me wondering:\u00a0 What is the story behind that stunning yellow motorcycle in the Legends Museum, and are there other motorcycles out there called Cyclones?<\/p>\n
The Zongshen Cyclones<\/strong><\/p>\n
I fired off an email to my good buddy Fan at Zongshen with the above picture, who readily agreed the Legends Cyclone was drop dead gorgeous.<\/p>\n
You know, names can be a funny thing.\u00a0 When we started importing Zongshen motorcycles from Zongshen, the chief marketing\/export guy in Zongshen chided me for using the Zongshen name when we (i.e., CSC) starting writing and blogging about the RX3.\u00a0 It seemed that calling the bikes Zongshens would be the natural thing to do, but I jumped the gun at that one.\u00a0 Zongshen wanted us to use our name (CSC) on the bikes, so we did.\u00a0\u00a0The other bit of RX3 naming funny business back in 2014 were the large decals that Zongshen put on the fuel tank.\u00a0 They said “Speed” in large letters.\u00a0 When we started publishing those photos, the Internet trolls made fun of us.\u00a0 I told the troll community that we originally wanted the decals to say “methamphetamine,” but that was too long to fit on the fuel tank.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/150501_2524-600.jpg\")
CSC\/Zongshen RX3 motorcycles enroute to 12,000-year-old cave paintings in Baja.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/150429_2240-600.jpg\")
A friendly gas station attendant in El Rosario, Mexico. Note the “Speed” moniker on the fuel tank.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Back to the Cyclone name:\u00a0 I searched Google because I knew BSA used “Cyclone” as a model name back in the 1960s and I wondered if there were others.\u00a0 There were.\u00a0 In addition to BSA, Buell, Ariel and Kawasaki used the name, too.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at each.<\/p>\n
The Buell Cyclone<\/strong><\/p>\n
Buell built its Cyclone model from 1997 to 2002.\u00a0 As you know, Uncle Joe is resurrecting a 1995 Buell Thunderbolt, and as he puts it, it is mostly a Cyclone.\u00a0 It’s a fun process to follow along.\u00a0 You can get all the details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_2538-600.jpg\")
Joe Gresh’s Buell. It’s mostly a Cyclone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Original Joerns Cyclone<\/strong><\/p>\n
The Joerns Motor Manufacturing Company of St. Paul, Minnesota built the first motorcycles named Cyclones.\u00a0 \u00a0These were board track racing and road-going motorcycles and they were fast (as in over 100 mph back in 1915).\u00a0 These bikes are also rare, with only about a dozen known to exist today.\u00a0 Joerns used a 1000cc V-twin overhead cam engine that produced about 45 horsepower.\u00a0 \u00a0The one you see here sold at a 2025 Mecum auction for $1.32 million (with buyer’s premium), making it the most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction.\u00a0 When I say “the one you see here” I don’t mean one like the one you see here.\u00a0 \u00a0My photo above shows the actual motorcycle that went for that amount, and it’s the one on display in the Legends Motorcycle Museum.\u00a0 It was once owned by Bud Ekins, and if you don’t know who he was, here’s a bit of background<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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