2025 Aprilia Shiver Rereleased

But only in China for now.

The Shiver 900 has been resurrected for 2025, but for the time being, only in the Chinese market.Zongshen

Once a bike gets discontinued it’s rare to see the same machine rise from the grave and return to dealers but after a convoluted process the Aprilia Shiver has re-entered production as a 2025 model half a decade after it was dropped from the firm’s lineup. The catch? It’s being manufactured and sold in China this time around.

We’ve been tracking the process of the Shiver’s rebirth for three years now, and after several false starts and rethinks the bike has been officially revealed in China looking nearly identical to its last global-market iteration and wearing the same Aprilia branding as before. That was far from certain when the efforts to revive the Shiver began with an announcement in January 2022 that a joint venture between Piaggio, Aprilia’s parent company, and Chinese brand Zongshen (now known as Zonsen) would launch a new 900cc twin-cylinder model.

The Zongshen Cyclone RA9 concept bike was based around a Shiver.Zongshen

Even before the plan was made public at the start of 2022, Zongshen-Piaggio had shown a Shiver-based concept bike, the Zongshen Cyclone RA9, as well as a Gilera-branded V-twin engine in late 2021. Later on, a more production-viable version of the RA9 was shown, and around the same time a gaggle of disguised, Aprilia Shiver-based prototypes were spotted on test featuring the “Gilera” name embossed on several components including the instruments and headlights. A cosmetic design registration was even filed for the Shiver’s V-twin engine with revised covers carrying the Gilera badge.

Fast forward to 2023 and two design registrations were filed by the Zongshen-Piaggio venture showing complete V-twin bikes: one labeled Shiver 900, the other GLR900 as another hint at the potential for Gilera branding. But now the real thing has been officially launched and rather than using the Gilera name it’s sticking with the Aprilia badge of the original Shiver.

Aprilia’s Shiver 900, which was dropped back in 2020, seems to have grabbed a new lease on life.Aprilia

The bike itself is a mashup of the two design registrations filed in 2023. It’s nearly identical to the Aprilia Shiver as it was last offered in Western markets back in 2020, but with new side panels that were previewed on the GLR900 design. Where the GLR900 design had new side-by-side headlights, the production 2025 Shiver simply has an updated LED version of the original stacked headlamp design. Other tweaks include the addition of a keyless ignition, with a “smart key” button replacing the usual ignition switch, but overall the bike will be familiar to anyone who’s seen the Shiver in its original form.

While we’re used to the idea that shifting manufacturing to China automatically results in a low price, the 2025 Shiver is surprisingly expensive in that market, with a list price of 68,800 yuan, equivalent to around $9,500. While that’s a lot less than Italian-made Aprilias currently sold in China (a Tuono 660, for example, will set Chinese customers back around $16,000), it’s much more expensive than many equivalent bikes from all-Chinese companies. A CFMoto 800NK, for example, costs the equivalent of $6,150 in the Chinese market.

A couple of years ago, patent drawings appeared confirming that a rebranded Aprilia engine will power a Gilera-branded, Chinese-made version of the Aprilia Shiver.Gilera

The Shiver’s age shows in its specs, with 94 hp at 8,750 rpm and 66 lb.-ft. of torque at 6,500 rpm in a package weighing 485 pounds. The CFMoto 800NK, by comparison, has 100 hp and weighs 410 pounds. But with a growing number of Chinese riders looking to upgrade to larger bikes, and Western brand names like Aprilia carrying a premium over domestic ones, the Shiver could still prove a success over there.

That leaves one obvious question: Will the new, Chinese-manufactured Shiver return to markets in the West? At the moment the answer is no, but the decision to revive the Shiver 900 via Zongshen-Piaggio makes it the biggest, most expensive model yet from that joint venture and illustrates how the motorcycle scene in China is starting to converge with the more luxury-oriented markets of the West.

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