Veloce Aperion is 8-Cylinder Two-Stroke Madness

• 1,000cc eight-cylinder two-stroke engine
• Limited to only 24 units
• Commissions available for 2027

As an example to what happens when engineers are given full freedom, Veloce Motorcycles has revealed the Aperion. It is built around a 1,000cc eight-cylinder two-stroke engine arranged in an X configuration with a claimed output of 277bhp at 12,000rpm. Commissions are open for 2027 and production will be limited to just 24 units. Veloce says the motorcycle will be MSVA compliant for UK road use!

At a time when the industry has moved towards cleaner four-stroke engines, hybrids and electric powertrains, Veloce has taken one of motorcycling’s most emotional engine formats and pushed it into an extreme new shape, or a monster.

Eight cylinders in an X layout give it a personality that no modern road bike can match. The opposing forces within the engine are naturally balanced, with combustion, inertial and rotational forces cancelling each other out. Veloce claims 277bhp from 1,000cc with the powertrain weighing 105kg. A two-stroke makes its performance in a very different way from a modern four-stroke. It is sharper, more urgent and way way more visceral. If you cannot comprehend how two-strokes behave, watch some interviews of MotoGP riders of the two-stroke era, they’ll explain how scary they were.

Veloce has used a laser-sintered all-alloy resonance exhaust system. In a two-stroke engine, the exhaust is part of the way the engine breathes and makes power. A resonance exhaust helps shape pressure waves which affect charging and scavenging. This is why the Aperion’s complicated exhaust is central to the motorcycle’s character. A new rear suspension had to be developed for the Aperion. This setup uses a pullrod-actuated coil-over damper placed underslung for cooling and geometry.