ZX Moto: Debise unveils the 2027 bike: “We won’t have 20 more hp—and even if we did, they’d take them away from us.”

After a season in the spotlight, ZX Moto is raising the bar. For the 2027 Supersport World Championship, the Chinese manufacturer will drop the base version of the 820RR in favor of a more advanced model, with a different engine, fork, brakes and wheels. Valentin Debise revealed the news, but urged caution: this is no revolution, particularly since the Balance of Performance remains an unknown.

The original project called for three performance levels for the 820RR three-cylinder, but the top-of-the-range version, intended as the basis for racing, was not ready at the start of the season. Today, the company's official website lists two variants. "At the moment, we’re racing with the base model, the most affordable bike in the range, and next year we’ll move to a slightly more advanced model with different specifications: a different engine, fork, brakes, a few other things, the wheels and so on. We hope there’ll be something that gives us a bit of help," the French rider explained in an interview with Paddock-GP.

Debise clarified that this is not an entirely new bike: "It’s an evolution of the existing model. We have the RS version and we’ll move to the RR. The bike has already been unveiled, put on sale and so on. It’s nothing crazy". He was equally realistic about the power gain: "I mean, we’re not going to get 20 more horsepower, and even if we did, they’d take it away from us anyway."

The Balance of Performance system will also change in 2027, but for now nobody knows how: "The balancing system will be modified for next year, but so far we don’t know exactly how".

The step up comes after a surprising debut. Founded only in 2024, ZX Moto found the key to fast-tracking its progress through an alliance with Evan Bros Racing, one of Supersport’s most successful teams: Debise scored a double victory at only the second round of the season. The Frenchman remained the Chinese brand’s leading rider in 2026, finishing as runner-up in the World Championship with six wins and eight podiums.

"We won’t rest on our laurels," Debise promised, well aware that building a competitive bike is a challenge that has troubled even far more established manufacturers.

The coming months will once again be intense, although the starting point is very different from where it was twelve months ago. "This winter will be crazy again, although compared with last year we’re still ahead of schedule: back then, we didn’t even have a bike ready to run! Now at least we have one, and that’s already something. But we can’t afford to relax, because the competition will be as tough as ever and a lot of new riders are coming in". The upgraded 820RR will have to prove that it delivers a genuine step forward, while the impact of the new balancing rules remains to be seen.

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