You've Always Got What You Paid for with Chinese Bikes, but Now

FIRST TEST >> CFMOTO 650NK << 1 2 CHEAP 1. Stubby little 3 R6-inspired exhaust 2. A name you'll probably be seeing a lot more of, for all the right reasons FASTYFASTY 3. A gear position You've always got what you paid for with Chinese bikes, but now indicator is the only thing CFMoto is selling Japanese-quality bang for& not much buck missing here TEST ALAN CATHCART PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN PIPER n a clear autumn day at the costs just a bit under $6000. That stacks up Broadford track in Victoria, pretty well against the $10,000 price tag of the I came face to face with the comparable Kawasaki ER-6n – admittedly with future of global motorcycling ABS as standard unlike on the Chinese bike – – the CFMoto 650NK. It’s a first though that’s a reduced price only achieved via step on the climb up the engine- a $1000 cash rebate. Odisplacement ladder that’s certain to fuel an Any way you look at it, though, the CFMoto is increasingly irresistible attack on Western one hell of a deal. But is the extra reassurance markets by Chinese manufacturers. Powered you get from buying a bike made in Japan worth by a DOHC parallel-twin with a gear-driven almost twice the price? That would depend a lot counterbalancer to smooth out the vibes, on how well it’s made, and especially what it’s there’s no denying that this is a pretty direct like to ride. copy of Kawasaki’s ER-6n, even down to the I freely admit I approached CFMoto’s latest overall styling. But it’s the first motorcycle to and greatest armed with every possible come out of China with an engine larger than prejudice against Chinese-made motorcycles. 250cc and after riding it I’m convinced it’s a To be fair to myself, these were born of game-changer. hands-on experience riding various 250cc This is history repeating itself. Back in the single-cylinder examples of the breed which early 1960s, Japanese bikes were scorned as were often downright poorly made. I was used being cheap and undesirable small-capacity to rough-finished frame welds and fragile, 50-175cc runabouts, but Soichiro Honda cheap-looking switchgear which lived down changed all that. Firstly with his drive to raise to expectations; crude-looking electrical quality standards and reliability, which his systems with cables and wiring running Japanese rivals had to match. Then by ramping everywhere; thin and poorly-finished paint up the cubic capacity of his company’s offerings jobs with dated graphics; brakes which barely to export customers so that in 1965, the first lived up to the name; tyres for which the word middleweight sportsbike from Honda in Japan grip was a relative term and engines that hit the showrooms – the CB450 Black Bomber revved noisily and didn’t make as much power parallel-twin. That was followed four years later as it seemed they ought to, even with their by what’s generally recognised as the most humble pretensions of capacity. In short, basic significant motorcycle ever produced by any transportation at a price to match and living manufacturer – the four-cylinder overhead-cam proof of the axiom that you get what you pay for. disc-braked Honda CB750. And the bike world So from the first moment I saw the CFMoto would never be the same again. 650NK, I’ll admit that I was ticking mental I’m not claiming that the 650NK is as boxes. The styling wasn’t bad; in fact, pretty much of a landmark as the Honda four, but sharp with its stubby R6-type exhaust, bright it’s definitely the modern Chinese equivalent red frame and all-black bodywork plus pseudo- of the Black Bomber – the first product from carbon add-ons. There’s also a red/white/ a Japanese manufacturer to demonstrate black option and, while the 650NK is inevitably convincingly to Western customers that a J-bike reminiscent of the Kawasaki ER-6n, it’s still a could be fun as well as functional, and sporty in cool-looking entry-level alternative. The paint addition to affordable. And the price is indeed depth and overall finish was quite good, too. It’s the punchline, as the 650NK I subjected to 45 probably the equal of a budget-priced bike made increasingly hard laps at the Broadford circuit in Italy, though the plastic still seems a little amcn /34 35/amcn low-rent and the metal castings’ bright-work balance shaft ironing out the vibes perfectly. the powerband that there’s no point in revving 1 finish isn’t very bright. But the whole bike has The motor pulls pretty strongly from 3000rpm it anywhere near the limiter. I was shifting MOJO MOTORCYCLES: CHINESE DELIVERY an air of substance, and it’s pretty solid. upwards, with the butterflies of the twin Italian- gears at 9000 revs and found myself back in Mojo Motorcycles imports these bikes into Australia demanding customers, but it’s a mark of how good After taking it all in, I thumbed the starter and made throttle bodies wide open and the Chinese the fat part of the torque curve every time. This and boss Michael Poynton, 28, first came to do CFMoto’s reliability is that we’ve now overtaken listened to the engine and I must say, it sounds EFI’s single injector per cylinder squirting away would make a pretty good engine for a one- business with CFMoto during the course of visiting Kawasaki and Can-Am in terms of numbers as word pretty meaty at its 1300rpm idle speed. There’s hard to deliver 52kW (70hp). make race series as it’s seemingly strong and China an amazing 48 times in the past seven years, spreads how good they are. They have an 800cc minimal undue vibration thanks to the effective There’s a completely linear build-up of power unburstable, but it’ll also be a good everyday as he nurtured an alliance that’s grown significantly V-twin engine in one model that would make a great gear-driven counterbalancer running off the all the way to the rev-limiter at 10,800rpm, but ride thanks to the forgiving power delivery, crisp in that period. basis for a cruiser motorcycle – but instead they crank, which means that it’s not tiring to ride it revs a little faster from 8000 upwards. This is gear changes and a clutch action which, while Poynton and his partner, Josh Carter, were high- decided to develop their own purpose-built 650cc and no vibes reach the well-placed mirrors, in no way a step in the powerband – instead, the relatively strong, is nowhere near as stiff as on a school chums who ended up going to university parallel-twin motor entirely in-house as a platform which give a clear view of what’s behind you, 650NK is a model of rideability. Yet at the same dry-clutch Ducati. Your left hand won’t cramp up together: Michael to study engineering, Josh a for a whole range of middleweight bikes of different not just your shoulders. time, this humble middleweight is also honestly riding the Chinese bike in traffic. commerce degree. “But two years into uni, we types, of which the 650NK naked roadster is the I climbed aboard the well-padded exciting to ride and one reason for this is the It ticks all the mechanical boxes but how decided to defer our studies in favour of starting up first. But there’s lots more to come, and this is just 795mm-high seat, which should be comfortable fabulous sound you get from the air intakes about the handling? With Kayaba’s Chinese a business we saw as an opportunity to do well in,” the tip of the iceberg because CFMoto gets the for longer runs as well as city squirts, and was – deep, throaty and muscular. There’s an affiliate providing the 41mm telescopic forks says Michael. “We chose real-world job experience whole quality issue in a way that most other Chinese greeted with a totally rational riding stance. undeniable sense of satisfaction when you wind and centrally-mounted cantilever monoshock over theory, and it looks like it paid off.” manufacturers, which are primarily price-oriented, There are five-way-adjustable brake and clutch the throttle hard open exiting the off-camber operated directly by a swingarm made from In creating Motovert in still don’t yet.” levers, an ideal seat-peg-handlebar relationship left-hander onto Broadford’s pit straight, and steel extrusions with tubular upper bracing, 2004 – a self-brewed cocktail CFMoto began development and footrests which are low enough to give the evocative engine note makes you think the 650NK’s suspension compliance was of Daytona crate engines of the 650NK in 2009 and it’s room for a taller rider without leading to ground you’re riding a twin-cylinder supersport. The frankly much better than I expected from such a from Japan, Italian Marzocchi a mark of how quickly the clearance problems. 650NK definitely gets an A-plus for sales appeal budget-priced package. The ride quality and the suspension, and practically CFMoto company’s R&D engineers work The six-speed gearbox had a Japanese-level in terms of the sound of music. ability to absorb bumps and ripples in the road everything else sourced from that it was launched on the shift action in terms of precision and I was The acceleration is determined rather than surface without affecting the steering was good, China – the partners surfed the gets the home market early in 2011, amazed that I didn’t miss a single shift in all assertive, but it’s sufficiently strong enough to and the way the bike steers is indeed excellent.

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