CF Moto is a fairly new brand to the South African market with their ATV’s showing up all over the trails. Now they also do bikes. We hustled a 450 MT adventure bike from Bikeshop Rivonia, the CF Moto dealers in… ERRR – Rivonia for our Gyppo Work Tuesday Ride with Bikeshop Boksburg and…. (Spoiler Alert)…. we are impressed.
By Séan Hendley.
Riders: Séan, Glenn and The German Cannonball.
Pics from all over.
What is CF Moto’s 450 MT?
Well it’s a baby adventure bike. Or is it?
It’s got a 21” front, an 18” rear and KYB suspension.
It’s powered by a parallel twin cylinder 4-stroke, liquid-cooled, DOHC engine that’s mated to a CF-SC slipper clutch and a 6-speed gearbox.
It produces 42 N.m and 31kW at 8500 rpm.
It also produces an exhaust note that makes it sound much bigger and meatier than what it is, which is a perfect segway to the dimensions.
All of the guys who rode this bike are big Fellas’.
The first thing you notice when swinging a leg over the CF Moto 450 MT is that it doesn’t feel like the small adventure bike it is meant to be, it easily feels the same size as a mid weight.
Looking at the spec sheet, it’s wheelbase is a good 60 mm longer at 1,505mm than say the KTM 390 Adventure and the Honda NX 500 which are 1,430 mm and 1,445 mm respectively.
Added to that is its impressive 220 mm ground clearance.
Ahhh…. but what about the seat height? No use having the clearance if you can’t reach the ground to dab a foot in an “oh my gosh” moment. The CF Moto 450 MT starts out at 800 mm in its low setting, 820 mm in higher setting and can go all the way up to 870 mm with the optional taller seat. The lower setting is lower than anything in this class…
The next very important question is weight, which also comes into play with ground clearance, seat height versus rider’s leg reach when riding off road, especially in the technical stuff. The CF Moto 450 MT tips the scales at 185kg when full of all relevant operational liquids That includes 17.5 litres of fuel.
At a specific gravity of 0.8 (Go and look that up…), that would work out to 14kg’s of fuel, which then drops the dry weight of the 450MT to about 170 kg’s odd. For comparative purposes, the KTM 390 Adventure weighs in at 159 kg’s dry, around 11 kg’s or so lighter than the 450 MT while Honda’s NX 500 is 196 kg’s with a full 17.5 litres of fuel on board.
To be fair, the KTM and CFMoto are more off road focused than the Honda which is more of a soft roader by comparison.
The KYB suspension has just over 200 mm of travel at both ends. 200 mm seems to be class leading from what we can ascertain. The forks, aluminium swingarm and motor are bolted to a steel trellis frame.
The spoked rims are 21 inch up front and 18 inch out back, wrapped in 90/90-21 and 140/70-18 CST rubber respectively. Braking duties are by a single 320mm front disc with a four-piston J.Juan calliper and a 240mm rear rotor with a single-pot caliper.
Bosch ABS is standard, but, along with the traction control system can be switched off on the fly via a very simple to use and understand button on the left handlebar. Everyone should do that!
The display is via a 5.5 inch curved TFT with all the mod cons like BlueTooth connectivity, USB-C charging ports and – in-line with what you might expect for a 2024 bike, all the lighting is LED and looks quite sexy.
At R124,900.00 including VAT the CFMoto 450 MT is a similar price to the Honda NX500 at R124,799.00 and costs just more than the KTM 390 Adventure at R122,999.00, so, for a new, relatively unknown and unproven motorcycle in the SA market they seem pretty certain of themselves, pegging their product at slightly more expensive than some of the market’s favourites in that category.
First Impressions
It doesn’t look like or feel like an entry level adventure bike, especially what we might expect from a new model out of China. You’ll have read that if you followed the launch of the bikes at the FK launch a few weeks ago.
The fit and finish feels quality, from the easy to use, solid switch gear on the handlebars to the feel of the body work and all ancillaries. Swinging a leg over, the standard saddle seems quite low, especially for the taller riders amongst us which will have an effect on the rider triangle.
The CFMoto physically feels like a bigger bike than what it is, without all the weight when you ride more technical stuff.
The weight placement and balance feels low down and much more manageable.
The styling and looks are in keeping with the current vernacular for the adventure market, modern, sporty with a sense of purpose – nothing outlandish. The standard seat does become quite hard after a few hours riding, we would definitely like to test one with the taller seat option fitted. Learning the onboards electronics and programmes is really quite easy and seems vaguely familiar.
The height adjustable screen is easy to operate, doesn’t get in the way and is more effective than we initially would have believed.
Shifting gears is smooth and positive both up and down and power is reasonably assertive off the mark all the way through to sixth gear only running out of puff around the 150KPH mark with a 160 (Displayed) KPH top speed.
We put the bike through its paces both on and off-road for about 340 km’s.
Halfway through, Pete topped it up with five litres and nobody remembers having to stop to fill up again, so the range seems to be pretty good too.
We’ll be more scientific about this when we have the bike for a bit more time.
Promise!
What’s it like to ride:
Well, I’m 2 metres tall, 115kg and I spent most of the time in the saddle quite selfishly and wouldn’t give anybody else a proper opportunity to ride it for any significant amount of time…
“I HATE IT!!! I HATE IT!!! I HATE IT for being so frikken good!
A new bike to market should have a slew of issues for us to write about, to critique it about and make clever suggestions on what the manufacturer should do to make it better…. and the CFMoto 450 MT just doesn’t!
How did CFMoto get it so right on their first attempt? Beginners luck?!?!”
Truth be told, after riding the CFMoto 450 MT for at least 250 km mostly in the dirt, mud, loose gravel and thick sand I had a hard time believing I was on a new to market Chinese bike. So, when other riders I respect enormously came back from a spin on it I paid extra close attention to their feedback, to see if it was just my imagination and…. well, it wasn’t.
They all came back with the same confused and quizzical expression I had, all singing the 450 MT’s praises. I then took it out on the road for the day calling on clients and let them ride it too – same result, and some of them were from competitor brands who tried to hide their consternation especially when inquiring about the ticket price.
So, then I went and watched a bunch of YouTube reviews, once again from riders I hold in high esteem. One particular bunch, a crowd of ex-racers who got a bike for a long term review, and who inevitably upgrade the suspension, flash the ECU and sort out a bikes breathing, confidently stated that – other than the taller seat option, some upgrades to the front brakes, a more aggressive tyre and a stronger bash plate, they wouldn’t do anything else to the CFMoto 450 MT other than strap on some luggage and disappear into the bush for a few weeks.
All of which would be exactly the only things I would change.
Admittedly, I am at least 15 to 20 cm taller and weigh around 20 kg more than most of those riders and I am a lot more aggressive on road, so I do tend to find the top end of the speedometer and rev counter more often than most.
The CFMoto 450 MT runs into its 10,000 rpm rev limiter in top gear quite quickly around 160 kmh, but because the wind protection is that good, I didn’t realise how quickly I was going until the little 450 started spluttering its objection – at which point I backed off to 155 kmh where it happily sang along.
Tipping into the sweeping bends was a bit of a non-event, as it should be sub 160 kmh, as were the slower tighter corners, the little 450 MT felt sure footed the whole time. The same was said about it at the track launch by other riders.
It’s a fun bike to ride but…
It’s in the dirt where the little CFMoto Adventure offering really impressed me. I have never been a fan of sand or mud, and this is where, crucially, the rider triangle really worked for me.
At 2 metres tall I generally have to semi squat when standing on these smaller bikes and hunch over the handlebars, which becomes excessively tiring and puts most of my 115kg bulk squarely over the front wheel making soft surfaces like thick sand and mud a terrible chore for me, so I inevitably end up sitting down like an old granny most of the time. The 450MT the pegs are low enough, without affecting ground clearance and perfectly placed and the handlebars are high enough that I could comfortably stand for long periods at a time traversing the terrain with ease.
The suspension is really good, At one point on the ride we were whipping along some railway service tracks, I was in a happy daze, enjoying the Highveld Spring sunshine, being out in the dirt on a good bike and riding with a bunch of lekker people that I forgot about the culverts and subways along that route. Bombing along, north of 100 kmh the ground suddenly disappeared down by a subway, all I could do was hold on and pray while my butt chewed away at my rods.
The little adventure bike from the Far East, dropped in, absorbed the landing and launched out the other side without so much as a wobble… and that happened two or three more times with the same results.
Thick sand? Well, just stand up, lighten the front wheel and hit the gas. Some of the other riders on the trip with us commented on how tough the long sandy sections were and thought I was being facetious when I asked, “What sandy sections?”. I wasn’t quite as brave in the mud and puddles, but that was more down to not knowing what was beneath the surface and an extreme allergy towards a soggy crotch and armpits.
I took it easy in the rocks because…. Well, it’s not my bike and I prefer not to scratch or damage demo bikes, but the sections we did seemed unusually tame to when I have ridden them in the past.
At the end of the day, this “little” bike is so much better than what its price tag and heritage might suggest.
Go ride one for yourself, we borrowed this one from James and the team at Bikeshop Rivonia.
Engine: DOHC, liquid-cooled, four-stroke parallel-twin; 4 valves/cyl.
Displacement: 449.5cc
Bore x Stroke: 72.0 x 55.2mm
Compression Ratio: 11.5:1
Transmission/Drive: Manual 6-speed/chain
Claimed Horsepower: 31 Kw @ 8,500 rpm
Claimed Torque: 42 Nm @ 6,250 rpm
Clutch: Wet, multiplate
Frame: Steel tube
Front Suspension: 41mm USD KYB fork, adjustable
Rear Suspension: Multi-link, KYB monoshock, adjustable
Front Brake: 4-piston J.Juan calliper, 320mm disc w/ Bosch ABS
Rear Brake: 1-piston J.Juan calliper, 240mm disc w/ Bosch ABS (switchable)
Wheels, Front/Rear: 21 in./18 in.
Tires, Front/Rear: 90/90-21 / 140/70-18
Wheelbase: 1,505 mm
Ground Clearance: 220 mm
Seat Height: 800 mm low, 820 mm standard, 870 mm optional tall seat
Tank Capacity: 17.5 Lt
Claimed Weight: 185 kg
