As the Boeing 747 effortlessly tore a hole in the sky over Lisbon, we all sat chatting about CFMOTO and the launch that we’d just attended. If you’d told us even ten years ago that we’d be shipped from SA to the world famous Portimao track to ride made in China superbikes, chances are excellent that we would not have believed you…
We did a short feature about this launch just last week in Dirt And Trail. That was put together literally on the evening that the launch ended – and since then, there has been a bit more time to process it all and think about what we need to tell you about the brand and the new machines.
Motomedia was under the impression that we were going over to sample the new 800MT-X adventure machine, only to discover that CFMOTO was, in fact launching 9 new models for 2025. Yup! Nine new bikes…
The road bikes included the little four-stroke 125NK, the naked triple cylinder 675NK and the sporty new 675SR-R.
Three brand new road bikes – and a brand new triple cylinder engine from this new motorcycle giant. The first inline 3 for CFMOTO, developed in conjunction with their Aspar team. More on that below.
We almost hit a snag…
We had only brought along our Leatt ADV gear, no leathers or anything, so we were a bit concerned that they wouldn’t allow us onto the track.
Explaining that to CFMOTO SA would have been interesting.
How to get around it?
Walk in, Peak off, look as main and knowledgeable as possible. Climb on and ride off.
Duh! Next time, we’ll read the brief.
In all seriousness though the Leatt stuff does have all the proper CE protection, so we didn’t feel too guilty.
For now, we’ll tell you a little bit about the little NK125.
CFMOTO made a little motard track where we could try this bike out. Initially, we thought that riding through cones was a bit doff, but after a few laps, you kind of get to understand what they have achieved. It’s a lightweight, nimble four-stroke with excellent road manners and flickability. Oh yes! It even has traction control and ABS. The bike is comfy – even for a bigger rider like yours truly, with gorgeous styling and even a TFT screen.
The clutch actuation is soft, gear shifts from the single cylinder mill are smooth and the bike is not really fast enough to get out of shape.
We like!
Did we mention the styling? Just look at it!
Hopefully, this is a bike that will entice the younger riders out there, just starting their motorcycle adventures. One thing. He track was so tight that you could really only shift up to third gear – so we have no idea about top speeds and all that, but third was sufficiently torquey enough to do a whole lap without shifting down.
When it gets to SA, we’ll need to take it for a longer street ride.
Triple cylinder 675 engine: Fitted into two bikes, the naked NK675 and the sporty 675SR-R.
Yup! The chaps from CFMOTO are justifiably proud of the brand new 675 triple donk that they have fitted.
CFMOTO’s 675 engine makes a claimed 95 hp at 11,000 rpm, and 51.6 pound-feet of torque at 8,250 rpm. It has a DOHC top end with four-valves per cylinder and it’s liquid-cooled. The six-speed gearbox is standard, with slip/assist clutch, and there’s a quickshifter.
Cool huh!
The NK 675.
This ride on the CFMOTO NK 675 took place on the GP Go-Kart track – a smorgasbord of tight, twisty turns built on the side of the main track. The good thing is that it’s not that tight that you can’t get a proper feel for the bike, even though the main straight is just too short to explore the whole gearbox and the bikes top end.
We like the overall comfort. The ergonomics are well thought out.
The bike is not tall – it feels compact and light
We love the fresh approach to naked styling – the designers are coming up with some cool ideas.
The NK 675 boasts the entire arsenal of electronics too – from rider modes to traction control and Bluetooth connectivity via the very cool TFT display. Properly up to date and all very intuitive and well thought out. You can google all the stuff on the bike…
They need to keep costs down – critical in todays market and as such, CFMOTO selected J Juan Brakes and CST Tyres.
The bike started faultlessly every time. The clutch is soft, gearbox smooth.
Power is exactly what you’d expect from a bike like this and we were soon whizzing around the track, with our seriously social test rider actually managing to overtake a few riders.
Four, ten minute sessions – sounds short, but that’s a lot of riding, told us that this is an excellent bike. It does exactly what it says on the box with an exhaust note that soon has you humming along in your helmet.
The KYB suspension felt just right for blitzing the track and there were no “Oh Gosh” moments to tell you about. The engine feels like a cross between an MV Augusta and a Triumph – use it, don’t use it, we had no complaints.
The quickshifter worked perfectly for the duration, smooth gear shifts, just lekker lekker!
We would look at two upgrades were we to buy one – especially for on the track.
The bike needs better rubber and we’d need to upgrade the brakes, perhaps braided brake lines and maybe a different compound pad.
In saying that, whilst we did not get to ride the bike on the streets, we reckon that the standard components will be absolutely perfect for everyday use.
So in a nutshell:
Fast, smooth, comfortable. Lots of fun to ride. Quality feel – and we keep coming back to that.
Pricing, of course, is critical – it will be interesting to see how the cost of a triple stacks against the more traditional twin cylinder naked bikes on the SA market.
Watch this space… we’ll keep you posted.
The CFMOTO 675SR-R
Ah yessss. This was the one we were all waiting for – partly because of the bike – but also because we were given the opportunity to take a few laps around the famous Portimao track or for the purists – the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.
On the first lap, our rider actually got moaned at for taking his hand off the handlebar.
His excuse?
“Well, I had to keep pinching myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming!”
It’s THAT cool. The track flows with lots of twists and turns and a huge climb and blind drop into a left hander, down 1, 2, lean Right… get overtaken on the outside by a mad Russian, onto the straight, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, brakes, gear down, lean Right… Leaaaan – any track fanatic knows that feeling and anyone who watched Moto GP will understand the sensation you get when you get to ride where all your hero’s bash bars.
Anyway, we digress. This is meant to be about a CFMOTO Right?
Listen to this – we travelled 24 hours from SA to Portimao so that we could ride Chinese bikes on one of the worlds most majestic racetracks. Sounds unreal right? Well brace yourself, because looking at this lot, we are pretty certain that there’s more to come from this blue brand.
The CFMOTO 675SR-R certainly lives up to the hype.
Interestingly, the ones available on the day were slightly lower spec in order to meet Euro A1 licence requirements.
You can literally take what we said about the NK in terms of all the components, slot that into a far sportier chassis and you get the gist of what this bike is all about.
It’s fast, handles and turns beautifully – and we need, once again to talk about the song from that triple. We know that these guys have a deal with Akarapovic for aftermarket pipe, but we’d be completely happy to live with the stock unit.
The rider triangle is quite aggressive, but not completely over the top. The footpegs are placed high with your knees tucked into the tank. Speaking of the tank, it’s not quite flat, so the rider has a bit of a bulge which is unusual on most sports machines.
Same format for the track – 10 minutes, take a break, next ten – for about two hours which translated into roughly five sessions.
The engine has a lot of poke and accelerates very smoothly through the box – no flat spots or anything untoward. Hitting the aforementioned straight that runs along the massive grandstands, we tried hard to get her flat out. Some of the smaller guys reckon that they saw 225KPH.
On one of our runs, we saw 190 before chickening out for the approaching corner. Still bloody impressive for a 675!
Acceleration through the box was smooth, the quickshifter worked perfectly throughout. Who built this bike again?
Once again and we don’t like to harp on, we understand the necessity for cost effective components, we’d look at the brakes and tyres for any serious track days.
For our last session, the CFMOTO techs switched off the ABS and traction control and let the dogs of war loose. The fast boys all came home with fat grins.
Did we beat Bastianini’s lap record.
Well no. Not even close, but man – great fun was had!
CFMOTO is serious about business. At the end of each session, riders were asked to fill in a questionaire on each motorcycle that was ridden. Pointed questions were asked about quality, performance, components and everything else. You can bet your bum that the feedback will be picked to pieces and is being analysed as we type this lot up…
This is CFMOTO’s first real supe and it’s impressive. Yes they are coming to SA and all indications are that they will be cost effective too.
Hopefully there will be a demo model or two and we’d suggest that if you are in the market for a bike like this, that you go and ride one.
Just get hold of the guys at CFMOTO SA.
