CFMoto 800MT: the adventure bike with KTM engine from China

 CFMoto 800MT: the adventure bike with KTM engine from China

Official presentation in China of the CFMoto 800MT, an on-off equipped with the KTM LC8c twin-cylinder engine of the KTM 790 Duke and Adventure.

Let's pay attention to what's coming from China because it could turn out to be a surprise: the CFMoto 800MT has been unveiled in China and is ready to put its wheels on European roads, including Italian ones.

CFMoto is a Chinese brand that develops, manufactures, and markets motorcycles and engines; it has a relatively young history created in 1989 and has proliferated. Starting as a quad brand, it has gradually opened up to the production of high-quality motorcycles.

CFMoto is very ambitious, and to achieve its objectives, it has created a joint venture with KTM: the Chinese group Zhejiang Chenfugen Power Co. (which includes CFMoto) and the Austrian manufacturer (which has a 49% stake) collaborate for the development of engines and motorcycles, exchange of know-how and the small Austrian motorcycles of 125, 200 and 390 ccs are produced in the Hangzhou plant.

From this collaboration, the CFMoto 800MT was born, an adventure bike for which several words have been spent in the past and which has now finally been unveiled in its final version at the Shanghai Auto Show. Rumors about his arrival in Europe have been heard, but, for the moment, there have been no conforming. Still, knowing the Asian market-oriented towards smaller capacity models and reading the bike's equipment, a suspicion may also be plausible.

Made for European riders

That CFMoto 800MT is a bike that winks to the European market appears quite clear: a very sophisticated design in its classic, twin-engine LC8c 790 of the naked Duke 790 and the on-off Adventure 94 hp and 77 Nm, technological equipment good ABS cornering, traction control, ride-by-wire, Bosch control unit (produced in the Chinese factory), riding mode, heated grips and saddle, 7 "digital display with integrated navigator, keyless ignition and automatic high beam headlights.

The chassis may surprise, given the joint venture with KTM: to avoid cannibalism or more simply to differentiate the models of the two manufacturers; the components are different, no longer WP and Brembo but KYB suspensions and J. Juan brakes, a Chinese company among the leaders market. Typically KTM instead the tubular steel frame, while in the homologation documents, 231 kg is indicated, which can reach 238 kilograms with rigid aluminum bags.

The clues that lead her to Europe

After its runway in Shanghai, CFMoto hasn't made its plans explicit, so the 800MT shouldn't be available to European riders for at least this year. We know that there are two versions, depending on the use and preferences of each biker: a more road version with 17 "alloy wheels and one more dedicated to a few laps on the off-road vehicle, with 19" spoked wheels.

The Chinese media hypothesize a price that dances between 50,000 and 70,000 Yuan, which translated into our currency are equivalent to 6,400 and 8,900 euros at the current exchange rate, obviously to be taken with the necessary precautions, because transport costs are not included. Distribution and duties. But premium equipment and aesthetics made by Kiska Design, the design company that signs the Mattighofen models, are aspects that should make us think and could make some protagonists of the tourer segment tremble.