CF Moto, or something from China that's not crap

650 water cooled twin. They also make a tourer and a cruiser with the same engine. Now, we all know that most anything from China in scooters or cycles is typically poorly made, low displacement junk. But I found this review: Cycle News First Ride: CFMoto 650NK that says this one may actually be a real bike. And so it begins...China poised to conquer yet another product line. CF Moto US web site No dealers exist yet. YET. So does the prospect of a bike at half the cost of the Japanese competition excite you, or do you ignore it because it's from China? Discuss.

I'm sure there must have been a similar conversation about Japanese bikes in the early sixties.

I wouldn't bet the farm on chinese bikes, but if I was already in the bike business I would consider it closely. They will eventually build some good bikes and even cars.

If they're cheap enough, somone will buy it. I'll let others experiment first, though. Of the Chinese manufacturers, I seem to trecall CFMoto is one of the higher rated ones. Although you may want to look for some reviews of their other models over the last few years. I seem to recall people suggesting going through the wiring, and changing out all the fluids as soon as you take delivery. If I'm buying new, I'd rather just ride, not tinker.

A decent number of Japanese and Taiwanese brands have outsourced to China. When I bought a scooter about three years back, it wasn't terribly hard to tell which ones were made in Taiwan/Japan, and which ones were made in mainland-China. The only Chinese one I saw that looked pretty good was the Yamaha Zuma 125.

Kymco

The Kymco line of ATVs are already getting good press. They have moved past the Hyndai Excel stage already and are about at the Tiburon phase. They will hit Genesis coupe soon.

In reply to pinchvalve:

I ultimately wound up with a Kymco scooter, one of the ones made in Taiwan. It was nice and reliable. Most of the complaints I heard about Kymcos were traced back to the ones made in China. Fogging in the instrument panel was a big one. As I understand, different manufacturers have a different level of oversight on their factories in China. Kymco was supposeddly pretty involved, but not enough to keep some problems at bay.

they'll probably do better, more quickly, with bikes because the people responsible for defining what it is and what it should do probably have some experience with bikes. i think that the general lack of experience with automobiles is what slows their development of native chinese automobiles into something the rest of the world will buy.

I don't think they'll do anything until they get a decent dealer network and a good parts supply in place. People expect cheap China bikes/scooters to break, but they don't expect parts to be unobtainium or on back order for months. That's been the knock so far and I don't see it changing soon.

and I thought the dealer network sucked for BMW motorcycles.....so no, with no dealer network, not for me. I buy a lot of things online, but if I need something fast and thedealer has it I'll go there.

Add in no proven track record and I'd rather pay more for something else. I tend to keep things a looonnng time. I still have the 85 Honda Fourtrax my parents bought us brand new and the 89 nx125 I bought brand new. If I need parts for those I can get them easy enough. With a diff Chinese bike company coming around every other day who knows whether you'll be able to get parts or not.