CFMOTO 650GT China Competes

Exclusive first test by any journalist of CFMoto’s 650GT twin-cylinder sport touring model launched at EICMA 2018 with detachable panniers, replacing the 650TK touring bagger

- Alan Cathcart

Really, it was inevitable. Just like products of the Japanese industry half a century ago, Chinese motorcycles are increasingly no longer the cheap but not always cheerful products they used to be, predominantly built down to a price, often with shockingly poor durability, and non-existent spares backup.

For that was then and this is now, with products of the People’s Republic increasingly well-engineered and soundly constructed, with ever more attractive styling that’s no longer so frequently derivative, as a pastiche of Western design. But while industry giant Qianjiang has been a key player in moving this trend forward via its Italian Benelli subsidiary, the true pathfinder in this process of engaging with overseas markets via a range of ever more appealing and well-made middleweight models, is the much smaller CFMoto company.

CFMoto was founded in 1989 by then 24-year old entrepreneur Lai Guogui. In 2007 it opened its present 150,000m² plant in Hangzhou, 200km/125mi SW of Shanghai, whose 1,500-strong workforce - 240 of whom are qualified engineers directly involved with R&D – is steadily ramping up production not only of bikes and scooters, but especially ATVs, in which CFMoto is a global market leader [see Company Profile]. In 2009 the company began development entirely in house of its own liquid-cooled dohc 650cc parallel-twin engine as a platform for a range of different middleweight models. The 650NK Naked version was the first of these to be launched in China in 2011, reaching export markets one year later. The 650TK bagger Tourer came next, with export sales commencing in 2014, and 2017 saw the 650MT adventure tourer sold worldwide. Now it’s the turn of the 650GT, which uses the same tubular steel diamond frame as the other two models, with the same 650cc parallel-twin engine employed as a fully-stressed chassis component.