Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 26 JULY 1, 2014 P87 value for money. CFMoto has delivered a re- sponse to this by developing its family of 650cc twin-cylinder models as a family of products giving greater export appeal (es- pecially to customers in mature markets in Europe, Australasia and North America), while provid- ing the Chinese manufacturer with a greater profit margin per unit. It's a strategy that's sure to be followed by other companies – so you can bet these will be the first of many such bikes to ema- nate from the People's Republic, no doubt priced equally com- petitively. And at the point they provide a comparable product to an established Japanese model, but at a price that's anything up to 40 percent lower, it's their cus- tomers overseas who will be the ones to benefit, too. It's a win-win situation all around: everyone comes out ahead, here. Well, except perhaps for the Japanese manufacturers, weighed down by higher labor costs that have prompted Honda, for example, to ramp up offshore motorcycle production at its fac- tory in Thailand, in order to save on labor costs and remain com- petitive. Indeed, it's a gamechanger.CN which 30,000 will be over 250cc in capacity. These do not include any KTMs we will have assembled here in our factory. We expect KTM sales in China to reach 15,000 motorcycles annually by 2017, and we hope to see sales of what in our local market is a premium priced product increase by 1000 bikes or more each year after that. Why did CFMoto decide to de- velop a 650cc twin-cylinder model range, and why choose a parallel- twin layout? When we started to develop this engine there was nobody in China building this kind of larger capacity motorcycle, and so the few you saw on the road were grey imports. We realized overseas customers in de- veloped markets prefer such models. We had already been working on ATVs with engines over 500cc in capacity, so we thought that there would be no problem to make motorcycle engines with similar capacity. We needed an engine with twin overhead camshafts that could deliver high torque at low engine speeds. We considered mak- ing a four-cylinder engine, but in order to get good power we would have needed to rev it over 10,000 rpm, whereas for the parallel twin we could do so at 8000 rpm or lower, and apart from reducing manufacturing costs with half as many components, using a twin-cylinder engine was also more economical to run, which is a key fac- tor in some markets. You began with a naked bike, then a bagger – a hard luggage touring bike. What's next? I'm glad you asked me that, be- cause I want to share with your read- ers the news that Mr. Gerald Kiska, who designed almost every KTM model for the past few decades, has been working for CFMoto for some time on the development of a range of new models. One of the first of his designs to be released will be a multi- functional 650cc Adventure bike, and I see a potential for this not only in China, but in other countries, too. This bike will be released later in 2014, and will enter production sometime in 2015, when we are satisfied with development results. Do you have plans for any other Kiska designed models? Besides the 650MT Adventure bike, Mr. Kiska already designed for us also a range of 150cc bikes powered by our new liquid-cooled single-cylinder engine with two valves, a single overhead-cam, and a balance shaft. These will be revealed very shortly. Isn't there a risk that this Adven- ture bike will clash with existing KTM models you'll be importing as fully built up models for sale in China? I don't think so. The engines will be our own, and the price point for a Chinese made motorcycle will be far below the price asked by KTM for this equivalent model in the same market. So whereas the KTM models we are manufacturing at CFMoto will be luxury models by Chinese standards, aimed at more wealthy customers, our own CFMoto branded model will appeal to someone who is also young and sporty-minded, but doesn't earn so much money each week to be able to afford an expensive bike like the KTM. So they are not at all in competi- tion with each other in the showroom. CFMoto president Lai Guogui.

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