The CFMOTO 450MT entered the market with a flourish of positive expectation and rapidly gained a large purchaser base and an excited social media following . It is easy to see why . It ’ s a very good looking , modern and seemingly capable machine that features the only twin cylinder engine in this market segment to date . It has an excellent specification list and perhaps the biggest plus for most – it ’ s under $ 10,000 ( just ). At first glance upon meeting the 450MT , I was surprised at how physically big it is . Being a 450 I ’ d expected it to be ‘ smaller ’ like the other bikes in the category , but , no , it is a fullsized adventure machine . I ’ d say it has similar
proportions to a Yamaha T7 ( to which it looks eerily reminiscent ), although the seat height is a low-ish , sensible for most , 820mm with taller and lower options available . The other thing that struck home immediately was how nicely put together it is , ‘ especially for the price ’ ( which I ’ ll come back to later ). For this test we fitted some road-legal Metzeler MC360 Hard dirt tyres to see just how capable CFMOTO ’ s entry into the market is when it ’ s taken beyond the gravel .
ENGINE The parallel twin engine is very sweet running , smooth and perky . It is a liquid-cooled , six speed gearbox , DOHC 449cc parallel twin
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