pipe from the expansion chamber into a fine cutaway pipe, finished beautifully, capped with a black sleeve, integrated subtly into the bike’ s whole, and delivering an excellent punchy sound track to any ride. Little colour touches here and there and a great lighting package too. The Daytime Running lights are smart and bright. The parallel twin engine is, as we know, basically the 790 and it is a willing, tractable and powerful unit with good low end torque and traction. Given a nudge of throttle it whips to 100km / h in 3.6 seconds and will keep going to around 225km / h but in a naked format you won’ t want to be there long. Various sources have the bike delivering between 95 and 100 horses( 74kW), but, frankly, who cares? It’ s got the right amount for fun and frivolity. While hooning may be to your liking, I found the bike to be an excellent town commuter and for lane splitting it’ s a dream. The weight distribution is good too, meaning although its not superlight at 189kg for 800cc, it certainly feels lighter than that. It’ s quick as hell from side-to-side and effortless. Technology-wise this is a remarkable offering for the money.
CLEVER TECH The A4 iPad-sized screen is a trifle incongruous until you realise the sheer gamechanging nature of the system. The display is controlled from a basic cross of pushbuttons and an‘ Enter’ button to the left. Basic offerings in mapping are Road, Rain, and Sport, but the tech screen really comes into focus when using the map and apps. Apple CarPlay, Bluetooth and multimedia are supported. Download the CF MOTO Ride app and link the bikes VIN number to your phone, and an array of neat things happen. First, in‘ Vehicle’- being proximity keyed you can switch it on manually, but you can also unlock the bike from the phone. Click on‘ Unlock’ and when you walk up to two metres from the bike it automatically switches on the ignition and start up sequence.‘ Seek’ allows you to find the bike in a host of black motorcycles, push it and the horn beeps twice and the lights flash on and off.‘ Tracks’ is just that – it keeps a record of distance, gas used, duration, speed, averages etc.‘ Settings’ gets really interesting, vehicle location allows you to find the bike, you can‘ geofence’ it, get low fuel alert, fatigue warning, high rpm warning, overheat warning, and set indicator light usage. Drive, unlock, stall, and accel / decel settings are also available. It’ ll perform a system check and give a score out of 100. There’ s a‘ News’ button too( generally saying how well David Alonso is doing aboard the brand, LOL). Under the‘ Me’ button, you can
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