Half Yearly Report

I thought I’d share some insights on my ownership now that 6 months are up. The bike is a CF Moto 650GT and it’s just had its 5000km service. After 21 years of riding Honda VFRs I finally decided that age was creeping up on me and I needed a bike that was lighter and easier to maneuver. I looked around everywhere but most of the potential replacements were nearly as heavy as the VFR.

A mate had an MT650 and he suggested that I looked at the CFMoto. When I went to the shop and told the salesman what I was looking for he asked me why I wanted the MT. I said because a mate has one and likes it. “Do you do any off-road riding?” he asked. I said “No.” so he replied, “Well, why not buy the GT instead, it’s the same bike except that it’s set up for road riding. The seat height is lower and it would suit the style of riding you do much better.”

Now I’d known Brayden for years, since way back when he and his brother were racing supersport so I trusted his judgement.

“Take it for a test ride,” he said and I did. I knew it wasn’t going to be like the VFR and I was waiting for all the negatives to kick in. It’s Chinese, it’s only a twin, it doesn’t have as much power, you know the sort of thing.

But, after a half hour test ride where I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t like it, I returned it to the shop and told Brayden, “I shouldn’t like it, but I love it.”

Money was exchanged and I rode it out the door not long after. And I have never once regretted the decision. Yes, it’s NOT a VFR but that doesn’t make it bad. Instead, I keep finding advantages of it that the VFR doesn’t have.

I’ve done a four day tour, lots of local scratching around the Southern Highlands, some long one-day runs as well as the usual gadding about and it’s just about perfect for me and my riding style.

So, I’m 75 years old, I’ve been riding for over 50 years. I’m 173cm tall and I weigh 90kgs. Surely you would think that would be all manner of adjustments that I would have to make to make the bike suitable for me. Not so. In fact the only thing that I have adjusted is the gear lever which I turned down one spline on the shaft so it’s easier to get my foot on top of it while changing down. Everything else is still stock standard. I had the engine de-restricted at the 1000km service and I haven’t yet found myself in the situation where I need more power.

The suspension, while offering hardly any options in terms of adjustments, seems just right to me and has proved to be more than competent on all sorts of surfaces, including some noted “horror” roads around my area that were pretty discouraging on the VFR. The 650 has handled all of them with aplomb. For the benefit of “locals” these roads include the Putty Road, the Oaks Road, the back road from Marulan through to Bundanoon and the infamous Tourist Road on which I hit a huge pothole and survived. Talking to the head mechanic at Carr Brothers he told me that another customer had had to have both wheels replaced after hitting the same pothole. I guess it’s pretty tough.

One thing that did concern me when I first looked at the bike was the seat. Instead of a single-piece unit like the VFR has, it has 2 seats, one for the rider and one for the passenger. Knowing my limitations over long distances, I was concerned that the seat would not be comfortable enough as it doesn’t allow me to move around at all when riding. I used to find that the VFR seat, while not being the most comfortable one, at least allowed me to squiggle around and take the pressure off the sore points. But the first long ride I did was Day 1 of the Snowy ride and I did 519kms in the day and got off the bike feeling fresh. I don’t know why, but the seat is certainly plenty comfortable enough.

And, speaking of the gear lever, it’s a fair bit longer than the VFR one and it is wearing my boot forward of the protective pad on the top. I have glued a piece of leather at the spot and this seems to have solved that little issue.

The 650 comes in two colours, black and white (yes, before anybody tells me, neither of these are colours, but we’ll ignore that.) The test ride bike was black and it looked boring as. It had to be white and I have never been sorry I made that choice either. Despite comments that it shows the dirt easily, I have found that the bike stays clean-looking for quite a while and that a liberal application of WD40 easily cleans the gold wheels, especially of the bitumen spots that are inevitable when riding on freshly-sealed country roads.

The Pirelli Angel GT tyres are great (I’ve used them before on my present VFR so I knew they would be good) – it was pleasing to find them fitted as standard to the GT. I like the mirrors that fold in when I put the bike away in the garage, too.

After nearly 6000kms of riding I still find myself thinking that soon I’m going to find some drawbacks with the bike but I don’t. It’s light, handles brilliantly, is easy to move around at walking pace and the only thing I think I’d like to see is a centrestand, an odometer display as well as the trip meter display at the same time, an ambient temperature gauge and, of course, a cruise control.

I love my 650GT and I like to think that it loves me.