Aimi picked up her new CF Moto 700MT today and it’s just an incredible bit of kit for the money.
We went to Monyash not long ago and while hanging around the old forge cafe, we got chatting to this bloke about his CF Moto 450MT. He was absolutely raving about it; the capability, the comfort, the reliability, the quality…
I remember CF Moto from 10-15 years ago at the motorbike show and seeing the cheap, shiny, brittle, plastics and engines made from the weakest chinesium, so their reputation in my head was just rubbish. But seeing what they offer now, up close, was incredible. We took his recommendation seriously as Aimi had already been looking at getting a larger and more comfortable adventure bike. Pretty soon, we ended up on a test ride together; Aimi on a 700MT and me on the 1000MT.
As soon as we walked in the showroom and I saw the 700MT up close, I recognised it’s heritage. It’s basically a Kawasaki Versys 650 – the bike I had for 11 years and put over 80,000 miles on the clocks. It’s got the same engine, the same frame, the same offset shock and aluminium swing arm. It’s a CF Moto copy of the Versys! This completely dispelled any negative prejudice I had about the bikes mechanics because I knew intimately what we were in for. We shall see about the electronics…
Only time will tell but picking up the bike from Smalley Cross dealership near Derby gave me a burst of longing for a new bike. Except… I really love my SMT.
Funnily enough, Facebook popped up a photo of my SMT990 yesterday from 4 years ago! While I love my bike, ever since I got it I’ve hated the stock panier racks.
Especially because when I bought the bike, it came with KTM original aluminium pannier boxes. But instead of using the built in, part of the exhaust mount, pannier rack, the designers just bolted on another, even bigger rack around it. So for 4 years I’ve had to drive around with 2 racks on the back of my bike cluttering up and covering my beautiful (and incredibly noisy) exhaust pipes.
I toyed with the idea for a while of replacing them with some angle steel to support the exhaust and some bent aluminium to support the bodywork. And I even got some aluminium flat and bent it to shape, but never got around to finishing the mini project. Basically because the exhaust hanger I’d need to make would be really complicated.
But today I just thought…
“fuck it, just use an angle grinder and cut the pannier frames off”
So thats exactly what I did.
With the boxes I’ve got, I’m never going to use these bits so I unbolted them, took them down to the shed and (carefully and respectfully) hacked them up. I smoothed and deburred them with a basic file and then sprayed the newly exposed aluminium black. It’s not the best paint job in the world but it’s just so there isn’t exposed bright and shiny aluminium on display.
I think this burst of industriousness came from my longing to get a new bike, like Aimi, but still really loving this one. This tiny improvement will have to sate my appetite for now. That and the new KTM sticker so people stop asking me what it is and confusing it with those cheap Chinese bikes haha!
