For adventure riding on a budget, the Honda CB500X - recently rebranded as the NX500 - is hard to beat. Now, though, it has a firm rival in the form of the new CFMoto 450MT.
Like the NX, the CF was one of the many bikes revealed at EICMA 2023, but it has an ace up its sleeve that sets it apart from other cheaper ADVs - a parallel twin with a 270-degree crankshaft to give an offset, V-twin-like firing order.
Sure, you can have such a thing in a Yamaha Tenere 700 or KTM 790 Adventure, but only by spending a lot more than the price CFMoto is likely to charge for the 450MT. We don’t have that figure just yet, but when the company makes a fully faired sports bike - the 450SR - with the same engine for £5,599, we can be hopeful of a temptingly low figure which will also pitch it into battle with the 2024 Royal Enfield Himalayan.
The power output of that twin is a fair bit lower than the aforementioned Yam and KTM, though, but at 46bhp and 32.5lb ft of torque, it’s more than punchy enough and right in the same territory as the NX500. It’s also A2 licence-friendly without the need for a restrictor.
You get 200mm of travel at both ends of the bike from the adjustable KYB suspension and 220mm of ground clearance. The bike should be easy to handle off-road, thanks to an impressively low dry weight of 175kg. The seat height is a very accessible 820mm, or 800mm with an optional seat.
The 450MT features an off-road focused 21-inch front/17-inch rear wire wheel combination, wrapped in 90/90 front and 140/70 tyres respectively. On the tech front, there’s Bosch two-channel ABS with the option to switch the system off at the rear, and a curved five-inch colour TFT display with Bluetooth.
And that’s all we know for now. Despite the fact the bike has been publicly revealed, we don’t have all the details just yet.
