CFMoto European-designed 450SR
Last year's CFMoto SR-C21 concept bike was an impressive-looking machine, but also something of an enigma, as the company revealed nothing about its specifications - we could see there was a twin-cylinder engine under the fairing, but were left speculating about its power and capacity.
Now we have the answers, as CFMoto has type-approved its new 450SR sports bike in China and it's a doppelganger of the SR-C21, albeit with a few downgraded components to make it viable for production.
Visually, the 450SR - revealed in a single, low-resolution photo accompanying its approval paperwork - borrows the SR-C21's styling with few changes. If anything, the addition of blue, white and black paintwork elevates it compared to the all-black concept. Notable changes include the addition of larger headlights sitting underneath the stylised, Z-shaped LED running lights that were shown on the concept, as well as a pillion seat. Road-going necessities like mirrors, indicators and a licence plate bracket are also added.
The frame is identical to the concept bike's steel tube chassis, but different cast alloy footpeg brackets are another nod to mass production. Meanwhile, the most exotic elements of the SR-C21 - its Öhlins forks, Brembo radial brakes and single-sided swingarm - have been stripped away. They might have looked good, but a 450 cc sports bike isn't going to be a success if it's priced high enough to include all those components.
The styling is the work of CFMoto's European R&D department, Modena 40, based in Rimini, Italy. The '40' logo on the side of the bike is a nod to those roots. It's a good-looking machine, with a clear resemblance to the smaller 300SR sports bike, but a more aggressive overall stance, assisted by huge winglets on either side of the fairing.
Performance-wise, the type-approval shows that the engine is a 449 cc parallel twin, making an impressive 37 kW (50 hp). It's a new engine, unrelated to existing CFMoto designs, but intriguingly it could be related to the planned KTM '490' twin, which has long been expected to form the basis of a range of mid-sized machines from the Austrian manufacturer. CFMoto is closely tied to KTM and already makes the '790' and '890' versions of the LC8c engine, including its own 799 cc variant, used in the new CFMoto 800MT adventure bike.
