CFMoto 800NK could be a game-changer By Ben Purvis
Late last year, CFMoto gave a clear hint at its plans for a new KTM-powered roadster when it showed the NK-C22 concept bike, and now the production version has been given a full unveiling in China ahead of a global launch expected later this year.
Dubbed the 800NK in line with CFMoto's normal naming conventions, the bike is the second machine in the Chinese company's range to use KTM's 799 cc LC8c parallel twin engine, as used in the 790 Duke and Adventure models. Both those bikes are, incidentally, manufactured in China by CFMoto on KTM's behalf, and as part of the deal CFMoto gets to use the engine for its own models. The 800MT adventure bike has already proved its worth, using the same motor, and the 800NK looks like it will be even more impressive.
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In the 800NK, the KTM-designed engine makes 74 kW (99 hp), a little less than KTM's own 77 kW (105 hp) 790 Duke. Importantly, that's still substantially more than the 68 kW (91.5 hp) Honda CB750 Hornet and the 61 kW (81.8 hp) Suzuki GSX-8S, two brand-new machines launched this year to fight in an increasingly competitive middleweight twin-cylinder market.
It's lighter than those rivals, too, coming in at only 186 kg wet for the base version and 189 kg in top-spec form.
Those two variants both share the same chassis, with KYB suspension front and rear and brakes from Brembo's J.Juan subsidiary, assisted by a Bosch ABS system, but they differ in terms of technology. The cheaper model is already competitive on that front, with a 5-inch TFT display, including a phone mirroring function for media, calls and navigation, as well three riding modes for the engine. The top-spec bike switches that dashboard for a vast, 8-inch unit, mounted in portrait orientation, that dwarfs all its rivals. That display includes a split-screen mode, with instruments in the top half and navigation or media in the lower portion and comes with Apple CarPlay as standard.
The higher-spec model also gets a standard up-and-down quickshifter and a keyless ignition system. In the Chinese market, where the bike has first been launched, the 800NK is remarkably affordable, with a price that undercuts all its key rivals. Once exported, that margin is likely to shrink, but the CFMoto's combination of performance, specification and technology is still likely to make a strong argument for the 800NK, even when compared against bikes from more established brands.
