CFMoto

CFMoto developing girder forks for big tourer

By Ben Purvis

Although the telescopic fork has long set the standard for motorcycle front suspension, there's always been a niche group of bikes using less conventional designs. Whether it's Bimota's Tesi system or BMW's Telelever, there are positives and negatives to alternative front ends, but the girder fork design that was championed by Norman Hossack in the 1970s has gained some recent success in the field of large-capacity touring bikes.

Big, heavy motorcycles put telescopic forks under a lot of strain, and the girder fork's ability to separate braking and suspension forces is a benefit to them, allowing a compliant ride without excessive brake dive. Honda has adopted a variation of the idea on its current generation of Gold Wing, and BMW has long used a Hossack-style setup on its K-series models, including the current K1600 six-cylinder range.

Now China's CFMoto is exploring the same idea, filing patent applications that show a Hossack-style fork on a variation of its 1,279 cc, V-twin powered 1250TR-G tourer - the biggest, most powerful Chinese-made motorcycle currently on the market, albeit only in its home country at the moment. Don't be fooled by the fact the engine in the patent illustrations appears to be a single: it's actually the same KTM-derived V-twin used in the 1250TR-G, but the rear cylinder has been omitted from the drawings.

CFMoto's patent relates only to a small detail of the design, which is essentially similar to the setup BMW uses on the K1600. The front wheel is supported by cast alloy legs, themselves attached to a pair of wishbone-style links that connect them to the frame. A single coil-over shock provides the springing and damping, and the design allows a more direct transfer of braking forces from the front wheel to the bike's chassis without running all that strain through the steering head.

The CFMoto tweak to the design revolves around the use of a spherical bearing in the scissor-style linkage above the girder forks that transmits steering inputs from the bars to the front wheel. Normally, on designs like BMW's, that bearing would be replaced by a more conventional hinge.

It's not CFMoto's adaptation of the design that's intriguing so much as the fact it's being considered by the company at all. CFMoto has had a remarkable transformation in recent years, becoming one of the most credible manufacturers that China has to offer. Its close ties with KTM, for whom it builds many engines and even complete bikes, including the recently-reintroduced 790 Duke and 790 Adventure, are a sign of CFMoto's competence, and its own bikes are looking like increasingly tempting alternatives to the established Japanese and European offerings. A big tourer with alternative, Hossack-style front suspension would go a long way to further shaking off residual impressions that China's motorcycle industry can only make cheap knock-offs.