Steve's CFMoto 650 NK（春风 650 NK）

[998S]

The front brake is a bit sticky and may have to be bled, but it works itself out during riding.

Not sure you mean the handle is sticky, or the pads.
If it is the last, one word of warning: have it checked immediately.

If the brake pads contact the rotor while riding, they will heat up (up till several 100 degrees).
This heat will be transfered to the hydraulic oil, which will expand (especially if there is water moisture in it - the reason why you have to refresh it every year).
And this expanding oil will act as braking, pushing the pads even harder on the rotor.

There are more then one story of people forced to stop (the lucky ones) or crashed, due to the lockup of their front wheel.

Be careful!

E.

[Lao Jia Hou]

I can really not understand all this mud slinging at the Benelli.
My friend bought a brand new one almost a year ago, and it is me who have clocked most of the miles on it.

I do not recognize any of the negative comments about this bike.

I've been very curious about this bike. I've heard stories from both sides of the coin:

1) great bike that runs flawlessly
2) a problem bike

I've also seen LOTS of slightly used ones for sale in Beijing.

I'm going to venture a guess that the Benelli, in the hands of a knowledgeable and experienced rider (e.g., 998S), the bike performs flawlessly and stands up to normal usage. In the hands of many other new owners, who believe that one warms up a cold bike at 11K rpm (it is quicker that way, right?), the bike screams "enough is enough". No joke, I have seen more than one BJ600 treated that way. I've also seen several people trying to learn how to do wheelies, standies & burnouts on the bike. And the bike being passed around among friends to have their own go at it.

Sheesh, even the super-reliable HDs might not tolerate that.

[themicah]

Not sure you mean the handle is sticky, or the pads.
If it is the last, one word of warning: have it checked immediately.

E.

Thanks for the tip! It's not the pads, and "sticky" probably isn't the right way to describe it. Every once in a while, if I squeeze the lever the bike brakes immediately and forcefully. There is then a sort of release, and normal braking resumes as I squeeze the handle. It seems like maybe air in the line, and I avoid it by treating the front brake gently and allowing my weight to shift before giving it a full on grab. Either way, you are right and it needs to be checked out.

[ZMC888]

998s, I'm not trying to sling mud at the Benelli, maybe others are.

My thoughts are this:

A 600cc inline 4 should be around a third more powerful than a 650cc twin and rev a fair bit higher. An inline four being more race derived and a 650 twin being more street/commuter derived. However the bikes actually put out a similar amount of power meaning it makes people worry about why is the Benelli so detuned? Also why did Qjiang insist on a 4 when Benelli's bread and butter are triples, I mean who really prefers a 4 in a street bike?

Also the final worry is this: No one has really done any clear reviews of the Benelli with substantial kms. (please do one if you can....anyone ?) For me to make a decision I need someone to have done some serious kms on one and give a nice detailed review like Topmanda has with the NK and bikerdoc with the TK. Most reviewers have said the NK is fine bar a few niggles, and I'm really not going to get much more performance out of the Benelli other than the better tires. So it's not that I'm anti Benelli but just I have more information on the NK. Also I have better connections with the CF dealers and they are more capable of working on the bike and honoring their warranty.

Also trying out a bike that has kms is very misleading because the competence of the owner is a massive factor. Some switch gear and things feel wrong, but loads of people drop their bikes and don't admit it or put torque robbing loud mufflers on their bikes. What we need is some who knows bikes.....buy one from new and honestly log the failures, done with NK not with BJ.

[gorka]

Micah,

I think I had the same problem, it was impossible to dose the brake.

It turned out to be the brake lever, it developed a notch from rubbing with the casing sharp edges, in part due to too much play.

Fixed it by leveling the notch with sandpaper and re greasing.

[Steve_Halt]

It might look like I abandoned my own thread, but it is not really so. I have been busy with my new project - a YBR 125, the review of which I might post somewhere here sometime later (it's not a Chinese bike after all).
Anyways, ever since I bought my NK, I had a feeling that the bars were too narrow to be comfortable. Being naturally lazy, I didn't do anything about it until I replaced bars on my YBR. I really liked the result and I ordered another set of bars for my NK from here:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12471975835
They come in a variety of colors, complete with bar raisers. The only thing that's missing is bar-end weights, but I think I'll figure something out there. I got my silver bar yesterday and took it to the mechanic straight away.
Installation is a straightforward procedure: remove the original bar, install the raisers, install the bar, put handles, controls and mirrors on. When installing controls, you need to drill holes in the bar yourself - gives you an opportunity to tweak their position any way you like. especially useful if the original one didn't fit you.
Installation process:

IMG_3996.jpg

Final result:

IMG_3997.jpg

Feeling and comfort: this bar is wider than the original one, gives you better leverage. I personally find it pretty comfortable and much more confidence-inducing than the original one. Say, it was difficult to control the bike at low (read: traffic jam) speeds. Now it's not a problem at all. The seating position has changed slightly as well - now it feels like I'm sitting not on the bike, not "in" the bike, but sort of "over" the bike. A very supermoto feeling. I was worried the bar would vibrate without the bar-end weights, but it is obviously not the case. There is some vibration for sure, but it's nothing to be really worried about.
Overall, the bar is a 130 yuan + delivery, the mechanic charged me another 30 yuan for installation (yes, I could've done it myself, I just got no drill at home) and I believe it's worth the money.
BTW if anybody knows the Chinese for "bar-end weights", could you tell me please? It's not about vibration it's more about covering those holes I got at the bar-ends.

[Wald0]

I had "sticky" front lever/break i read that from some moto forum that tie your front break lever close with bungee cord (i did my with normal rope) and leave it over night, they said that any bubbles in the lines should migrate up to reservoir and dissipate.

My symptoms where when pulled lever it moved little then reached "hard" spot and in order to get past that i had to use more force and then it did break too strong and for me there was not no notch anywhere.


This guide did fix my problem.


And what comes to those new bars very nice!!

but at least in here i really don't want to get any wider bars, because i think that will increase risk to be clipped by some moron with the scooter :(

Vibrations.. i changed bars on my Yamaha FZ1n (RIP) to steel one and realised i should have taken aluminium bars as they seems to naturally dissipate vibrations, my bar vibration could not be felt in short trips but driving few hours it was pretty horrible :) bar-end weights did not help, so next option was fill bars with small lead balls (collected them from shooting range) and stuffed them in the bars and it did the trick!

[Steve_Halt]

Wald0, thanks for the tip! No shooting range in China, but I think I could procure lead balls somehow. BTW, my bar is aluminium I think, not steel. Steel would've been worse.

On the side note: yesterday rode around the Mountain here in Nanjing - the rear suspension seems too uptight. Will try to loosen it up a bit Monday next week. Good for tight corners, pretty drastic on the road - tail jumps up and renders the bike pretty uncontrollable.

[ZMC888]

Steve, you can use your old bar ends. They're pretty heavy, but they do deaden vibration pretty well, you really can notice the difference on longer rides.

WP_20131012_004.jpg
Start with the original bar end.

WP_20131012_006.jpg
You'll need a M6 or M8 self-locking nut (remember self locking, normal nut won't work).

WP_20131012_003.jpg
A rubber bung with a hole in it. If it's too big you can file it down to fit the bar interior.

WP_20131012_001.jpg
A M6 or M8 bolt

WP_20131012_007.jpg
Shove this in your bar and tighten it up.

[Steve_Halt]

ZMC888, thanks for a reply - will try that as soon as I got the time (got to deal with visas for the family and renting a new apartment at the moment).