Quote Originally Posted by albest View Post
From Chile (not China) Hi Bikerdoc:
The Jetmax is in our market since March 2012, and is all sold out now. Next shipment will arrive for latest November, and given my interest in one, your brilliant report is very helpful for me. I'm a chinese user, Great Wall d/c truck & Skygo V250 bike, both very good machines at 40% price of the japs.
Thanks and best regards
Alberto
Hi Alberto, glad to see that you have interest in the Jetmax. Keep in mind that CFMoto also have a Jetlux which shares the same engine, but has quite a different design, different plastics, smaller diameter wheels, different headlights and seat design. One thing that is important to consider is even though CFmoto are better in many ways to the average Chinese motorcycle manufacturer there are still costs savings being made on their motorcycles. The savings have got to come from somewhere. If you have a chance to compare a Kymco Xciting 250 and the CFmoto Jetmax 250 you find substantial differences, as I did. When I ride my Jetmax and then ride my Burgman they are just so different and I am not referring to just engine size 250 vs 650. Quality of paint, plastics, fittings, design and functionality, materials and so on.

Just because you might save 60% MSRP between a Chinese bike and something comparable does not mean that they are the same quality, fit and finish. You just need to compare bikes to work out if the 60% cost saving to you is worth the sacrifices in other areas. In other words, if the circumstance were different and I could have had other choices at the time of purchase, would I still buy and ride the Jetmax all things being equal, probably not. This became even more apparent to me when I was back in NZ for 3 months (March-June) and I bought a Suzuki AN650 executive model. The difference between that and the Jetmax is quite remarkable. Keep in mind that I have done 47000km+ on my Jetmax, and modified it a lot. The differences are there and it is the reason I bought another AN650 Executive here in China even though I contemplated the CFMoto 650TR. I even rode 900km return trip to see a 650TR in person so I could judge for myself, if it ticked enough boxes for me to buy one. The 650TR while quite nice, is expensive (rmb46800 MSRP) and still some significant compromises in my opinion. At the moment there is still a significant gap between Chinese motorcycles and those from Japan, Europe and elsewhere.

Keep in mind that nothing comes for free, the 60% price difference between the Jetmax and some other overseas manufacturers model, has been arrived at in many different ways, not just in terms of manufacturing, but also in terms of market & currency manipulation plus other methods.

Just sayin...

YMMV