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Post by hardd1 on Apr 3, 2012 6:38:38 GMT -5
cf moto is going to get their azz handed to them competing in the 650cc motorcycle world ...imho
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Post by mymomwantsatrike on Apr 3, 2012 8:11:15 GMT -5
Biggest trouble these days is that many of the international scooter mfrs just don't want to be bothered with all the required hoops they are expected to jump through in able to do business in the US( ie: EPA, CARB, Customs, etc) not to mention the various State requirements, ala PA) And you have to admit, scooters in the US are a novelty, and are not considered by the American people to be a serious mode of transportation. As one rep told me, " We sell more scooters in Nigeria than we do in the US" Who can blame them. Lets face it they are in business to make money and in the last 30 years the U.S. has done nothing but discourage any MFG of motor vehicles from marketing here with the insane increased requirements, red tape that they come up with all the time. Now as far as Pa what Ive read makes me hesitent to bring the two bikes in storage in Va. to Pa. because I just dont need a hassle! I even wonder how much crap Im going to get at Honda or Harley for a Pa bike inspection because I have Chinese bikes! well thats sort of BS when you consider we buy and sell mega amounts of motor vehicles in this country. in fact its booming right now don't let anyone give you crap and don't expect it these are scooters. if regulations and carb went away tomorrow people would not buy them, anyway i mean its not like people can't run out and buy one cuz the big bad gov won't let them. they are there if they want them. supply and demand. no demand, no supply and cfmoto go buh -bye
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Post by timber on Apr 3, 2012 8:43:40 GMT -5
People here like their turbo, extended cab dually, 2 ton pickup "tanks" to drive 6 blocks to go shopping with to bring home 2 bags of groceries, and then out again later 4 blocks to get a video game. Even $4 a gallon gas into that hog doesn't seem to get very many of those road hogs staying in the garage in favor of a compact car or scooter. I think Americans would mostly consider scooters in the summer recreation class, similar to buying a snowmobile for winter recreation, ATV for out on the trails.
I do think though that when gasoline hits European levels, this will change big time. In most of Europe the cost for gasoline is DOUBLE what it is here, people are used to paying the equiv. of $7 or $8 a gallon in some countries, we have it CHEAP here even at $4 a gallon.
What I can't get over is, my '82 Honda CVCC 4 cyl wagon averaged around 38 mpg, due to it's unique head design it got great mpg's and exceeded even California's air polution requirements in 1982 on through! What I can't understand is how come TODAY, THIRTY YEARS LATER, we still have new cars BARELY getting that good an MPG! By comparison we should have cars today 30 years later getting at LEAST twice that mpg, yet a lot of them are still in the upper 20's and low 30's!
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Post by ve14326 on Apr 3, 2012 11:46:01 GMT -5
CFMoto could make waves if they did the one thing any of us who had a V5 or V3 asked for....
Make the thing with a bigger engine....We Americans require the ability to do Highway speeds...That's why a Burgman is accepted...
So, if CFMoto would bring out a 500cc V5 or something like that which could legitimately do a highway speed, people would take them seriously....
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Post by sentinex on Apr 3, 2012 12:33:52 GMT -5
In my humble opinion and not to try to de rail the thread One of the major problem is the big discrepancy between prices form respected brands to the Chinese counterparts. No I am not knocking off the Chinese brands they can be good, if you follow the procedures that they have around here.
What I am complaining is about the Brand names prices and the add in's Example the Honda 2010 SH150i for $4499, seriously? almost 5 thousand dollars(not including any add in, licensing and registration) for a 150cc scoooter that isn't that good? then you got brands like Vespa MSRP for a LXV 150 is listed at $5499 not bad, but wait, that not the final price you gotta fork around $700 for the dealer(decrating. handling a processing and forget about shipping you better picked it up) plus all the goodies the State and DMV add to your bike, Final price on that LXV 150? ($6400) Even on my Kymco 150 MSRP $2399 I ended up paying upwards of 3300 us after all is said and done. Remeber we live in a society where you go to the car dealership and you take away from the sticker price, not Add more!
Then we arrive to our beloved(kinsa) Chinese Imports, where the market already has it's problems to begin with shady business practice(NOT you Valley scooters, or mainly scooters, etc), DOA's And scooters breaking down a week after arrival.Funny though is here Where you can buy your dream scooter for less than 2 grand,That should be the KILLER appplication of chinese scooters, the price, but a lot of people have been burnt by some of those shady companies we won''t mention. Oh I forgot on top of that, the mayority of the Chinese scooters cannot be register in the state of California!
So until scooters are price evenly and fairly across the board(I am looking at you Honda!) and when their Chinese counterparts are sold by more and more respected internet Dealers(like valley Scooters mainly scooter, etc)with a real warranty and Support, scooters will remain what they are, a novelty.
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Post by jwalz1 on Apr 7, 2012 12:35:14 GMT -5
Senitex,
I just bought a Kymco and a good deal under sticker. It was a one year leftover though. ANd that is a nice looking Super 8 btw.
The dealer is the biggest scooter dealer we have in town (and they ONLY sell scooters) Piaggio, Vespa, Kymco, Genuine and Vectrix and they told me they were selling scooters in large numbers. This is Minnesota and so we don't have the friendliest scooter climate but he said his sales have been increasing rapidly for the last few years.
Once the weather got nice I started seeing them parked all over the place and riding around in traffic. I had never really noticed any before. At least for the downtown dwellers, scooters seem to be catching on.
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Post by Carolina Fun Machines on May 22, 2012 5:24:50 GMT -5
Has any past CFMOTO dealer signed their new agreement?
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Post by kathineid on May 22, 2012 10:30:12 GMT -5
Yes, why are you asking? Did you?
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Post by chromestarhustler on May 23, 2012 11:18:32 GMT -5
cf moto is going to get their azz handed to them competing in the 650cc motorcycle world ...imho yeah why would you try and enter a saturated segment of the bike market like the 650 sport bike arena. when there is a huge empty spot in the 400- 500 class. Its completely empty in the usa. with all the major players leaving that class except the gs500f. gone is the ninja 500, cbr 400, bandit 400, gsxr 400 the only 650 class bike that really fills the 500 void is the lower hp high torque sv650/ gladius
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Post by spandi on May 23, 2012 11:24:28 GMT -5
cf moto is going to get their azz handed to them competing in the 650cc motorcycle world ...imho yeah why would you try and enter a saturated segment of the bike market like the 650 sport bike arena. when there is a huge empty spot in the 400- 500 class. Its completely empty in the usa. with all the major players leaving that class except the gs500f. gone is the ninja 500, cbr 400, bandit 400, gsxr 400 the only 650 class bike that really fills the 500 void is the lower hp high torque sv650/ gladius Maybe the Chinese are thinking they can capture a segment of the market by selling a 650 for a 400cc price?
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Post by chromestarhustler on May 23, 2012 12:00:27 GMT -5
Maybe the Chinese are thinking they can capture a segment of the market by selling a 650 for a 400cc price? then parts better interchange with some major brand cause 60 percent of the 650 bikes i see are running at least one of these mods. forks from a 1000, or 750 triple tree swap with brakes, lowered links, rim swap, gear swap, rear tail fairing swap. wheel swap and i still think its gonna be a hard sell, would i buy a new unknown chinese bike for just get the 2 year old jap bike i know will go 50000 miles of hard abuse. the cfmoto has way less hp than a 600rr 53kw (71) vs 78.1kw (104.7), the same torque, and what appears to be a far lower redline, and smaller wheels, has more power and torque than the ninja 500, but the same top speed. basically its specs read like a mid 90's 650 bike. they have better be cheap, cause checking craigslist 2008 kawasaki ninja 650r, 7,600miles $3500 red 2008 cbr $2200 then this one that has to be a scam albuquerque.craigslist.org/mcd/3033406241.html
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Post by kathineid on May 23, 2012 17:55:02 GMT -5
A lot of my customers have bikes at 40,000 plus miles. I believe you will get the miles out of the 650's also. CF has never made a product that didn't stand up to what they led the public to believe. If the charms are used for racing and we drove our fashion to Florida from LI, NY, then I am very comfortable believing the 650's will be exactly whats expected , if not better. I have been a dealer 7 years this year and when the bikes are PDI'd and maintained correctly, they ride well, without problems and for a long time.
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Post by Carolina Fun Machines on May 28, 2012 10:31:07 GMT -5
We have had a n umber of parts on order for customers bikes for for as long as 8 months and they can not tell us when they were ordered or when we will receive them. How do you explain that to a customer that thought they were dealing with a top tier scooter supplier?
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Post by kathineid on May 29, 2012 18:17:54 GMT -5
We have had a n umber of parts on order for customers bikes for for as long as 8 months and they can not tell us when they were ordered or when we will receive them. How do you explain that to a customer that thought they were dealing with a top tier scooter supplier? I'm surprised at the length of time you have been waiting for parts. The longest I have waited is 2 months and that was rare. Have you spoken with Tim directly? Talk to him and then speak to Dave A. Let your concerns be known to Dave. Dave is very adament about having parts for all the bikes. They are in the process of construction to triple the size of the ware house for parts only. Since Dave took over in February, I have only waited a month for one part.
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Post by Carolina Fun Machines on May 30, 2012 7:12:49 GMT -5
I have and he has no answers. One of the parts they sent was wrong and was for a bike that I don't think was ever sold here in the US.
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Post by supermel74 on May 30, 2012 9:56:13 GMT -5
Maybe the Chinese are thinking they can capture a segment of the market by selling a 650 for a 400cc price? then parts better interchange with some major brand cause 60 percent of the 650 bikes i see are running at least one of these mods. forks from a 1000, or 750 triple tree swap with brakes, lowered links, rim swap, gear swap, rear tail fairing swap. wheel swap and i still think its gonna be a hard sell, would i buy a new unknown chinese bike for just get the 2 year old jap bike i know will go 50000 miles of hard abuse. the cfmoto has way less hp than a 600rr 53kw (71) vs 78.1kw (104.7), the same torque, and what appears to be a far lower redline, and smaller wheels, has more power and torque than the ninja 500, but the same top speed. basically its specs read like a mid 90's 650 bike. they have better be cheap, cause checking craigslist 2008 kawasaki ninja 650r, 7,600miles $3500 red 2008 cbr $2200 add to that most motorcycle shops still won't touch Chinese bikes and you're on your own when the bike needs repairs. I wouldn't pay a dime over $1500 for the CF Moto 650 and I'd be hesitant at that price.
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