Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's CFMoto

Our daughter said she'd bought a quad and wanted to come for the weekend to try it out. She showed up with a '16 CFMoto 800. I just bit my tongue. We headed out in the hills on Saturday. The battery was weak so I'd put a charger on it. I have an extra car battery that we put in the back along with some jumper cables just in case. We got about 5 miles when it started to choke out and died. The battery was pretty well dead. We had a drink of water and talked about it, planning to get it turned around to tow it home. Then it started and was running fine. We headed back down and it did it again a mile later. Let it sit 5 min and it would take off again. We got it home ok and she went to town for a new battery and some injector cleaner. The cleaner said to add it when the tank was close to empty, start it to get the cleaner through the injectors, then fill the tank. I siphoned most of the gas out, dumped in the cleaner and started it. Then we let it sit overnight so the cleaner could work. She got a good AGM battery that we put in.
Next morning, I tapped the key and It insta-started. It was running great. We headed back to the hills and that thing ran like a scalded cat. We put on 52 miles yesterday on some really rough, steep, rocky trails and it ran great.
I think the previous owner had been using ethanol gas and the injectors were just gummed up from sitting. The problem is that nowhere in any manual I've seen does it tell you to avoid ethanol at all costs.

CFMoto is seldom on any list of top quality machines but this one seems to be a good one, at least for now. She's not afraid to drive it hard but normally won't be using it anywhere near as rough as where we went yesterday. Hopefully it'll last her a while.

I should mention that this episode taught me something. Her gas gauge is way off. When it gets down to half, it's only got a couple gallons left.
The injector cleaner she bought came in a 2-pack and she gave me one. I thought I'd run it through my Polaris RZR even though I only use non-al gas and it's never given me a problem. The gauge showed half full but when I siphoned it out, there were only 2 gal in it. Seems that mine is the same as hers - when the gauge shows 1/2, there's only about 1/4 left in it.

I hope you are right about hers being a good one.

Know a guy with one and it's worth a lot of laughs.

CF Moto has come a long way.

Never trust a gas gauge on an ATV and a Ford truck. When it gets down to a bit less than 1/2 start lookin for gas. lol

Sounds like my old TR6. The first half tank went a lot further than the second half.

I bought a CF Moto new in 2020, it hasn't been used hard but does what we need it to do at deer camp. Mainly use it to haul tools, blinds and stands around the woods and drag out deer. It probably has more starts on it than miles but in 2 1/2 years I've got no complaints with it. I sure other makes are better, but this cost 3 grand less and was actually available when I needed it. Sample of one but so far so good.

The wife's machine is a CF Moto... No complaints..

I'll bet it doesn't have more than 4 gallons tank capacity anyway.

It's 7 gal.

Our local Can Am dealer is a good friend of mine so that is what I always run. That said, he's been carrying CF Moto as a back up line due to better availability. They've been working pretty well for him without alot of issues.

My wife bought a 600 two up last spring. So far with 2 summers of riding almost every weekend and 1 winter of snow plow use I have no complaints.

i have a CF Moto overland 1000.

its done everything i have asked of it.

to be frank I would put them right against a Polaris for reliability. do they have shortfalls sure. but you ain't seeing many catch on fire. which is a huge problem currently for Polaris

the OEM batteries are junk and they tend to ship with lighter fuses than they should have. parts availability is currently much better than other manufacturers.


that doesn't even begin to consider price difference in machines. When I was looking for one, I priced out a Polaris Sportsman 1000, a machines similarly equipped to the CFMOTO (winch, front and rear rack, storage boxes) was almost $20,000.00 before taxes and I was on a 4-6 month wait list. I paid 12K out the door for my CF moto

I have a u force 1000 FC 2019 bass worked fine

"to be frank I would put them right against a Polaris for reliability."

That sure isn't saying much. Polaris suck when it comes to reliability and are ALWAYS rated below Japanese made ATV's.

Want a reliably machine that will last for years and years buy a Honda, Yamaha or Suzuki!

For our purposes, we need a 50" sxs as it has to fit in my long bed pickup. The only Jap built brand in 50" is the Honda Pioneer 500 or 520. For some unknown reason, Honda didn't put a low range on them. That's a problem.

I've not used one but I've heard first gear is LOW. For the simple things I do, I'd really like to try one of the small Pioneers.

How many miles are on it? Any maintenance spots to watch? Does it start well in your subzero winters?

RockChuck--- We have 2 Honda Pioneer 500's and one 520 at camp. Auto or Manual --shaft driven . Our Hollow averages about 30% or greater slope. Great Machines. The owners will never go back to a ATV.

Where are CF Motos made?

China.
What THEY say, take if for what it's worth: Their prices are low compared to the Jap brands because labor is cheaper and the entire machine is built in-house. They have no supply chain expenses like other manufacturers. Their initial business was making engines for others. Then they started building the rest of the machine to go with their own engine.

Note that during this thread and in other discussions, I've heard no one knocking their quality. Everyone who has one said it's a good machine.

starts fine in the winter, tightening bolts needed to start. have about 1000 miles on it

a couple of general maintenance points with them. (1) if you get into deep water take the CVtech clutch cover off and drain the water.
(2) grease them,and tighten bolts often (3) replace the fuses with heavier duty or better quality than they come with.

aside from that enjoy your machine

CFMoto has really stepped up their game since 2019. Before that time frame I’d only own an 800. The few I’ve been around are beasts, the others before 2019, forget it!

Local Honda dealer also handles them. Looked at a camo painted 600 the other day independent rear suspension and power steering $7000. Mb

Bought a new yamaha this year, so no reports on reliability. But my 2012 arctic cat, which i still have, is at 5482 miles and nary a hiccup. Blew a belt a few hundred miles ago, but i figure thats to be expected. I just hope my yamaha is as reliable as the arctic cat has been.

So heres a question, for you or anybody on here. Guess im pretty ignorant on the subject. Ive read a lot of things about the evils of ethanol gas. Here in washington, you can get 87, 89, or 92 octane at the pumps. Ive never seen any non ethanol other than the 92 octane "premium" gas.
Now take for instance, my weedeater, chainsaw, whatever. They all say to use the 89 octane. They also say use non ethanol.
And my truck. A silverado. 5.3. The 6.2 engines say use premium. Not the 5.3.
So should i just say [bleep] it, and run the 92 octane premium non ethanol stuff in my truck, quad, and hand held gas powered devices?
Will running the rich premium stuff hurt my quad, lowly 5.3 truck, or weedeater?

Higher octane isn't 'richer'. Octane is an additive to keep the engine from knocking. If the engine doesn't knock, more octane won't do anything good or bad to the engine. It's just wasted. At higher elevations, like above 2000', you can run a couple points lower octane because lower air pressure reduces knock. Here in so. Idaho, 85 is commonly found in gas stations because 87 isn't needed.
We use 85 in the cars but non-al in all the small engines. Modern cars are designed for alcohol while most of the small engines will choke on if it sits a lot. They'll often run fine when running but when sitting, the stuff will gum them up.

I recently read an article that CF Moto has strengthened its relationship with KTM and that Chinese-built KTMs will be sold in 2023.

Octane numbers on street pumps are an average rating that the fuel should be at as a minimum. It is not an additive. Look for the fine print of (R+M)/2.