What’s Kymco Canada up to these days? A visit to the company’s Canadian website shows a couple of small 50 cc scooters and a handful of quads—a long way from the strong lineup that used to come in, when the company sponsored the Mad Bastard Scooter Rally. It’s too bad—Kymco still sells really cool stuff overseas, including maxi-scooters like the Kymco CV-L6.
The Kymco CV-L6 debuted on the world market last year. It’s an “adventure scooter,” sort of the step-through equivalent to the adventure motorcycle. The off-road capability is obviously limited; there’s no 21-inch front wheel here, not even a 19-inch front wheel. It runs on cast rims and it looks like 17-inch wheels are standard, but Kymco’s PR doesn’t tell us.
The CV-L6 is made to take hard ADV-style luggage, and there are factory aluminum boxes (built by GIVI) available for it.
The engine is an eight-valve, 550 cc parallel twin, making 53 hp and 40 lb-ft of torque with twist-and-go throttle. It’s supposed to get more than 50 mpg, and with a fuel tank just under 4 gallons, that means a theoretical fuel range of almost 200 miles—say, maybe 300 kilometres.
Looking at that bodywork, you can see a raised “tunnel” section between the rider’s legs that makes it easier to control the bike in tough terrain. It also comes with a TFT dash that comes with sat-nav function. ABS and traction control are also standard.
Interested? Sorry, for now, it’s not coming to Canada—just like the Honda ADV160 and the other many so-called adventure scooters on the market. It’s too bad, as there would definitely be a market for such machines inside the cities, and in rural areas.
Can’t buy one if they won’t import it and there aren’t any dealers ? Come on Kymco, try a little harder.
I’m looking for something just like this. C’mon Kymco, do it!
Yeah, it is weird how many times we just get ignored over here when it comes to bikes. I know we’re not the biggest country, but we still spend money!
We’re a smaller market than California (by population), unfortunately, and a climate very much unlike California. 🙁
I don’t disagree, but if a company came out tomorrow and said “Hey, we’re not selling bikes in California/Australia/Italy” the market would almost assuredly raise an eyebrow, despite the fact the populations of those three regions are very close to one another.
I’m not saying we’re as big as the US, and definitely not as big as India or Europe, but we’re not nothing either… We definitely sell a good chunk of bikes here.
I think the size of the Canadian economy (ranked 10th in the world, I think) is fair, but if we look at the number of motorcycles sold in Canada versus more temperate climates, I suspect the numbers speak for themselves.
Selling some is better than selling none, which has been the case for Kymco in Canada for at least the last dozen years. Too bad really.
Sure. The question is whether a smaller maker can absorb the legislative costs to get a vehicle approved for sale in a particular jurisdiction. From the end user side of things, the lack of a product always sucks.