The motojournalism sphere is currently buzzing with reviews of the new-for-2025 CFMOTO 450 Ibex adventure, aka the 450 MT (see our write-up here, when it was launched for North America at AIMExpo). But back at home base in China, CFMOTO is working on much, much bigger plans—they are continuing to develop a new 1250 platform that includes a sport tourer, a naked bike and probably an adventure bike as well.
Right now, over in Europe, there are photos of a new 1250 adventure bike floating around Facebook and motojournalism websites. Some people say the photos are a rendering created by a keener who just wants CFMOTO to make the bike; others say the photos are real, a legit leak from CFMOTO. At this point, we don’t know who’s telling the truth, but we do know that the image looks legit.
We do have confirmation of the ongoing development of the naked 1250NK roadster, though, thanks to patents that Ben Purvis dug up. His Cycle World write-up doesn’t tell us much about the bike’s mechanical bits, because the most recent patent only deals with an adjustable footpeg system, not the engine itself (see the story here).
But, other patents over the past months have shown the 1250NK to have an engine that looks an awful lot like the KTM LC8 power plant, the 1290 V-twin (now also available as a 1390 in some platforms). Remember, KTM and CFMOTO are closely tied now; CFMOTO owns a small percentage of Pierer AG, KTM’s parent company, and makes the 790 parallel twin models for KTM’s world markets.
Also remember that CFMOTO has had a big-bore 1250 sport tourer for sale in its Chinese home market for months now, with what appears to be an LC8-derived engine and a lot of modern features such as TFT screen, fancy-pants electro-safety gadgetry, truck suspension and more. Maybe that bike was a trial run, to get CFMOTO’s staff used to dealing with the V-twin design?
