Commentary: Chinese Motorcycles Are Here In Canada To Stay

Once upon a time there was a very young journalist on the east coast of Canada who submitted a story about his Chinese motorcycle to Canada Moto Guide (back then, it was CMG Online). That bike was a Lifan GY-5, and that journo was me. This happened 15 years ago this year, and ever since that first story, I’ve been watching the fortunes—the rise and fall and rise again—of Chinese motorcycles in Canada.

Despite the naysayers, Chinese bikes are everywhere in Canada now, often ridden by people who don’t even know where their bikes came from—and in some market segments, the Chinese are leading the way because nobody else is even opposing them right now. So, despite the hiccups over the years, it looks like Chinese motorcycles are here to stay.

Here’s a look at where we’re at now, and how we got here.

The original Chinese moto-imports are basically all gone

When I started covering the Canadian moto-scene, there was a very wide range of Chinese motorcycle imports, but they were all pretty much the same thing—variations on established Japanese motorcycle designs. The Lifan GY-5 I owned was basically a big-bored Honda CG125 stuffed into a poorly-designed chassis. The Konker KSM200 that I later long-term tested for CMG was derived from the Suzuki DR200.

Both those bikes were mechanically sound, but both had a pretty terrible finish, and the metallurgy was suspect. Neither bike ever left me stranded, but other owners of pre-2010 Chinese bikes had mechanical meltdowns—many because of poor maintenance and improper assembly, but there were certainly horror stories, and parts supply was non-existent in many cases. The parts were always available, if you knew where to look, but most people didn’t know where to look.

Now, the fly-by-night importers who punted low-quality machines are all gone. The companies who built those bikes are very much still in business, but not the companies that brought them into Canada. The only low-budget survivor I know of is Baja, whose dirt bikes and ATVs were once sold through Canadian Tire.

The lost years

Starting around 2014, the heyday of the cheap Chinese air-cooled bikes came to an end. There were many satisfied customers, but a lot of those customers had moved on to other bikes. Most GY-5 buyers weren’t repeat customers. And worse, there were a lot of unsatisfied customers. Even for bikes like the Baja models, which were mostly fairly solid, a retailer like Canadian Tire got tired of the unhappy buyers.

And, the government started cracking down. When I bought my Lifan GY-5, I was able to get it street-registered on the good graces of my local DMV. No emissions test, no safety checks. But that came to an end as environmental regulators and other authorities shut down these operations.

This happened just as better Chinese bikes were about to come into Canada. Around 2015, CFMOTO teased two new 650 models that were light years ahead of the rest of the Chinese bikes that Editor ‘Arris and I had seen. When we ogled them at the Moncton Motorcycle Show, we were most excited. Alas, they pulled the plug on all their Canadian motorcycle business months later, leaving a lot of unhappy customers.

The return

Now, about a decade later, CFMOTO leads the charge of Chinese motorcycles into re-entering the Canadian market. Remember that CFMOTO never went anywhere—they’ve had ATV dealers for years, and as a result, they’re positioned much more strongly than Moto Morini and other made-in-China companies that need to build their dealer network from scratch.

CFMOTO is also ahead of every other Chinese-based company in our market because of their partnership with KTM. CFMOTO actually builds bikes for KTM in China, and owns a small percentage of KTM’s parent company. Along with its own designs, CFMOTO also builds bikes that are closely related to KTM’s 790 series. And CFMOTO is expanding quickly.

CFMOTO introduced the 450 Ibex last winter as the mythical 450-class twin-cylinder adventure bike that riders have demanded for years, and been denied.  The company’s insiders say they’re working on new models that riders wanted, responding to focused research instead of twisting focus group feedback to fit existing models they plan to release. The end result is a bike that a lot of people have asked for.

They’re not the only company taking this approach—consider the Kove 450Rally, an over-the-counter rally raid replica that anyone can buy, here in Canada (you might have seen them on the show circuit last winter). No other company has ever offered that to the average consumer; now a Chinese company does, and there’s a lot of demand.

Kove is willing to put its bikes to test at Dakar with a factory team, which is more than three of the Big Four are doing right now, and it’s also moving into other niches, like affordable dirt bikes for average consumers. That’s an idea you don’t often hear bandied about in talks with the big off-road bike manufacturers these days.

In the off-road world, there’s Thumpstar. I don’t have any experience with the brand, but I do see their bikes appearing with reasonable pricing at reputable dealers like Lang’s Offroad in Ontario or Clay’s Offroad in New Brunswick. These guys value their customers enough that they wouldn’t sell junk.

Moto Morini is also reportedly making a play to come into Canada. Originally a designed-in-Italy, made-in-Italy, owned-by-Italians brand, Moto Morini is now a designed-in-Italy, made-in-China, owned-by-Chinese brand. Its X-Cape 650 models appear to be well-liked wherever they are reviewed around the world; they also have a big-bore 1200 ADV coming, and they sell cruisers and neo-retros as well.

Benelli is another company following a similar Italian/Chinese hybrid formula. Although we haven’t heard much about their plans for the Canadian market, they’re going great guns over in Europe and making inroads in the US.

A rose by any other name…

There’s another source for Chinese bikes in Canada. KTM is following BMW’s footsteps of a generation back, and selling Chinese-built motorcycles with European badges here in Canada. Just as BMW partnered with Loncin, so has KTM partnered with CFMOTO. The new 790 Duke and 790 Adventure models are actually made-in-China, and no doubt we shall soon see other companies follow this pattern. Suzuki still sells its Chinese-built GW250 and related models around the world, and given the state of our economy, it would be unsurprising to see it return here someday (or maybe we’ll get the 250 V-Strom instead).

In closing

Wrapping this up: Given the complete overhaul of the Chinese motorcycle industry over the past decade, not to mention the rise in MSRP for so many non-Chinese models and the North American industry’s change in attitude towards these machines, it seems these bikes are here to stay. More and more customers are riding these bikes and deciding they’re just fine. The only thing that would likely change this situation is a heavy tariff on Chinese-built machines, and given our political turbulence these days, don’t be shocked if that eventually happens.