There were a few chuckles when I rocked up on the WK. People had readily judged it before plonking their derrieres on the saddle and sampling its delights. I don’t blame them. It’s different. It’s Chinese. It costs several thousand pounds less than all the others on this test (you could buy two of these and have change against the Trumpet).
But I knew differently, as I’d had a sneaky taster of its brilliance just a few weeks before around a scorchio Cadwell Park. This bike here is new for 2017. It’s the first Euro 4 compliant Chinese 650cc to make it onto the market, built by the hands of Asian powerhouse CFMoto (the same guys who build KTM’s smaller capacity 390 and 125cc models). If you knew little more than that fact, you should at least feel slightly more reassured that it’s no two-bit bike built in a back-street sweat shop. CF Moto are huge players and their desire to crack the European market, despite the sales on our continent being only a modicum of what they are in Asia, is testimony to their focus and commitment to bettering their products. But that’s enough about all the political bull. You’re probably wondering why you should carry on reading past this point. Well, it’s simple… this is a bloody good bike. And so say all of us. The NK we were riding was a pre-production example (the bike’s not due into the UK wholesale until early November), so it wasn’t kitted out with the Continental tyres it’ll be sold with, and there were a few other bits that were to be tweaked for the UK market, including the option of a Scorpion exhaust system to replace the stock, angular item. But those factors did nothing to render the WK incompetent in the slightest. Not even the unpronounceablebranded tyres that it came on were knockable, as I showcased the bike’s handling prowess to my cynical on-looking peers.
Cornering is undoubtedly the parallel twin’s best forte. Short of the Triumph, it felt the most planted bike on the test – a unanimous opinion. It pitched into bends with ease, and stayed planted and settled from apex to exit. It’s a good job too because there’s no adjustment to the bike’s suspension, but it wasn’t warranted by any of us testing it, despite our weight range from 10-17 stone. It was a one-stopshop that just seemed do what it needed to do for each of us.