Wind Burned Eyes

Wind Burned Eyes

Stop Snobbing CFMoto

They are exactly where Japanese bikes once were.

Wade Thiel's avatar
Wade Thiel
Jun 05, 2026
∙ Paid

For years, keyboard warriors have laughed at Chinese motorcycles, dismissing them as cheap, unreliable junk. And for some time, that was fair, but if you look at the actual data, that simply isn’t true anymore.

CFMoto’s U.S. sales are skyrocketing, and it’s because they make fantastic motorcycles for the money.

If this story sounds familiar, it should. This is exactly what happened in the 1960s and 70s.

Back then, the established British and American legacy brands scoffed at Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. They called them “cheap metric junk” right up until those Japanese brands started offering overhead cams, disc brakes, and electric starters, not to mention zero oil leaks, for a fraction of the price.

The old guard laughed themselves right up to financial hardship. History is repeating itself, and traditional brands are sleepwalking into the exact same trap.

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