15th May 2026
There is
enough Jet fuel to escape New Zealand to China for our long planned riding trip
to Yunnan Provence, China.
This time
the weather played ball and everything fell into place with flights on time no
dramas.
Hainan Air
we took from Auckland to Haiko, the airline comes thoroughly recommended and to
be fair on par with Air New Zealand if not better, our experience was second to
none.
Back to the
future, 2017 - Hong Wen, his wife and their daughter came to New Zealand and
met us in Wanaka, Hong Wen had been following us on our blog on the Americas trip. I cooked
venison straps on our bar b q which he vividly remembers and loved (which we
didn’t remember at all). Hong Wen and his wife Lingling have helped up
tremendesly, words can’t express our appreciation.
Fast
forward 9 years, we have kept in contact now we are here starting the next
phase of travels, we didn’t realize the influence we had had on his life as he
bought a BMW F750GS and was loving riding, discussions over the dinner table at
their home would establish he was bitten by the bike bug and every day he goes
to work and sees the bike it brings a smile to his face, in kiwi terms I say it
gives him wood, what a cool as thing to learn that through no attempts from us
he has been inspired, rock on moto world!!
16th
May 2026, Moto Morini, CFmoto, QJMoto, Voge, Kove……..the selection was enormous
in the 450 segment which is what we were looking to get, having travelled on
the KTM 950 Stupid Enduro with more grunt than a paddock full of pigs to the WR250
solo trip across Russia and the Stans (perfect weapon of choice) we decided a
450 would fit the bill as we don’t travel fast.
18th
May 2026, using my wide range of Moto and travel knowledge and our eyes as to
what we like (remembering the bike needs to give you wood) because feeling cool and
loving what you ride is a major part of riding a motorbike at least for me, as
Jeremy Clarkson once said “It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you look
cool doing it” ….works for me.
The choice
came down to 3, QJMoto, very well priced, very good level of equipment comes
factory on the bike but the fit and finish was average at best and their
reputation amongst Chinese riders was NO…..sooooo ....do as the locals do.
CFmoto, a definite contender, lower seat height, good back up network, similar level of gear as the others +/- but the aesthetics looked out of place to me, the Chinese love ripping off looks from other brands, fair enough no point in reinventing the wheel, they like to make a small capacity bike look big which they do well but the oversize bulk at the front and the amount of frontal busy-ness I felt uninspiring, there is so much plastic widely out the front I think in the event of a binning it would smash into a thousand pieces on the floor like your favourute dinner set.
A big plus for travelling is a centre stand which the CFMoto does not have, it was a game of give and take but with the CFmoto there seemed to be more to give and less to take….and the slimy salesman was an arrogant wanker ....not to sugar coat it, all in all it was more on the no side than the yes side.
Moto
Morini, the Alltrhike 450, this interested me the most from previous
comparisons and reviews….apart from the name which you need a university degree
to say. Seemingly a little simpler, didn’t have the up-front bulk or beaks that
ALL the other 450 – 650 range have, aesthetically this just looked better and
slimmer as well as less junk up front allowing visibility of the front wheel in
times where you NEED to see where to place the front wheel in difficult slow
conditions, no difference at road speed cos ya should be looking down there.
The dealer network is not as strong as CFMoto
however the engine (CFMoto), frame, forks, shock, wheels etc are all identical,
the outside skin, electronics are different so really it is like choosing a
girlfriend who might get tetchy with you but just wear a different dress….time
will tell.
Our
Selection, it came down to the university degree LOL. The Moto Morini while not
ticking all the boxes it ticked more than all the others, my (our) decision
based on the following.
21 inch
front, 18 inch rear, tubeless tick
Centre
stand, tick
Ergos for
not so tall rider, short tick
CFMoto
based components for servicing, tick
Lighter
weight, supposedly, tick
Refined
electronics and less of em, tick
Aesthetics…gives
me wood, double tick (from both of us)
We have purchasd the base model without heated seat, heated grips or indicators on the handguards, we have bought ally framed bark busters, aftermarket heated grips and I can still fart like a pro so no need for a heated seat....done.
This is her, meet Xi ma (Tin Horse)
As time
progressing we will give an honest Kiwi take of the Moto M and we will see how
she treats us…stay tuned.
Paperwork,
fuck me, there is SO much computer work goes on then you carry a slip of paper
with stamp you could forge easily LOL…real tech there.
To be very
fair, China now is getting more traveller’s friendly so better than it was, we
have only seen one white face so far and we (Ellen) helped him with his
registration of his car, I still get the
“hey that one is a different colour” look but 99% of people now are curious and
polite.
I have to mention we have been for 20 years on May 20th so we found an awesome coffee shop to sit and celebrate, it was a very col spoy with beautiful coffee.
Apart from tired eyes etc it was great.
And to our surprise, with me being a classic car lover just above us was a pic of a 1958 Corvette C1, something we did NOT expect to see in China.
And of course after coffee there is always a dunny stop, the doors on the dunnies were very cool.
To take a break from the paperwork monstrosity we flew to Beijing to visit Ellens dad, he is now very unwell at 87 which is hard to take however not unexpected.
A walk down from his place there is cool market, 2 pics from day to night same place
The Paperwork, next episode.
