Month: August 2006

POCphil on the CF Moto V5

CFMOTO V5 side

Our good friend Phil Waters of Pride of Cleveland Scooters (POC) sent us his impressions of a CF Moto/Baron V5, a 250cc automatic motorcycle, that came into his shop for service:

“First it’s a candy, then it’s a gum!”

This doesn’t seem to work as well with automatic motorcycles. What Honda did so well with the Hondamatic 30 years ago is being re-introduced by the Chinese, in a typically Chinese fashion.

The CF Moto V5 is currently being distributed by Big Jim’s Wholesale, who has recently taken on the more scooter-friendly name of TwinCityScooters.com.

We’ve been considering bringing them in as a line here at POC and talked to their reps at Indy. Their bikes had intrigued me, but I was skeptical about the quality.
Continue reading “POCphil on the CF Moto V5”

China limits exports, tries to repair image

Also via The Scooterscoop, via the Kneeslider: Autoweek reports on China’s drive to limit exports and improve quality. Here’s consultant Paul Gao preaching to the choir:

“The motorcycle industry provides the clearest example of the danger of taking a laissez-faire approach to auto exports. Uncontrolled exports of low-quality, low-price motorcycles led to anti-dumping charges in many markets and damaged the reputation of China-made products,”.

Maybe this is an important step in China’s eventual domination of the motor vehicle industry. They have a long way to go (see Phil’s story above), but it’ll happen.