Ulfthednar here in North Idaho.
Been riding street bikes for 37 years and decided I wanted an ATV.
2022 CFMoto Cforce 800xc. (don't knock it til you've tried it).
Ive put over 200k on bikes a million in personal vehicles and 150k or so driving delivery trucks.
been wrenching on stuff since I was seven and keep finding stuff I don't know and stuff that makes me go "WTF@%@!^$@%#!$^#" . . .

Lots of dirt, little bit of mud

I really think those tags have to come off.

I didn't buy the orange one to read a bunch of tags reminding me to do dumb stuff.

 

So, number one reason I went with CFMoto.
You can actually get one.

Ive spent a year or more looking into the brand and story behind the brand.
Yes they are openly and admittedly of chinese origin.
Unlike Harley Davidson and a whole host of others assembled elsewhere made from parts manufactured in china, korea or taiwan.

Except Honda and Toyota. who still gets chips from Taiwan or china.

Last time I asked about any of the "more well known" brands. 3 months if hades freezes over and that might not have the chipset in it.
More likely a year or two and in some cases Three.

Ive chased used ones, had bidding wars and when the $$ tag goes over the New cost Yeah no. That is just DUMB.

Ive gone through hundreds of reviews from Industry specific supporters to Lovers, haters and newbies.

CFMoto has had no more issues than any other vehicle manufacturer and from what I read, seems far more willing to LISTEN and adress the issue than most.

I said CFMoto, not the individual dealers.

I read a notable number where people had issues getting their purchase dealer to respond (mostly in Canada it seems) but the dealer is not the builder.

I read some poor reviews in 2019 but the following year it sure sounded like they took the issues seriously and went after eliminating them.

So from a new to ATV perspective but one thats been working on vehicles for DECADES . .

I looked up close at them. Unlike hisun and such, the fit and finish on these is NICE.

not just pretty but nice, nice clean milling, nice clean fitment, nice clean finish.
The engine is NICE, it sounds nice, it runs smooth.
It might not be the biggest block on the block, but the power is THERE. (Ive gone over 150 (mph, no kmh) on street bikes). It rolls in good, good control good power and smooth.

Nothing feels tinny or thin or junky.
I remember early hondas and such . . bleagh.

First dumb thing I did was take it up my backyard. 30 degrees and in some places over 40 degrees.
I kinda of have a "get it out of your system philosophy". I bought it for working on my property and for playing.

I have five acres about 200 sq ft of which is flat.
165 feet wide in a long narrow rectangle and most of it is uphill.
Its all uphill. If I dont shovel my driveway when I leave, I park in the road when I get home.

It might have been not the best idea, but the machine certainly didn't fail me.

It ripped up my backyard without an issue and Ive since done it in 2wheel, as well as 4lock.
4locked was crazy. It wanted to climb trees, mountain lions and dry shagged a grizzly bear on the way up.
That was the scary part. I think Ill keep the machine in 4high going up from now on, much more controllable.
Coming down, the machine handled it great. the brakes were solid, the machine stable and I never felt like I was loosing control at all.

I've already moved my 74 RC with it just to see if I could,. Hauled a number of logs down the hill with it and taken it out on some OHV trails that were a heck of a lot of fun.
I have a large enough yard I'm using it as a training course learning how to adapt to the differences between an ATV and a motorcycle.

In two wheel the thing will drift around a 30 inch tree pretty well at 986 lbs curb weight.

Well. Ive put a few chips in the paint, brush marks down the sides and lots and lots of dust.

I'm doing the break in inspection and adjustments tomorrow but twenty hours in I'm happy as heck with it . . from a "never owned a quad before point of view".

It's a solid REAL machine and pretty capable.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Nice review, definitley keep us posted on the longer term usage.

 

So heres where it really hits the road with me.
Like with many other people, we can't all afford $120 and up shop rates to do basic tasks and maintenance.
So yesterday I went in and adjusted the valves, which turned out to be a pretty straight forward task.
I tried to take more pictures but just got too focused on the wrenching aspects.

"Tools List"
I should have had a 1/4 drive torque wrench, but I'll remedy that shortly.
A good set of Long Feeler gauges would have been handy but a standard set worked all right.
The mirror was needed so I could see the back side of the exhaust valves on the front cylinder.
Adjusting the forward exhaust was easy.
The offset screwdriver and 10mm worked for that, but the contact point between the valve stem and the rocker are out of sight.
The rest of the valve adjuster were pretty easy all the way around.

You will want the sparkplug wrench from the kit unless you have a thin wall plug socket.
It's a really close fit with a standard plug socket
Close enough I didn't feel comfortable using one and opted for the kit plug wrench.

To "get there" was pretty simple. Pull the seats, pull the dash cover, mid side panels and the belt cover.
You also want to pull the airbox and the mid frame cover under the seat.


Where you want to be to access the valves.
The three Blue trim tool are what you need to pull the panels without damage.
A little patience and you can see the mount point and such.
The two plastic tools reached underneath at the mounts so I could pry the panel up.
The long handled one I actually used to work the spark plug boot up.

To pull the airbox you have to remove two vent tubes underneath and the intake snorkel under the dash.
Everything was pretty simple to get to once I got the body panels and cover panels out of the way.
I had to move wiring in two points to get a straight line at the valve adjuster but those are typical bundle retainers and easy to deal with.

Along the way I did the rest of the inspection for the break in period (a three page list) and didn't see anything amiss.

All in all this is a pretty simple machine to work with.
I forgot to eat and reached the point of cussing at myself when I realized I was trying to check my adjustment with the wrong gauge.
So I went and ate and drank a beer and laughed at myself and got it right.

I never once got anywhere near throwing tools or really cussing out the engineers.
I grew up learning to work on rigs where you can sit in the engine bay.
Working on crap where you have to have three elbows and an extra finger joint is complete BS.
Complicated crap is TROUBLE. And if you can't do the basics yourself without pulling the engine, then you have TROUBLE.

I would consider this on a 1-10 from least to worse about a 2 in terms of difficulty to do.
To pull the engine you would have to pull the floor boards, which are fairly easy to get to at this point.
Disconnect the drive, cooling and electrical system and I think that its.
That and a buddy and you could lift the engine out of the frame without an advanced degree in tinkertoy acrobatics.

Once the body panels were off, everything was accessible with the tools on the towel.

So, quality observations.
Nice clean welds.
Good fit and finish on the welds too.
No slag or jagged sprue.

The inside of the valve compartment was clean, nothing at all that made me cringe.
They appear to be VERY good quality castings and the internals were good quality OEM stuff.
The valve covers are plastic, but the molding work is very clean and they fit very well.
The Gasket is reusable neoprene and fit very well too.

Everywhere signs of a pretty good QC protocol are evident.

Paint marks for process reference, marks orientating torque alignment and such.
Pretty much signs that someone is taking consistent quality effort seriously.
Id have to say that the people in the factory are PROUD of there work.

I mean just the whole fit and finish to the machine made me grin and seriously . .
Everything is pretty well laid out that with the manual and a few tools there isn't much the basic owner can't do.
More experienced mechanics will have no problem that I can see with one of these.

The only "whups" I had was . . well, I've got some nerve damage in one arm.
I was trying to pull a panel loose and my shoulder spasmed and I jerked the wrong way and snapped a nub off.
Thats on me though.
I sanded the nub, the panel and used JB weld 2 part epoxy and fixed it.
DO NOT USE Gorilla Goo. it won't work on this any better than anything else.
I threw their epoxy in the trash and their wood glue too (I do a lot of crafting with wood).
Loctite or JB Weld and some roughening has pretty good adhesion.

I still have to do the oil checks and break in oil change and will report on that later.
So far though the oil in the crank and transmission even under moderately "severe" usage doesn't look like the machines even been started.
It's completely clear and looks pristine, but I haven't drained the main case yet.
Thats today.

For some reason though, the damn aluminum warning tags fell off.
Cleaned up the machine really good!

(oh yeah, the flange wrench I used to rotate the engine for TDC alignment, Id hid my standard 18mm combination somewhere on my bench and couldn't find it until I didn't need it)

All in all Not a bad task at all.
Just take a little time and LOOK at how the panels are mounted.
Once those are off it gets easier.

 

Nice CF Moto, We have a dealer relatively close to me that sells them. I do like that they come with a lot of extras that you have to pay extra for like nicer wheels and tires and a winch. I wish the 800 came in a single seater version but I've also heard that many like the better ride from the longer wheelbase. And if you don't want to use the extra seat space, there's plenty of room to put on a fairly large storage box instead. I would prefer a slightly smaller machine myself.

 

They have a rack insert that replaces the passenger seat.
Quick latch set up and it locks in pretty good.
.