2025 CFMoto 450CL-C

The engine deserves a better bike

CFMoto's 449cc parallel twin is the best small engine on the market today. I've ridden it in the 450SS, the 450NK, the Ibex 450, and now the CL-C, and every time that little twin steps up like a veteran session musician. It's punchy. It's smooth. It's one of those engines that makes the bike it's stuffed into feel more expensive than it actually is.

Which is the problem. Because the 2025 CFMoto 450CL-C is a motorcycle that depends, heavily, on that engine to paper over the parts of the bike that came in under budget.

Here's the thesis. When a bike's best feature is the engine, and the rest of the ride is a compromise, that's a cruiser you want to love and can't quite.

Performance highlights

The twin makes a claimed 40 hp and 30 lb-ft in this tune. That's not a lot on paper. On the street, at city speeds, it's exactly enough. Lane changes happen with confidence. A light that turns green ahead of you can be caught. The engine genuinely fizzes below 5,000 rpm, which is where 90% of cruiser riding happens. Throttle response is crisp for the class, and that punch is the single best thing about the whole motorcycle.

Braking is where the money clearly ran out. The lever pulls soft and long. You squeeze hard to get any real deceleration, and even then the bite arrives dull and late. There's feel missing, not stopping power, exactly, feel, and on a bike that wants to be flicked around town, you notice that shortfall every time a car pulls out in front of you. ABS is there. That's the good news.

Acceleration follows the engine's own personality: strong off the line, content at city speeds, then out of breath once the highway asks you to actually push. Sixth gear at 80 mph works. But any real overtake demands you drop to fifth, then fourth, and by then you've already decided not to bother. The parallel twin is a city engine. Don't ask it to tour.

The suspension is the genuine head-scratcher. Press down on the bike in the parking lot and it sinks like a beanbag: incredibly soft, cheap-feeling, the stuff of a budget cruiser. Then actually ride it, and bumps punch through in a way you don't expect from something that plush at rest. "How does a suspension feel too soft when I roll it around, but then it doesn't soak up every bump?" I don't have an answer either. It's both of those things simultaneously, and neither of them is good.

Rider experience & tech

The seat is the first disappointment and the most expensive one to live with. It's shaped well and sized well, and it's also miserably hard. The camera-car pass alone was enough to wake my tailbone up; by the end of the first ride, there was real fatigue setting in. Match that with mid-controls that put your knees higher than a cruiser really should, and a flat bar that makes you lean in just slightly. And you get a bike that looks comfortable in the showroom and is anything but inside ninety minutes.

The dash is the high point. CFMoto designed a TFT screen to look analog, and it actually works. An animated speed needle, a centered rev counter, a fuel gauge tucked right where you want it. Menu response is genuinely instant, faster than bikes costing three times this one. But that's cosmetic polish. What's missing is the stuff you actually use: no ride modes, no cruise control, no IMU. Traction control you can toggle on and off, and that's the whole aids package.

At $5,699, the CL-C looks cheap next to its Japanese peers until you actually inventory what it's asking you to live with: the hard seat, the confused suspension, the absence of wind protection, the missing rider aids. The engine is a 7. The rest is a 4. Weighted across the Usability column, you're paying Honda Rebel money for a bike that gives up comfort and tech to get a better motor.

The Chase Score & final thoughts

With a Chase Score of 44/100, the 450CL-C lands in the Skip tier. That's a hard call on a bike with a genuinely excellent engine, and it isn't a punishment for the motor. It's what happens when the chassis, the seat, and the feature set all come in under what the segment demands. Buy it if you're a short rider looking for a cheap, city-only second bike and the parallel twin sells you by itself. Skip it if you want a 450 you can actually live with daily, because the Ibex 450 uses the same engine in a bike that earns it.