2025 CFMOTO 675 SS

The Middleweight That Shouldn't Exist at This Price

For months, Chase's most-requested first ride was the CFMoto 675 SS. Viewers wouldn't shut up about it. And when you look at what the bike is, that makes perfect sense: it's an 675cc inline-three sport bike that Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Triumph all have direct competitors for. And CFMoto has priced it $1,000 below all of them at $7,999. The CBR650R is more. The GSX-S650 is more. The Daytona 660 is a lot more. The Ninja 650 is parallel-twin and still more.

Chase's honest challenge, going in: "I'm fascinated to find out where they cut the $1,000 out of this motorcycle because it was certainly not in the looks department." Answer, 60 minutes later: the brakes. That's pretty much it. Everything else is genuinely class-competitive or better.

Performance highlights

675cc inline-three, 95 horsepower, 52 lb-ft of torque, 408 lb wet, 4-gallon tank, 10,500-ish rpm redline. Throttle response scores 7. The triple is torquey in a way Chase wasn't expecting. First gear is punchy enough he flagged it for new riders: "Having 95 horsepower at your fingertips at all times is not necessarily the best idea." There are no ride modes. None. Your only power-management tool is your right wrist, which is a gutsy choice at this price.

Acceleration earns 8. The 40–80 roll-on in second was "acceptable" but Chase admitted he should've done it in first. The power hits harder down low than up high. On-camera, mid-ride realization: "It could have easily done the 40-80 from first. Oh, I feel bad now." That's an important context note for the score; an 8 is honestly conservative.

Agility is the surprise 9. "I am kind of surprised by that. I guess maybe my expectations were off, but normally a clip-on setup like this does not allow for that, but it hadn't had a problem." A sport-focused motorcycle that still wiggles through traffic easily is a rare combo at any price; rarer still at eight grand.

Brakes rate 6 and are the clear compromise point. Jesuan (Chinese-made, often described as "Spanish Brembo") calipers with ABS. "I wish I had more brakes. I wish I had more feeling out of the brakes." The bike had only 100 miles on it, so pads may still be bedding in. But for a sport bike this capable, the brakes need more bite than the first ride suggested. That's where the $1,000 saving lives.

Suspension is 9. KYB front and rear, adjustable, and "absolutely locked and planted in the corners." On top of that, the bike ships with a stock adjustable steering damper. Which Chase discovered mid-ride and was genuinely shocked by. "I can sit here and rotate the steering stabilizer to adjust it. I didn't know that." Adjustable KYB plus a damper on an $8k sport bike is not how these sub-segments normally work.

Rider experience & tech

Comfort is 6. Body position is properly-aggressive: tucked legs, forward clip-on lean, arms down. "You are definitely going to be in the sport bike aggressive body position." The surprise is the seat. It's wider than expected and tapered enough to let Chase get flat-footed (32" inseam). Long rides would punish the lower back; the aggressive geometry is doing exactly what the fairings imply. The windscreen is the one real miss. Too low to tuck behind, so wind hits your visor on the highway even in a full tuck.

Tech scores 8 and this is where the bike starts looking expensive. 5-inch TFT dash (full color, instantly responsive to inputs). Traction control with on-the-fly button switching (1 → 2 → off via press-and-hold). Stock tire-pressure and temperature sensors displayed on-screen. Gear indicator. Quick-shifter up-only. Adjustable KYB front and rear. Adjustable steering damper. LED lighting. On a $7,999 bike, this feature list reads like a printing error.

Ease of use lands at 5, the only real usability knock on the bike. No ride modes means a new rider has no electronic guardrails for low-speed throttle management. The turn-signal cancel is mush, Chase kept accidentally riding with the blinker on because the click-off is ambiguous. And a minor ergonomic weirdness: the kickstand pivot is placed so your foot naturally wants to drop it to a point where the kickstand isn't, so you fumble for it every time you park. Small stuff, but it adds up for a beginner.

Versatility is 5. City: surprisingly good despite the clip-ons (it's flickable enough to thread traffic). Highway: pleasantly stable with minimal vibration, but the low windscreen punishes long rides. Canyon: excellent. Track: yes. This is the use case Chase kept coming back to. Touring: absolutely not. Commute in all weather: no ride modes means no wet mode, which is a real gap.

Fun-for-the-money is the 9 that pushes this bike into solid Good Tier territory. Chase's closing line delivers the grade: "I've done my best to find out where they're saving that money. I just can't find it." $8,000 for a triple with adjustable suspension, a steering damper, a quickshifter, and a 5-inch TFT is not how this class normally works.

The Chase Score & final thoughts

With a Chase Score of 72/100, Good Tier, the CFMoto 675 SS is the bike that makes the price-sensitive-sport-bike segment uncomfortable. 39 ride points + 33 usability points = a machine that earns its ride score on merit and gets chipped on usability largely because CFMoto didn't invest in ride-mode electronics.

Buy it if you're stepping up from a 450 SS and want the same CFMoto ergonomics with a triple's extra power band. Buy it if you want a track-day-capable bike for eight grand and you're willing to upgrade the brake pads. Skip it if you're a new rider who needs wet/rain modes, or if you want premium-brand brakes out of the box. Chase's closing take: "I really like this motorcycle. I didn't think I was going to, I'm older now, so sport bikes don't really do it for me. But this thing is actually super cool." From a guy who owns neither a sport bike nor a Cardo discount on testing bias, that's a sincere endorsement.