I'm willing to bet that aluminum chassis on the 457 is bit more rigid than the Ninja 400 and has way better rake trail numbers.
The internet is a funny place. A handful of early models had case sealing issues but the whole bike/engine series gets labeled with this. Oh well.
Well when whole companies were started to rebuild them it's a little more than how you described it. They are a time bomb.
I haven't seen it anywhere but I bet you're right about India since they're talking US list price of $6500-7500. It's not obvious where they took $4-5k out of an RS660. Steel swingarm, single front brake. What else? The bike they showed at Misano had a fully adjustable suspension. EDIT: I've read elsewhere just pre-load.
CFMoto has the 450SS they want to race in Jr Cup. Maybe it's time to uncork the Ninja 400 and say goodbye to the one R3 on the grid..
Yeah! And more importantly- let it into the ULW 2 hours. I know a bunch of R3's play there... how about splitting it into Ultra and Bantam weights??? Went to dealer yesterday to inquire- they said put down a $500 deposit and get it back if you don't like the price once we tell you. Only real info I got from them was a projected availability of "late 2nd quarter 2024" which sucks.
Thought this was going to be a ninja 400 killer. It’s looking more like a direct competitor now. Hopefully they build the engine well and don’t go the KTM route of nice chassis and shit power train.
Most definitely. What makes me excited is the thought of a 400 with a nice chassis. As long as the engine holds together and makes competitive power I'd have no complaints. It's also the biggest reason I'd choose the RS660 over the SV/R7 even if they made similar power.
Not the same hp. 45 advertised for the Ninja vs 47 for the RS, which is just a starting point for the inevitable modifications anyway. One could reasonably expect better torque numbers from the RS too. Who knows which one will respond better to tuning? Looking at wet weight, the Ninja is around 366 lbs. Adding the weight of 3.7 gallons of gas (22 lbs) that the Ninja is carrying to the 350 pound dry weight of the RS gets you to 372 lbs. Of course this is all before the stock street stuff is pulled off of either bike. I'd say there may some potential to make a competitive racebike out of it.
Ninja dry weight is 324lbs and 366lbs wet (tank full of gas and all fluids) Ape 457 dry weight is 350lbs dry so if we give it the benefit of the doubt and add the same amount of fuel it would be 392lbs wet. (same 42lbs of weight from the gas and all fluids) A 26lb difference will MORE than offset a claimed peak output of an extra 2 ponies at the crank. Having said all that - clearly the Aprilia would be the choice for chassis alone, plus as you say the extra displacement means the engine potential has a higher development ceiling.
Unrelated but I was doing some poking around about the 457 and CFMoto450ss. The CFMoto has a cross plane crank. I believe that's a first for a small bore bike.
I guess I've been asleep, I don't recall ever hearing of a ChineseFactoryMoto. At least that name is a lot better than some of the Chinese Forklift names I have seen.
How many have blown up yet? Do you think they will generate customized warranty denial letters or use a form letter?
