Could CFMoto be close to unleashing its first electric motocross bike for adults? If a new video from freestyle motocrosser Ronnie Renner is any indication, signs point to yes. The 10-time X Games gold medalist and proud Florida man recently flogged the bike on a track somewhere in the wilds of Minnesota, where CFMoto’s US operation is based.
It’s an extremely short teaser; only 53 seconds in length. Still, as anyone who’s ever tried to post a video on TikTok or Instagram can tell you, the editing suite is where the magic happens. There’s a lot you can do with 53 seconds if you use your time wisely.
Thanks to the editing in this video, we get to see quite a bit of action with the mystery electric prototype machine. It’s wearing some kind of camouflage wrap, but it’s once again the kind of camo that seems like people would probably buy it if CFMoto was to offer it as a graphics option on a production version of this bike.
We see big, knobby tires, a gold front fork (whether it’s anodized or Öhlins is unclear at this point), no lights or signals, and single brake discs both up front and in the rear. It’s chain driven, with the motor and battery in a low-down, centralized position in the frame. The swingarm looks like a standard aluminum two-sided design and doesn’t particularly stand out in any way.
So far, CFMoto has shown off a handful of production-ready electric bikes in the past year. In November 2022, it showed off the Papio Nova to the world. Based on the firm’s existing Papio combustion minibike, with distinctly Honda Grom-esque styling, the Papio Nova packs a claimed 30 horsepower and range of about 94 miles on a single charge.
In August 2023, CFMoto turned its attention from the young-at-heart to the actual youths, launching the CX-2E and CX-5E electric dirt bikes. These two bikes seemingly tackled two birds with one stone: Electrification and getting young riders into motorbikes from an early age.
While that’s definitely both cool and encouraging, some grown adult riders may have been left wondering where their electric dirt bike was. Although this video doesn’t give up any details, it does at least provide some reassurance that CFMoto has an electric motocross bike somewhere in the works.
Could it be one of the many things that CFMoto has hinted at announcing at EICMA 2023? There’s no reason to believe that it couldn’t be, especially given the timing of this video. The biggest international motorcycle show on the planet is scheduled to kick off on Tuesday, November 7 and run through Sunday, November 12, 2023 in Milan, Italy.
CFMoto is currently teasing a major press conference on press day, which it’s calling Vision in Motion. While it hasn’t given away any details of what we can expect, the company did declare that “lots of news [is] coming.” The teaser image shows an extreme closeup of lighting, a bit of front bodywork, and what appears to be the top of a front fender of some type of motorized two-wheeler. One thing it isn’t is a dirtbike—but beyond that, it’s not yet clear what it might be.