One of the best-kept secrets in the off-road business is CFMoto.
No, we’re not just making some gratuitous accolade to get more advertising (we know you’re sensitive to these things).
The honest truth is, we’ve ridden the new ZForce 800 and found it to be a very real contender in the performance SxS market and it’s feature list, quality of finish and attention to detail are second-to-none in this business.
From a performance perspective, this V-twin can hold its own against any other big -inch (certainly up to 800ccs) SxS it competes against.
We had a chance to test it on our home turf in Haliburton County and took it to some of our fave locations to find out if it’s for real.
When the ZForce is on the move we really like the nice shift-up of its CVTech tranny and the marriage of engine and CVT seems to be a good one.
When climbing, the backshift keeps the engine right in its sweet spot and the torque-laden 800 mill never feels like it’s short on power.
Ride and handling are surprisingly good, too. The stock gas shocks work well in both stutters and big whoops and we were unable to bottom out the suspension on landings and one-sided hits from rocks.
There’s almost zero body roll and with the tranny and engine pulling hard, you can execute some very nice power slides.
Two things we love: Big outside mirrors and fabulous 4-point harnesses. Two things we don’t care about: Horn and turn signals!
