Let me start by saying I am not the most technically savvy person when it comes to all the terminology for these new-age E-bikes. There is a lot of new information when it comes these new age E-moto hybrids and the Caofen F80 E-Bike is no different. I think for me and my basic way of thinking, if I hop on the bike and it goes fast and the battery lasts around an hour or so, I am a pretty happy camper. But hey, people love hearing the technical things about the bikes so I’ll do my best to describe them.

First up, you can see these bikes have a huge, chunky frame. It’s an impressive bit of gear because it’s made from aircraft grade aluminium and is a one-piece, weldless design which makes it incredibly strong while still keeping it quite light at 80kg. Housed within that one-piece frame is a 72V motor with a 2160Wh battery pack that comes in three size options, 30, 32 and 48Ah. The battery itself has a patented immersion cooling system which means it runs incredibly cool and has only 50% temperature rise during the use of the bike.

They even claim you can ride the bike at -40°F which is pretty wild. The Caofen F80 runs at a rated power of 4kW and its peak power of 8kW and puts down around 310Nm of torque. 0-100% charging time is around two hours which is quite impressive. Hopefully that covers most of the tech stuff. I’m going to ride the bike now.

OUT ON THE TRACK

There’s a little bit of a sequence to getting the Caofen out on the track with a separate safety key fob and a few different switches to work through. Once I had that figured out, we were good to go. E-bikes are a tricky one and they put these safety measures in place because, being silent, you don’t actually know if they’re live or not. The last thing you want to do is loop out in the carpark!

The F80 has a sweet digital display that shows you everything you need to know. Power on, speed, battery life, power mode etc. are all shown and easy to read. The Caofen F80 has three modes so you can adjust the output of the battery. I went straight for the sport/fast mode and set off down the trail.

It’s always a weird feeling riding along with no noise and the Caofen F80 was no different. You hear every stick, rock, and chain slap when you ride these bikes. It’s pretty cool. Surprisingly, as funky as these bikes look, the rider position was actually quite comfortable and while they’re a lot smaller than a regular dirtbike, I never hit my knees on the bars or anything like that.

The throttle response is very different to a petrol powered bike, very linear and smooth. Almost too smooth sometimes and I reckon I put that down to having no clutch to give you that burst of speed. You have to really roll your corners, especially in the tighter stuff. We started off on Briggsy’s small bush loop, a mixture of elevation and ruts that’s tight on a big bike. It felt wide open on the Caofens because they are that much smaller than a full-size MX bike.

Of the three modes, sport was a good starting point for me but I did find myself wanting a little more response in the tighter trails, especially when you have a tight, rutted corner at the bottom of a hill. The one thing that I struggled with more than anything else on these bikes was the safety switch on the rear brake side of the bars. Being my clutch finger, I rest it on the lever and Caofen have a safety switch that when you touch the rear brake, there is no power. So, my dinosaur clutch habits had me stalling out in almost every corner. It was driving me crazy!

I got better as the day went on but it really messed with my flow. EMG has since told us that they are working on a way to remove that feature on the non-ADR versions and giving the MX versions the option to go without that switch so once that is sorted, we will have to ride them again.

The suspension on the Caofen F80 is an HKW 38mm upside down fork with 200mm of travel and the rear shock is also a HKW unit with an external reservoir. The rear linkage is a single pivot unit and they run a 19 inch front wheel and 18 inch rear. The bike also has a max single person load limit of 100kg. It’s quite a soft ride and on the smoother track, there was no issue at all.

On the rougher stuff, the bike was a little out of its depth but overall, the suspension package works decently. Since, the test however, we have been informed that the new batch of 2023 F80s’ set to arrive soon have a totally different rear shock and swingarm setup. We saw some spy photos and it looks like a totally different bike. Stronger swingarm, beefier shock and a 16 inch rear wheel for extra strength. It’s pretty cool to see them updating their platform already.

WHO ARE THESE BIKES SUITED TOO?

EMG are bringing in three styles of the Caofen F80, Trail, Tarmac and Dual Sport. From what I understand, they are working really hard on an ADR version of the bike so it can be road legal here in Oz. For people who have a short commute to work and don’t feel like getting in a car, these could be a great option.

We obviously had access only to the trail version and I think that these bikes appeal mostly to a rider or a family that has a few acres and don’t want to piss their neighbours off. Once we were finished with the bush trails, we hopped onto Briggsy’s MX and grass tracks and the F80’s really came into their own. The flowing, more open style tracks are much more suited to these bikes so if you have a small paddock that you could make a track in, these things are perfect for your afternoon adrenaline rush.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, it’s awesome to see another contender into the E-moto market and I had a lot of fun riding these bikes. Being a relatively new bike, there is always going to be things that need to be cleaned up or developed a little more but for me, the Caofen F80 has the right tools to get the job done. They’re fun to ride, easy to ride and the maintenance schedule is enough to keep any time poor rider happy. EMG are keen as mustard to get these things out into the public and at the very reasonable price of $9000 delivered to your door, I can see that becoming a reality. I look forward to riding the new and improved 2023 versions that’s for sure.

WORDS || GEOFF BRAICO

PHOTOS || MITCH LEES