[cfmotoguy]

Hi, guys-

My name is Greg, and I'm the Marketing and Events Specialist for CFMOTO USA.  I've been around boats, motorcycles, ATVs and sleds my whole life, but I've only been in the industry on this side of the counter since March 2016.  Before that, I worked in the cycling industry for almost a decade, and way before that, my first job was washing and detailing machines at a powersports storage company.

My job, now, is managing the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. accounts for CFMOTO, as well as taking the demo truck to various events around the country.

When I first started with the company, I lurked on the forum for awhile, but I didn't want to inject a company voice onto this place and taint the community you guys have going here.  However, now that I've been with the company for a little while, and I have a better idea of how things work, I want to give you guys the opportunity to talk directly to someone at CFMOTO and have a dialogue between our company and the riders.

I hope it's alright that I'm on the forum, and I hope I can learn from you guys and help make CFMOTO a better company.

As a consolation for reading all that, here's a picture of me and our technical rep Jason playing in the mud in Moose Lake, MN.  See you guys around!

[NMKawierider]

Welcome to our little forum...and thanks for taking an interest and joining. Great to have you with us.

[chuddly]

Good to see you made it here Greg. Hang out....have some fun.  Throw us any info you can.

[cfmotoguy]

Alright, in the name of getting things started, AMA.

[Wheels]

Greg, how you guys finding that 990. Pulls good hey.

[cfmotoguy]

I don't know what you're talking about. 

[WalkinTarget]

Greg, welcome to the forum !! We don't mind lurkers, but as I've said many times, each and every owner can do what they can to promote the CF Moto brand. I can do a YT search for a Rzr 800 and return 340,000+ videos, but do the same for CF Moto and find a pittance compared to Polaris. Every 'how-to' video we create greatly benefits a prospective owner, as they gain the know-how and confidence to upgrade or modify their ride. CF Moto has a bit of momentum based on a very well optioned SxS that only needs properly promoted to start taking sales away from the Japanese and US SxS/ATV manufacturers. The first time I saw one, it was love at first sight. I just had to spend a lot of time researching its strengths as well as its weaknesses, and I know before I buy what I am getting. I'd also be rocking a CF-Moto sticker/T-shirt/hat just to promote the brand and tell anyone willing to listen how much I got for such a good price.

OK Greg, now on to the questions. Obviously you aren't at liberty to discuss any future releases, so let's discuss future promotional appearances. I would LOVE to see that big ol' CF Moto rig at one of my local ride areas here in PA. Obviously Mud Nats is a future destination, but can we expect an appearance in the Northeast to offer up some test rides ? I can turn on the TV and see Can Am and Polaris advertising the hell out of their model line. I'm not asking CF Moto to start a TV ad campaign, but .... just .... SOMETHING ... to promote the brand. Show the ATV/SxS community that you offer a very solid competitor in the marketplace.   

[cfmotoguy]

Okay, WalkinTarget, here we go:

One of my goals for the 2017 model year is to create an educational series of videos for dealers and riders to have resources for taking care of their machines, as well as updated walk around videos for prospective buyers to have a better idea of what they're getting.

For the next week or so, I'm really focused on getting our new website up and running, so once that launches, I will be doing a swag giveaway for people who want to rep the brand.  Stay tuned and I'll get you some cool stuff soon.

As far as questions: For appearances, my budget is TINY, so for now I have to be stingy about where we bring the big rig.  Every time we take a semi trailer somewhere, it costs about 10 Gs just in transportation fees, so for an event like Mud Nats, that's almost $25k just to show up, not counting giveaways and whatnot.  To get around this, I have a 1-Ton truck and trailer that we can pull to events like the MN trail opener or the Memorial Day ride we did in Tennessee.

If I was just using my own truck and trailer, that would be easy enough, but since having CFMOTO on the side of the truck technically makes it a commercial vehicle, every time I move the truck I need to pull road permits and have a professional driver behind the wheel.  For context, it took about $4k, all said and done, to drive to TN with two machines and a bunch of tents and grills.

So, Mud Nats MN is the next semi-truck event.  After that, we're taking about 160 people from our dealerships across the country to China to see the factory and the 2017 lineup.  When we get back, I'm working on getting permission/funding to head out to Hatfield McCoy's Trailer Fest, and we're planning to have a couple of smaller BBQ events with our dealers in various parts of the country.

In the middle of that, we're getting samples of the 2017 lineup shipped to an undisclosed location to do photo shoots and video for catalogs and promo materials.  I'm working with a couple of guys who shoot for Red Bull to get some cool stuff to show off.

As far as advertising goes, Polaris is more than 20 times larger than us in terms of manpower and $$$, so they have a little more weight to throw around when it comes to national advertising.  What we've started doing to chip away at this type of advertising is do regional CO-OP advertising with our dealers to specifically bring people into places that sell our machines.  We've also partnered with ATV.com, Side By Side Stuff, SuperATV, and a few other sites to have a bigger advertising and editorial presence online.

We've also partnered with Hendershot Performance racing and Updegraff Racing to show our stuff on the GNCC circuit as well as some similar XC races.  Hendershot just won the Lites class at the GNCC stop in Ohio last weekend on a machine they'd had for about two weeks, and they've been doing R&D work for Can-Am on the machine they run in the Open class for about 10 years, so we should be seeing some awesome stuff coming from them.  Regionally, Macon Powersports, one of our dealers in Tennessee, is winning the points championship the Bluegrass Appalachian Series driving a Z800ex, so we're definitely working to build some clout in the race scene.  As the budget increases, and we start getting bigger, I'd like to be able to ramp up support for guys like these, as well as have regional support available for smaller racers who want to drive our stuff.  But racing is a total rabbit hole, so one step at a time.

*deep breath*

So, yeah, I guess that's the State of the Union on that topic...what else you got?

[NMKawierider]

Man...you are one busy camper...lol. Talk about a full plate. Let us know if there is anything we can help with.

[WalkinTarget]

Whewww doggy, that was a wealth of info, and really does explain why marketing is done on a razor thin budget these days. I knew it was expensive to move that rig from point A to point B, but ... yea, that's a chunk o' change ! Polaris budget just for food and swag at their events probably matches your budget for everything each year.

Would you guys be interested in offering up surveys on what owners or prospective owners are most interested in buying ? I myself fell in love with the Zforce 800 25th Anniv Edition with the full doors with matching graphics and teal rims. But when it was presented to CF Moto US, the powers that be determined it wouldn't sell in our market and left it overseas only. WHAT ?!!??!! 

The problem I see is the wide variety of riding environments available in the US. Here on the east coast in the woods of PA, a trail SxS is almost the ONLY way to go, whereas in the dunes on the west coast, a 4 seat 1000cc is the vehicle of choice. So introducing a 4 seater in our east coast market is not a smart option, and trying to sell a trail 53" out west is just as pointless. Those surveys should quickly point that out to you guys, and allow you to ascertain how best to invest in future R&D and product rollout. I know a lot of guys are anxious to hear about the 990cc KTM sourced motor, but we spend most of our time tooling along at 20mph that it's just not appealing to me personally.   

[cfmotoguy]

Ah, you've struck on one of the ongoing discussions/arguments here at the office.  We have done surveys in the past, and we certainly make our wants and needs known to the factory in China.  However, what we want, and what China can deliver to us each year are often two different things.

Two examples:

1. The Trail stance came about when our two techs at the Plymouth, MN office ripped apart a standard 52" chassis, rebuilt it to fit the 50" pylon trail standards, and shipped it back to China, where previously the engineers said the chassis couldn't be modified to fit the 50" standard.

2. We've been pushing to get factory-option doors for years, to no avail.  Canada, for example, offers doors, but they are fabricated by a third party manufacturer at a pretty markup and branded a CFMOTO Canada product.  Doors will happen, but in the meantime, we'll have the SuperATV-built doors available by this fall.

Special Edition machines, powder-coated roll cages, and sound system options are some of the things Chris and myself are working to push through based on rider input, and there is a whole laundry list of things we'll chip away at with each lineup iteration.

[WalkinTarget]

ripped apart a standard 52" chassis, rebuilt it to fit the 50" pylon trail standards, and shipped it back to China, where previously the engineers said the chassis couldn't be modified to fit the 50" standard.

LMAO  ... this just makes my day. Chinese engineers clearly lack good old American ingenuity when it comes to making it fit. They do a WONDERFUL job of copying an existing technology component, but when it comes down to just 'making it fit' .. fuggedaboudit !!

I must say, I am quickly learning a lot about how you guys have a direction to go, plans on how to get there, great ideas that work not only on paper but also in the real world, but yet corporate cannot fully back you up in those decisions. It just makes me worry that their lack of full support will eventually undermine any good that the US CF Moto network has developed.

Count me in for a set of doors, and I'm planning on adding the SuperATV split windshield as well. That's the best selling point right now for CF Moto - you get so much stuff included that other manufacturers charge for. Every single person who checks out a CF Moto remarks on all of the extras packed in that make it look so appealing. My example is my BiL's new Rzr 900 - $13,2 base price, 16,3k OTD. I'm probably at around $11,2k OTD for a Trail 800, which matches his ride other than a full set of doors. 

[Jason]

Hey Greg, welcome I'm glad to see you joined up!

So everyone knows; I may or may not have stumbled upon Camp CFMOTO this past weekend while I was at Brimstone.   

I got to check out the SuperATV ZForce (no I didn't ride it) and got to talk for a few minutes as well.  The SuperATV doors are SOLID for those of you considering them when they're released.  Here are a couple pictures to prove it happened:

[John]

Welcome

[cfmotoguy]

To follow up with WalkinTarget, I don't want to give the idea that we don't have support from China--we most certainly get a lot from our parent company, and they have amazing people building machines--there's a reason companies like KTM come to us to build their engines. 

But, as Americans can relate, there's a lot of pride in the guys who build our stuff, and when we come in, guns blazing, trying to get stuff done, there's a lot of convincing that has to be done to change the tried n' true ways.  It's a big ship, and we have a small rudder, so it can take awhile to change direction of things like a 2" stance reduction that doesn't matter anywhere in the world but here.  But, in the meantime, we're changing what we can on the homefront--Jason, our senior tech, is working with a race clutch manufacturer here in MN to develop a clutch modification kit to squeeze some more acceleration out of the platform, and we're working with some other avenues to fill in the gaps in our accessory and aftermarket offerings.