CFMOTO 500SR Voom Review: Inline-Four Fun Returns

• 499cc inline-four with 15,000rpm redline and Ram Air boost
• Old-school, rev-hungry character in a modern, affordable package
• Engaging ride that rewards rider input over outright ease

With motorcycles becoming increasingly rider-friendly, the new CFMoto 500SR Voom takes motorcycling back to a golden era of four cylinders, high revs and working to get the most from the bike. This isn’t a bike you ride lazily — it’s one you ride properly.  In a world of easy, torque-heavy parallel twins, this feels completely different.

I first rode the 500SR VOOM in China in 2024, at CFMoto’s proving grounds behind the HQ during a factory visit. After showing us around the impressive facility, they took us to what was essentially a large car park, with off-road obstacles along the edges designed to challenge the farm quads and ATVs they produce. But there was a short straight and a large open area, big enough to get a glimpse of what their new road bikes were about to unleash on the global market. The first model I rode was the impressive 675 triple, which was still in development and a closely guarded secret. But it was the 500cc inline four that I tried next, which tugged at my heartstrings. If you were a biker in the eighties and nineties, the 500SR VOOM is one serious blast from the past.

A Blast from the Past

The 500SR VOOM is a retro-inspired sportsbike that harks back to the era of four-cylinder, high-revving road bikes. The 499cc inline four produces 58kW (78hp) but gets a bit of top-end kick thanks to an innovation that every sportsbike rider wanted back in the day – Ram Air. Yep, what looks like two headlights at the front are, in reality, massive air inlets that feed air directly into the airbox, offering more performance the faster the VOOM goes. Kawasaki was known for boosting Ram Air popularity, with the bright green ZXR400 & ZXR750 featuring large silver hoses running from the front fairing, down through the top of the tank, and into the airbox. It was the must-have feature for any ‘pocket rocket’ road racer back in the day.

Performance from the 500SR is pretty respectable, with a claimed 0-100km/h time of 4.2 seconds and a top speed of 220km/h. The redline is an abrupt 15,000rpm, although I found I was using the standard quickshifter to grab another cog before the needle dipped into the start of the red zone at 13,000rpm. You could hold on longer, but all you really got was more vibration and more wailing, but not much more in forward momentum.

It’s the midrange where the CFMoto beats the machines of old, with the 500SR claimed to have 49Nm, whereas the early ZXR only produced 39Nm, along with a lot less power at 45kW (61hp). So while the 500SR feels like those bikes of yesteryear, it’s a whole heap more impressive and usable despite the same high-revving nature. Unlike most middleweights, this isn’t about low-down torque — it’s about chasing revs.

Old-School Meets Modern Tech

As we’re now used to seeing with CFMoto, their bikes come with heaps of tech for not very much money, and the 500SR continues this theme – it’s dripping with electronics. It might feel old-school in the way it delivers power, but the tech is anything but.

There’s a quickshifter for seamless upshifts, a slipper clutch for fast downshifts, a 20-level adjustable steering damper and fully adjustable 41mm USD forks and a multi-link rear shock. But it’s the dash that is seriously cool, with a whole heap going on once you turn the key and VOOM glides over the TFT screen. With the start-up out of the way, you’re greeted with a thoroughly modern layout, with the rev counter on the right, speedo on the left and a multitude of other info set in between. The fact that the rev counter barely registers the numbers between 1 and 5 gives you an idea of where the power delivery is, with 7 pretty much where you need to keep the motor singing. Drop below that, and it is a slow build of power before finally the little cylinders get into their stride and begin the race to the redline.

Tyre pressure monitors also feature on the TFT screen, which is really useful, as is the tyre temperature info, which gives you a visual indication not only of whether your tyres are warm enough to start pushing on, but also how the pressure increases with temperature. There are various other readouts like fuel distance remaining, trips and average fuel usage, and a really interesting graph that’s almost like your own personal dyno chart. Think of the readout you’d get after a dyno that details your bike’s power and torque figures as they climb with the revs – that’s what is on the dash. Over it runs a line which moves left or right as your revs rise and fall, giving you an instant display of where the engine’s power and torque output are at the given revs. Okay, most of us will know where the optimum power and torque output is situated simply by listening to the exhaust and feeling how the bike pulls, but it’s a really cool illustration for those riders who probably didn’t begin their biking career getting the most out of two-strokes or peaky fours. The torque and power lines cross at 10,000rpm where torque begins to tail off, while the max power line continues to climb till it flattens off around 12,000rpm.

Thankfully, CFMoto didn’t just focus on the motor and the dash, furnishing the rest of the 500SR with decent componentry that all work together to make the model a decently impressive sporty road bike. The twin front brakes are CFMoto-branded J.Juan 4-piston radially-mounted calipers gripping large 300mm discs and they work good. At the rear is a single J.Juan single piston caliper gripping a 220mm disc that had decent feel making feet-up U-turns an easy affair despite the limited steering lock from the clip-on handlebars. There’s even Bosch ABS and two-levels of traction control.

Finally, it was great to see the CFMoto had a power outlet next to the dash with both USB-C and USB-A ports. And using the CFMoto app allows for simple navigation projection, while getting the optional T-Box allows for GPS tracking and ride logging.

And to finally put this into perspective, that’s all for a current retail price of $11,990 plus on-road costs. Yep, this is one seriously loaded and fun bike for not a lot of money. And that’s what really makes the Voom stand out — there’s nothing else quite like it at this price point.

But what does it go like on the road? Well, a trip to Rotorua for a meeting was the perfect chance to find out.

Working For A Living

Numbers and specs only tell half the story — this bike is all about how it feels on the road.

Just starting the 500SR was enough to get the hairs on the back of my neck sticking up – oh, how it reminded me of the glory days. The four-cylinders sit high in the revs at tickover, and a few blips of the throttle revealed the air-boxy rasp that will be familiar to anyone who’s owned a bike with Ram Air. Yep, this was going to be a good day.

Heading through town, I soon discovered that short-shifting into second gear and slipping the clutch was the answer for smooth work in traffic. Thankfully, the adjustable clutch lever has a feather-light pull, so it wasn’t a drag to have two fingers ready for action. This is a bike that you can’t help but rev.  It encourages bad behaviour — in the best possible way, with the twin high-level exhausts singing every time I made a fast getaway after working my way to the front of traffic queues at lights. I was initially worried that the bar-end mirrors would make lane-splitting tough, but soon discovered that the VOOM’s low stance meant they went beneath most SUVs and utes clogging the roads.

Finally, I got to the motorway onramp and purposely dropped a cog (or two) too many to see whether the little CFMoto would deliver the performance it was promising higher in the rev range, and I wasn’t disappointed. With each 1,000rpm the rev counter passed, the 500cc four-cylinder gained urgency until I launched onto the motorway like a blue-and-yellow wailing banshee. Oh, yes! This is what has been missing in motorcycling for sooo long. You have to work for it — and that’s exactly why it’s so rewarding.

At a time when bikes are being dumbed down with linear power deliveries from uninspiring parallel twins that you simply short shift to sixth gear and then forget about the gearbox, the 500 VOOM is like a breath of fresh air. It’s a bike to cut your sportbike teeth on, to learn about power deliveries, rev ranges, planning gear shifts and overtakes. Every motorcyclist needs to ride a bike like this. This is a thinking rider’s sportsbike.

Real Roads, Real Fun

Using my TomTom app to give me a twisty route down to Rotorua from Hamilton, it wasn’t long before I found myself on the Waikato motorcyclists’ favourite roads of French Pass and the surrounding areas. Away from the traffic and (hopefully) any enforcement, I spent the next hour wide-eyed and loving it, picking apexes, carrying speed, planning gear changes and bouncing the sound of a screaming inline four off the hills that once graced Hobbits. On roads like this, the Voom just makes sense.

The quickshifter makes upshifts fast, although you still need to get the revs right, or else there’s a decent amount of transmission shock letting you know that the sweetspot wasn’t there yet. And downshifts work best with a good blip of the throttle, making the process of diving downhill into hairpins something I wanted to do again and again.  It rewards good technique — and lets you know when you get it wrong.

To be honest, the flexible nature of the CFMoto’s tuning and the fact that it’s got a reasonable amount of torque meant that dancing up and down the gearbox isn’t actually required, with fourth gear often where I found myself when I just needed to settle down for a bit. With such a wide rev range, you could stay in this ratio and let the revs drop to 6,000 rpm, and it would then still happily pull up to the redline, where I’d decide I was probably going fast enough.

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At 100km/h on the open road, it’s obvious that sixth gear is a bit of an overdrive, which is useful for clicking off the kays and keeping fuel usage a bit more reserved. I averaged 5.7L/100km over the length of my journey, but the projected range sure did drop quickly when I was spending more time near the redline. With a 15.5-litre tank, I should have been able to get close to 300km before getting nervous, but filling it up and the trip said I was only going to get 225… Hmmm, maybe the bike knew what was in store for it!

I wasn’t too sure about the sporty riding position as I headed off for the day, but discovered it was surprisingly comfortable and I didn’t have any aches or pains after a day in the saddle.  It’s sporty without being punishing — which makes it far more usable than the bikes it’s inspired by.

The low 795mm seat height makes this a seriously accessible bike for riders of all heights, yet even at 182cm (6 foot), I didn’t find it cramped. I don’t think I’d want to stick someone on the back, though. And while it would be a fun machine to take to the South Island to sample some of their fantastic biking roads, luggage would probably need to be restricted to a few sets of undies and a t-shirt.

The handling is sharp, with a dip of each shoulder, all that’s required to get the 500SR carving through corners. The 160-section rear tyre is a welcome addition rather than being over-tyred with a 180, which would have taken the edge off. And while the pocket-rockets of old were hard enough to shake out your fillings, modern technology and improvements in suspension meant that I wasn’t being launched out of the seat despite the shitty condition of our roads. I was thinking the front might shake its head, hence the reason for a steering damper, but it all felt under control.

Who’s It Really For?

I’m probably the target customer for this bike. But it’s not just for nostalgic riders — it’s also a great learning tool for newer riders stepping up

Someone who began their riding career with small capacity sportbikes that loved to rev. If that’s you, then you need to give the 500SR VOOM a test – it’s like hooking up with your college crush and finding they are a bit more sophisticated. Yet, it’s not as harsh or focused as those bikes of yesteryear, and it’s also a whole heap faster. In fact, CFMoto set a land speed record in Aussie in the 500cc production class, so this bike really hauls.

I reckon it would be great for the new generation of motorcyclists to give the 500SR a go. With most of them working up through the ranks on modern parallel twins, they aren’t getting the excitement or developing the skills that riding a bike like this gives you. It’s not LAMS-approved, meaning the VOOM is competing with every other road bike out there, and that’s tough. Yet the fact that it hasn’t been limited to the LAMS certification is also part of the charm. Imagine going out with a group of mates for a ride, and while they are cruising around on autopilot, you are hitting 15,000rpm rev limits and diving from apex to apex, all while your smile is threatening to burst out of your helmet. Yep, this is motorcycling at its rawest and finest. Well done, CFMoto. And honestly, we need more bikes like this.

CFMOTO 500SR Voom – Competition

CFMoto 500SR Voom Specifications

Publisher/Editor

Paul

Paul is the owner, publisher and editor of Bike Rider Magazine, a role he has had for over two decades. He has been BRM’s primary test rider throughout that time, riding and reviewing everything from learner machines to high-performance superbikes. After cutting his teeth with Superbike Magazine in the UK, Paul moved to New Zealand in the early 2000s and has since dedicated his career to delivering honest, rider-focused motorcycle journalism.