By Justin Hughes

Copyright jalopnik

CFMoto provides connected services through a device called a T-Box that plugs into the motorcycle and syncs with your phone. It’s standard equipment in some areas, and optional in others as a way to keep the motorcycle’s base price down. RideApart obtained the following statement from CFMoto:

“I can confirm that prior to August 15, 2025, the CFMOTO Ride App offered free service to CFMOTO T-Box owners. On that date, the app transitioned to a paid subscription that offers different subscription options, with the highest-featured option totaling 44.90 Euro, or $49.90 USD.”

In other words, the Global Ride App also offered free services to all users, just like the U.S.-spec RideSync app. But then, CFMoto updated the app and retroactively paywalled features that were previously free. Current users were automatically enrolled in a “free trial period,” after which they must pay for previously included features. This is bad news for anyone who bought a CFMoto motorcycle that originally included these as standard features. It’s far worse for people who bought a T-Box separately to gain access to these features and must now pay a subscription on top of the original purchase price. It would have been far more fair to make this a paid subscription for new customers, but keep the service free for existing customers who rightfully believed that’s what they had originally paid for.

Manufacturers may think we want subscription services, but we really don’t. What stands between Americans and a similar fate? CFMoto’s word that they won’t, and a simple change in the RideSync app. We’re not saying that CFMoto will do this. But it has already done this elsewhere in the world, and it wouldn’t take much technologically to do it here as well.