We’re starting to see increasingly interesting machinery come out of the CFMoto-KTM entanglement, and this concept bike on display at EICMA this week shows the Chinese manufacturer is interested in pushing beyond the old second-tier models that it sold for years. While there’s no guarantee it will see production, the CFMoto MT-X concept shows the company is at least considering a future in manufacturing ADV bikes that are built for more aggressive use in the dirt.

Watching the video above, you can see this looks a lot like one of KTM’s more off road-oriented 890-series ADVs. Check out that wraparound fuel tank, with lobes down near the bottom of the engine. That’s an idea straight from the KTM playbook, unlike the more conventional layouts on CFMoto’s other bikes. Now that CFMoto actually owns an increasingly larger chunk of Pierer AG, KTM’s parent company, they certainly have the right to copy KTM’s homework.

The engine itself is also clearly derived from the LC8c parallel twin. It’s probably a bit hotter than the version CFMoto builds for the KTM 790-series models, and probably also has more jam than the engine found in the Ibex.

CFMoto actually uncovered this machine during their EICMA presentation, where a bigwig emphasized the bike’s focus on performance said it would be on the market “very soon.” When that happens, expect a machine that has electronics, suspension and brakes more-or-less on-par with the European bikes, since all that tech is ordered from a catalog anyway. The big question will be, what will the MSRP be, and will people be willing to pay extra for a performance bike built by KTM’s Chinese partner?