5 gallon tank, claimed 372 lb weight, (and another few can be dropped pretty easily judging by the pics), and 90-ish hp. I'm not about to ditch my T7 for it, but based on the general favorable reviews of the Kove 450, I wonder how this'll do in the US market.
Posted Nov 16, 2023, 6:06 AM UTC
If you are willing to sacrifice reliability for an easier ride, go for it.
But let me ask you this: you are planning a trip in a very remote area, 100 miles from any civilisation. Which one would you take? Would you risc having to drop the T7 a couple of times, or walking back 100 miles on foot?
Until these Chinese bikes prove themselves with over 50 000 km without major failures, i wouldn't consider one for such trips, when you need to trust that the bike can do it.
I don't know if the assumption of bad reliability is really justified. The Kove in this case is using the engine the KTM 790 . So I would guess that the electronics will also be similar. Kove is also not one of those budget chinese brands churning out 125's. They got 3 recently developed bikes through the Dakar and the founder is a passionate motorcycle rider, who stood at the EICMA booth himself answering questions from the people & press.
The bigger issue IMO will be parts availabilty and dealer network. Personally I just wouldn't want a bike where there is no dealers around or big spare part availability and I am definetly not ditching my T7 for it.
But still, if they bike will turn out good, which I suspect, it will be a really tough competition for the mainstream manufacturers and it might push them to not "fall asleep" on their models, like Yamaha seems to be doing frequently.
The electronics on the 790 and 890 are not that good, so not really a "plus" in my book. Anyway, my point is that buying a brand new model is usually a gamble, because it has not been proven by older generations of the same bike.
For example, if you buy a new Africa Twin, you know you'll get good reliability and quality, since the old versions were that good. The same goes with a Tenere 700 or a KTM 1290, they all had older versions.
But for the KTM 790 & 890, the Kove and other similar bikes, there are no predecessors, so little or big issues/bugs will appear that of course will be solved by each generation in the future. The 890 is a great platform, the engine seems good and reliable, but people had issues with the electronics. If they take 2 generations and fix all these annoying things, they will have a great bike and there would be no point in buying a T7, Transalp, etc.
I watched this video last night! He did a great job.
I also wouldn’t want to be a first adopter but Kove certainly is turning heads.
IMO that video shows that there is really nothing wrong with this bike, which is good. I think many people just expected a more friendly, watered down kind of rally bike, more like a CRF 300. Maybe for next-gen they could make the base model a little more friendly suspension-wise, but they probably really wanted to see it get raced in actual rallies, and not only get ridden by ADVriders.
And I guess people expected more power, because it just looks like a KTM 450 RFR. But in that case it will also have competition maintenance intervals, and people will complain again.
Except for the gas tank dumping fuel when hot and the oil cooler leaking and the not starting after being dropped… I’m not anti Kove but I would definitely want to wait a couple years to buy one and see how they hold up. Hopefully they can work some of the bugs out by then too.
What an odd thing to say. I bought a brand new 1000 Euro bike from China (came in a box) and it's been freakkin' amazing....ZERO ISSUES over the years and I fly around on this thing down Bulgarian farm roads and mucky trails.
The fact that you already know something about this bike's reliability is truly perplexing.
This bike looks awesome!!!
It's one thing to ride it 5000 km without problems, a total other thing to ride it 50000.
Or one billion.
Looks great on the paper. However it is really hard to make light, durable, reliable and powerful motorcycles, you either sacrifice something or just throw the money at the exotic materials. Will watch this closely, maybe it is the unicorn we all been waiting for.
I don't have enough knowledge or experience to comment on Chinese build quality/reliability, but I simply do not believe that dry weight figure. If KTM, BMW, Ducati, Aprilia, and Yamaha all make bikes in this class with 400+lb dry weights... How have they made this one 30-40lb lighter without compromising its toughness or payload capacity? It just doesn't really add up.
Considering the 450 is near T7 $ I wonder what they will land this at?
I hear they are using the 790 engine design.
Its a Chinees bike so for that reason i would not touch one bolt on it....
I can see that. I'll note that plenty of people said this about Japanese cars in the 70's and what not..... if Kove can prove itself over time it will make things interesting.
To be honest i dont think Kove will break the market. Only time will tell
If you have a recently produced motorcycle it probably has Chinese parts or components on it.
it was the same way back in the day where Harley riders would hate on a person for riding rice burners. But near ALL of their bikes had Japanese parts on them.
Sure some plastic parts can come from China, but its a fact that more brands like harley and bmw go to India for lighter bike production iff China was so good they would have broke the motorcycle market 5 years ago and every brand would want there bike made in the peoples rebuplic of China.
All i know is that harley wants american made, germany keeps there plant in Berlin and japan will always produce in Japan.
It's not just plastic, you got all kinds of parts and components that are sourced from China. You can't build that engine in Germany without those little parts that come from other countries including China.
And the reason China is bringing all of these bikes out so FAST! is because they've already been making these engines and all kinds of parts for others for quite some time.
That little 300? Harley made in India was supposed to only be for foreign markets, and now they are bringing it to the US. I know back in the day they always sourced their brakes and suspension from out of the US. I would assume that's still the case along with the modern electronics on that Pan American?
BMW was making a 650 single in China for like 10 or 15 years?
Kawasaki and Honda make bikes outside of Japan. I almost bought a KLX300 last week and it's made in Thailand. But I wouldn't doubt the factory in Thailand gets parts from China!! :)
The bmw 650 rotax engine was from austria and the rest was made by aprilia in italy based off the aprilia pegaso.
You are problably right on the stuff you said and I understand you cant have everyting made in one country but for me there is a differnce "a entire bike or small parts"
And again iff the Chinees cars and bikes are so good they would have taken the market 10 years ago.
Claimed this claimed that, I'll believe it when I see it. I hiiiiighly doubt they have some secret sauce KTM doesn't have.
They DO!
It's called RELIABILITY... :) :) :) JKN... :)
I'm probably going to swap my T7 for a kove rally 450 beginning of next year. Don't get me wrong I love the T7 but I do alot of solo enduro and I'm sick of lifting 200+ kg and after test riding a kove last weekend I think I'm finally ready to pull the trigger. I was genuinely surprised at how well built the kove felt. Everything on that bike felt in line or better quality than my T7 I was slightly disappointed by the low end grunt of the kove but a bigger rear sprocket should fix that.
I hear ya. I just bought a Beta RS for that exact purpose. Keeping the T7 for lighter, longer distance rides though
I did think keeping the T7 aswell but with the 8 gallon tank on the Kove I thought it pointless 😂
The CP2 motor is goat'ed. If you want a chinese bike go for it. Buy nice or by twice.
I am also watching Kove with intrigue
We all know the reputation Chinese bikes have but what makes me pause with Kove is the founder is a huge motorcycle geek whose dream it was to race in Dakar. He literally started the company to build a bike for Dakar. That gives me much more confidence knowing the company is actually passionate about bikes and not just churning out cheap Japanese rip-offs for a quick buck.
Only time will tell!