http://crosstrainingenduro.com Our Kove 450 Rally review. Three days of testing three Kove Rally bikes on all sorts of terrain. So... the Kove FSE450R. It's generating a lot of hype. The first models went to social media influencers and they are raving about it. Other riders are saying it's another cheap Chinese motorbike that will rust, break down or fall apart like earlier Chinese models. Some of the influencers are actually quite well paid so we watch their Kove FSE450R Rally reviews with a big dose of healthy scepticism. Long term reliability? Welcome to Cross Training Adventure, we are into all things dual sport and adventure on the east coast of Australia. We simply won't know until there are lots of independent long-term FSE450R reports from owners. The quality certainly looks good from initial inspection. Keen on adventure riding in Australia? Check out our vids. Instead, he decided to create a rally motorbike and send a Chinese team. All three Kove Kove FSE450R bikes finished the race. A lot of Chinese manufacturers are copying the designs of other brands without permission. But it's good to see the Kove 450 Rally appears to be an original design. Our team did find a few issues with three solid days of riding for this Kove 450R review. More on that later. A quick bit of history. The Kove 450R Rally has been created by a Chinese business man who says he always dreamed of riding in the Dakar race. We aren't sure about their other models. Kove have an 800cc adventure motorbike that is based on the KTM 790 engine. Check out our reviews of various adventure bikes and dual sport bikes. Copied with permission from KTM? We don't know. They also have a 500 adventure motorbike which largely copies the Honda CB500X. This is just a rebadged Chinese copy that a pile of manufacturers are rebranding as their own... without permission from Honda to copy the engine. Admittedly the huge fuel capacity of 31 litres is partly responsible. But the Kove still weighs about 145kg without fuel... heavier than a DRZ400. Our test rider, Chuck Harder, assessed the Kove 450R Rally purely from an enduro perspective. Back to the Kove 450R Rally. Many are hoping it is just a high performance enduro motorbike with a rally fairing and big fuel tank. If you like dual sport riding in Australia then you might like our adventure riding vids. These guys will be disappointed with the weight and lack of power. The wet weight is actually more than a Suzuki DR650. If you are a dirt rider we highly recommend watching Chuck's full Kove 450R Rally review. However, that's not the full story. Our next test rider, Dallas Shannon, assessed the Kove from a dual-sport and adventure riding perspective. Interested in the Kove 450 as a dual sport or lightweight adventure motorbike? See Dallas' full Kove Rally review. A few things contribute to the Kove's potential in this respect. The massive 31 litres or 8 gallons fuel capacity. A healthy 1.6L oil capacity for less oil changes. The detuned engine should theoretically last longer. And features such as large radiators, twin radiator fans and an oil cooler should help too. A quick look at the Kove 450R Rally engine. It's interesting to see you can buy the entire engine for just USD1900... in its original detuned mode. Suspension on the Kove 450R Rally is from Chonquing Yu-an, a Chinese company we have never heard of. Their motto? Reduce shock and become smooth. The suspension certainly works better than the website suggests. It has been set up for Dakar so dirt riders will love it. It is not Kove's design, they are using the NC450 engine from another Chinese manufacturer but in a higher state of tune. It's the Zongshen NC450 which Zongshen use in their own hideously ugly RX4 adventure model. Zongshen have also licensed its use in the new Fantic Cabarello. Dual sport riders will probably find it's too firm and may want softer springs and revalving. Kove have opted from Japanese brakes from Nissin, and Bosch EFI made in Europe. With their focus on reliability it would be interesting to see if they couldn't find reliable Chinese parts in this respect. What problems did we experience over three days with three Kove 450s? A small oil leak from the oil cooler and also a fuel leak through an overflow pipe. Easily fixed. We suspect we were to blame as we assembled these motorbikes from the crate. There was a small electronic glitch with the speedo and we would get an overheat warning signal when nothing was wrong. And if the motorbike goes on its side there is some kind of cut-off which doesn't allow the Kove to be restarted immediately. We think the last two issues are very minor glitches that will probably be resolved quickly. What about Kove 450R Rally long-term problems? We simply won't know for at least year until some owners have high mileage and can provide independent reports.
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