The Kove 450 Rally is a bike apart. It's not a road adventure bike in disguise: it's a road-legal rally-raid machine, derived from the one that finished the 2023 Dakar with all three of its starters. Three tanks for 30 litres, a 49 mm fork with 300 mm of travel, a 960 mm seat — and a price of €9,990 for the Standard version when it reached France in late 2023 (US list price: $9,299).
For that money there's nothing equivalent from European or Japanese makers. The flip side is competition-bike servicing and a dealer network still in its infancy. Here's what you need to know.
Kove, Zongshen and the Dakar
Kove Moto (long sold as Colove) was co-founded in 2017 in Chongqing by Zhang Xue, a former off-road mechanic and racer, with two partners. The 450 Rally's single was developed with Zongshen, the Chongqing giant, as a twin-cam version. In 2023 the three Kove bikes entered in the Dakar all reached the finish on their first attempt; the production bike uses the same architecture.
Worth knowing: Zhang Xue left Kove in March 2024 to found ZXMoto. The two brands are separate; don't mix them up when ordering parts. For the full picture of the groups, read who makes what. The sporting background is in our guide to the Dakar and rally raid.
The spec sheet
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Engine | 449 cc single, liquid-cooled, DOHC, Bosch injection |
| Power | 51 to 54 hp depending on source |
| Weight | 145 to 150 kg dry depending on source |
| Tanks | 30 litres in total (three tanks) |
| Fork | Fully adjustable 49 mm upside-down, about 300 mm travel |
| Shock | Adjustable, linkage, similar travel |
| Seat height | 960 mm (lower version available, about 5 cm less travel) |
| Front brake | 280 mm disc |
| Gearbox | 6 speeds |
| French price | €9,990 (Standard), €14,900 (Rally Factory, not road-legal) — 2023 launch prices |
US road tests put the range well over 500 km. That's the bike's reason to exist: going far, without refuelling, on terrain that breaks things.
Servicing: no negotiating here
This is what many buyers underestimate. The intervals reported by the US specialist press (Cycle News, 2025):
| Job | Interval |
|---|---|
| Oil change | Every 3,000 miles, i.e. about 4,800 km |
| Valve clearance check | Every 5,000 miles, i.e. about 8,000 km |
| Oil capacity | 1.8 litres, with oil cooler |
| Air filter | Depending on use — after every dusty ride |
Check these figures against the service book supplied with your bike: they may differ by model year and market. But the order of magnitude is that of a competition bike, not a road adventure bike.
What it means in practice:
- a rider doing 10,000 km a year does two oil changes and a valve check every year;
- the valve check on a DOHC single needs a set of shims and method; if you have it done, budget for it every time. The principle is explained in checking valve clearances;
- off-road, the air filter is the engine's first line of defence: a clogged or badly oiled filter kills a single faster than any manufacturing fault;
- the chain, wheel bearings and shock linkage suffer in mud and sand: clean and grease after every ride. Our chain guide explains how.
Documented faults
No public recall found
At the time of writing we found no recall for the Kove 450 Rally in RappelConso (which also relays EU Safety Gate alerts). UK owners can also check the DVSA recall service.
What owners and dealers say
On the British forum UKGSER, an official UK Kove dealer says it has sold around sixty 450 Rallys with "rarely any problems", and owners report more than 10,000 miles without trouble. The same thread mentions:
- two clutch failures on recent Kove off-road bikes (2024 registrations);
- handguards with approximate tolerances that needed reworking;
- a revised fuel-injection map on batches arriving in mid-2023, fixing low-speed fuelling judged imperfect;
- parts still hard to get hold of.
In China, public complaints about the brand's 450s mention oil leaks, cylinder-head issues and loss of power. We don't know whether they concern bikes to the same spec as European models: we cite them as a signal, not as proof.
Our reading
The 450 Rally has no documented series fault in Europe. Its risks are those of a competition bike (rapid wear if servicing slips) and of a young brand (parts, lead times, network). For travel use, the second point weighs more than the first: before heading far, carry consumables (filters, pads, a lever, a chain link) — they won't be waiting at a local dealer. We go into it in parts, warranty and dealer network for Chinese motorcycles.
