With its Rally 450, Chinese manufacturer Kove has already proven it can design a light, attractive and reliable off-road bike at an unbeatable price. Now it has built a twin-cylinder adventure bike called the Kove 800X Pro. We ride it.
Following on from the 2023 launch of its Rally 450 and 510X adventure bike, Chinese manufacturer Kove is back with a bigger twin-cylinder adventure bike called the Kove 800X Pro.
The performance of the Rally 450 has already been widely noted by the media in recent months, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and the reliability of the bike that I saw compete at the Swank Rally Tunisia in February 2024 – Italian privateer Cesare Zacchetti was at the starting line with his Kove 450 Rally which, in addition having been raced in the 2024 Dakar, had been run over 12,000km during the winter in various competitions without any technical problems.
Sure, this is just one single bike, but real hype has been created around this model on many social-media pages where there don’t seem to have been any major technical problems reported so far.
The 35-year-old founder and CEO of Kove, the charismatic Zhang Xue, himself a very capable Rally racer, was the man behind the Rally 450. To everyone’s surprise, he announced his departure from the company in an emotional video message in 2024, which not surprisingly caused some concern in the marketplace, with customers worried whether the bikes they had ordered would actually reach dealers. But in Europe, at least, the containers with the Kove 450 Rally and 510 X arrived more or less on time, by ship or via the Trans-Siberian railway.
Recently, the first examples of the new Kove 800X Pro, the new two-cylinder adventure bike with a 71KW (96.5hp) twin-cylinder engine and in a relatively light 176kg package, were delivered to customers. No other twin-cylinder bike to date has matched these figures, so expectations of the test bike, a pre-production example made available to us by the Italian importer, were high.
The 800X Pro is currently available in two colours – dark grey and dark green – and it displays a sleek bodywork with well-balanced proportions; nothing on the 800X Pro looks out of place or causes irritation at first glance. Parts such as the forged aluminium sidestand, and the cast steel footpegs, as well as the painted surfaces give a high-quality impression, while the gold-anodised rims give the 800 a unique and attractive look.
The handlebar is positioned quite high and it almost feels like you have to stretch your arms above your shoulders to push the bike out of the workshop, but the first physical contact with the Kove 800 is impressive; never has a twin-cylinder adventure bike equipped with Metzeler Karoo 4 tyres been so easy to push as this new player from China. Aprilia Tuareg 660, Ducati DesertX and KTM 890 Adventure, what’s going on? Former Kove boss Zhang Xue has always been a fan of light-weight bikes, once telling us that there was a taskforce on every new project that analysed every single component until there wasn’t an ounce too much. Nevertheless, the X Pro comes complete with crash bars, skid plate, catalysed stock silencer, passenger footpegs and a strong aluminium luggage rack, which compares well to the plastic items from much of the competition.
As for the engine, there are no surprises: starting is smooth, the gearbox works well and mechanical noise is moderate. In other words, it is up to the competition. With its 799cc churning out a claimed 80Nm of torque at 7500rpm, the powerplant has a sustained thrust from low revs and spins up quickly, which indicates a rather moderate flywheel mass.
On the road, precision and directional stability in corners and on straights are impeccable, although the feel and sensitivity of the Chinese-made Taisko braking system could be better, especially at the rear wheel. Since our test bike was a pre-production model not yet equipped with the final standard electronics package, we rode it without ABS and traction control (mind you, the Kove 800 has only one riding mode). The engine power of 71kW (96.5hp) puts the Kove 800 on a par with the competition, and the claimed top speed in excess of 200km/h seems credible. However, in terms of engine modulation, especially at low revs, the tuning is not yet convincing; at partial load there are still some uncertainties in engine response but, according to the engineers, this will be rectified in the production bikes.
The ergonomics are well suited to road riding, but during longer trips the narrow knee angle is noticeable (I am 175cm tall) due to the relatively small distance between the footpegs and the seat; seat height is 865 mm and ground clearance is 275mm). A 20/30mm higher seat and risers for the handlebars would be beneficial, especially for off-road riding, to optimise ergonomics when standing. The tank is cut tight and is easy to grip with the legs, and the seat follows the slim silhouette so that the Kove can be handled and balanced easily between the knees, even on difficult terrain and on steep climbs and descents.
The handling and ease of the 800X Pro in the dirt is absolutely amazing, thanks partly to its light weight – every kilogram counts when it comes to off-road riding. Although the suspension on the test bike, with 240mm of travel front/rear, felt a bit stiff, the Kove 800X Pro performs exceptionally well off-road too… but only after removing the non-adjustable steering damper, which was too stiff and gave the impression of an overtightened steering head or a front tyre with too little air pressure.
In a way, the Kove 800X Pro reminded me of my KTM 525 Rally bike from the 2010s, because the two bikes are not that far apart in terms of off-road performance. Power slides, jumps, trial sections, wheelies or full-throttle passes on wide dirt tracks, the Kove 800 has the potential to become the absolute benchmark in the off-road sector of twin-cylinder adventure bikes… so long as the suspension and engine tuning at low revs are sorted.
So, for less than €10.000 (in Europe) you can put an adventure bike in your garage that will probably be unrivalled on the trails in this price bracket.
However, there is still room for improvement: the skid plate only covers the lower part of the power unit, leaving the lambda sensor, heat exchanger, horn and engine block at the front completely unprotected. Furthermore, it would be better to replace the water pump cover, currently made of plastic, with a more robust aluminium cover. But in any case, with a decent budget it should be possible to make the Kove 800X Pro even lighter and prepare it as a sporty all-rounder for raid-marathons.
If the 800X Pro matches the quality level of the 450 Rally, it should prove to be a robust and powerful adventure bike. It’s now up to the established manufacturers to react to this promising new proposition…
THE GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD
Pros
– Price
– Weight
– Handling
Cons
– Stiff suspension
– Engine tuning at low revs
– Off-road ergonomics
– Stiff steering damper
SPECS
Kove 800X Pro
Price: €9990 plus on-road costs (in Italy)
ENGINE:
Power: 71kW (96.5hp) at 9000rpm
Torque: 80Nm at 7500rpm.
Engine:
Water-cooled, parallel twin four-stroke
Four valves per cylinder, DOHC
Bore x stroke: 88mm x 65.7mm
Capacity: 799cc
Compression 13.0:1
Wet multi-disc clutch with anti-hopping function, six-speed gearbox, chain final drive,
CHASSIS:
Frame: Tubular steel
Front suspension: KYB USD fork, fully adjustable, 240mm travel, non-adjustable steering damper.
Rear suspension: Monoshock, progressive linkage, adjustable spring preload and rebound, 240mm travel
Wheels: Tubeless spoked with aluminium hubs and rims
Tyres: 90/90-21 front, 150/80-18 rear,
Brakes: Front: twin xxxmm discs, xxx calipers; Rear: Single Xxxmm disc, xxx caliper
Wheelbase: 1510mm
Seat height: 865mm
Ground clearance: 275mm
Fuel tank capacity: 20 litres
Wet weight: 190kg
Basic equipment: A riding mode, ABS and traction control off. 5″ TFT colour display.
Warranty: 2 years xxxxkm
Website: www.Kovemoto.com