Kove 450RR takes the fight to Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4R By Ben Purvis
Kove is one of the relatively few Chinese motorcycle companies that's making a concerted effort to appeal to riders in the West - its garnered good reviews for its 450 Rally off-road bike in Europe and America - and the new 450RR demonstrates an admirable ability to react to criticism and market requirements.
That's because this bike was originally shown last year as the 400RR, with different styling, but Kove has reworked it before production even starts.
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The original version had Kove's own 399 cc four-cylinder engine, but after it was introduced to the public, Kawasaki launched its ZX-4R with similar specs. So, for production, Kove has repositioned its bike as the 450RR, giving it an extra 44 cc for a 443 cc total capacity and boosting power to a claimed 52 kW (70 hp) at 13,000 rpm, backed up by 39 Nm of torque at 10,500 rpm. The engine still has further to go, though, as its redline doesn't arrive until 16,000 rpm.
With Kawasaki's ZX-4R offering up to 56 kW (76 hp) in markets where it's sold in derestricted form, there was clearly pressure on Kove to make its four-cylinder competitive, and the additional capacity brings it close to the Japanese bike, even if it doesn't quite match it.
The original 400RR had a distinctive-looking nose, with deep-set headlights and a protruding snout between them for its central air intake. Not traditionally pretty, perhaps, but very distinctive. However, Kove has clearly responded to customer feedback with the 450RR, giving it a new look that's much more conventionally attractive, with Ducati-style lights and winglets and a black lower section to the nose that effectively hides the air intake instead of emphasising it. The side fairings, tank and tail are unchanged.
The 450RR weighs just 165 kg, and its steel tube frame makes up just 7 kg of that mass. The seat height is a relatively low 795 mm and can be dropped further still to 780 mm if required.
Two versions are being offered, a base model and a higher-spec 'Performance' model. The Performance gets two-tone paint and adjustable KYB suspension instead of the Yu-an suspension of the standard bike. It also upgrades the brakes, with radial front calipers instead of axial-mount four-pots and features a colour TFT dash where the base model has a greyscale LCD. A quickshifter is also exclusive to the Performance model, along with a steering damper and launch control. Both versions have a slipper clutch and traction control.
Kove has yet to reveal plans for international sales, but given the company's ambitions on the global market, there's a good chance the 450RR will be offered outside China. Kove is also working on a range of 800 cc parallel twin bikes, having already launched the 800X adventure model and shown sketches of a roadster and an 800RR sports bike that will use the same engine.
