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Maybe the first legendary bike from China. I'd need faster tracks for its "supersport" or rally origin than I have in Bavaria. So I choose a "boring" Honda CRF 300 L instead. People from the UK and the US advised me to go for the Kove, I'd love it. Thanks for crash testing the bike. The Americans and British claimed it to be pretty tough. And it is! Rally heritage. All the best, Günter/Nürnberg
I bought a Kove 450 last year. I haven't had the chance to ride it much as I bought a Triumph Scrambler 1200 xe and have been enjoying it. I had an Aprilia Tuareg but replaced it with the Kove because of the weight. The Kove is very nimble in comparison. I do miss the Tuareg but think the Kove was better for me use case. I was thinking of replacing the Kove with a CRF 300L but this video has me thinking I should stay with the Kove. Thanks for sharing this video and your insight.
Thanks for sharing! I would advice you to stay with the Kove if there is no massive reason you would be going to the CRF. If you don't need the power and are willing to do quite some modification to the Honda you will get a nice bike of that too. Suspension on the stock CRF is not even on the same planet with the Kove 😅
Thumbs up and a subscription. A lot of people would have edited out the crash. Also few people would admit that a test bike is better than their customised bike. I like the honesty. Honda, Yamaha or Suzuki need to make a 550cc version of this bike for the advanced dual sport crowd. It's mostly old guys with money so I'm kind of surprised that only Kove is targeting this demographic.
Thanks! I love all bikes so I'm just excited about anything different and Kove is definitely that 😄 I just hope they will stick to this recepie long enough to show everyone the brand is strong and not going anywhere 🙂
feels like a really "honest" review/ride 👍 Beautiful finnish scenery and sky. Would love to see more Kove 450 content from you so hopefully you get one for you 😉
The thing I learned very early on making videos is that I'm never gonna make the most cinematic, well narrated or fun videos on this platform but one thing I can be is honest to my audience. If I say something that is not true it's because I've made a mistake. I will always try to be brutally honest but fair cause that's one thing I can control ☺
Great video, thanks for your honesty and thoughtful review. I have a Kove450 and I bought it for the exact reason you said - it fits between a Adv bike and an enduro. Its great to able to ride on road to the trails and have a good time on both rather than trailering an enduro bike to the trails. keep up the good work!
@@PatchedBandit no I don't post anything at the moment but may start doing something just as a reference for other owners, but mainly I bought it to ride it 😁
Wow, the crash was scary! Happy that you didn't hurt yourself. Decent gear is important, indeed. I really got interested in Kove 450. I already "decided" to switch from DR 650 to KTM 690 R but need to re-consider. Well the moment of my move is most probably rather in years than weeks or months. 😅
I'm happy to see you're ok! Be careful! Ever ride wasn't so lucky when he crashed his Kove 450. Would you consider the Kove to have a premium suspension like, for example, a 690 or 701?
From this ride I can't say too much but initial impressions are good! I would love to see the setup opened at TTM Factory to see what kind of stuff is housed in those pipes. Travel is crazy nice at 300mm rear and front
@@PatchedBandit I just bought a CRF, and it’s modified with bigger tank, same rally tower as your, Yss susp. Seat concept saddle. So i think i live with this for some years. I’m starting TET up north tomorrow. Perhaps over to Finland in a few weeks to. It’s holidayy 😊👍
@@PatchedBandit I am going to Skellefteå så the ferry to Vaasa is actually my preferred option. I try contact you if i get there. A lot could happen before that 😄👍
I dont know if i missed it in video but how does gearbox ratios compare between kove and crf300l? crf has wide ratio and kove has really narrow spread (almost identical to drz400). Just looking at specs i would want shorter 1-2 or 1-3 gears for slower stuff and higher 6th gear for highway cruising
I cound't even tell you what the ratios are on my own bikes so I didn't really focus much on this aspect of the bike. I did mention a few RPM levels and gear here and there on the video but nothing more specific in terms on comparison.
I have been meaning to ask if you have had a chance to test out a Suzuki DRZ400 yet but then I realized I don’t think you can buy those in Europe or am I wrong? Swapped bikes with a friend for a week and I was quite impressed with his DRZ.
Really appreciate your videos. I just started riding and bought a WR250R, still trying to figure out what kind of riding I want to do. I appreciate your channel and your personal fleet. The CRF300L and the Tuareg 660 are on my list. Really excited for this bike and the CF Moto 450MT. I want a dual sport that can ride highways and do long BDR style trips in the USA. I want something more dirt oriented like you seem to prefer.
450MT is interesting. It's not much lighter than the Tuareg 660 with half the horsepower though. This is not to say it's not a good bike but many buyers are sold on the dry weight which is misleading by design 😊 I'm gonna try and have a ride with the 450MT next weekend. Most likely will make an impression wideo to my quick ride series about it. So far it looks interesting and sounds like a Tenere 700 which is definitely no bad thing 😁
@@PatchedBandit Good point, it isn't much lighter than the Tuareg 660. Looking forward to hearing your initial impressions, you're testing many of the bikes I'm deciding between. Thanks!
The wr250r is awesome. Much better then a crf300l. The Kove feels alot like a wr250r. The powerband is the shame shape. The kove just makes twice as many hp. Could easily replace the wr250r with a Kove450
I was suspicious about the weight too. Im gonna add a correction card and update the description during the weekend. Bike could have fooled me it felt really light.
@@scannorse Most people need that dealer network, that's the biggest hurdle for Chinese manufacturers. If they want to succeed in Europe they'll need many dealers.
I have ridden both the 2023 KTM 690 and Husqvarna 701. And a few times the 2009 KTM 690. Differences between tehese have not been very big when it comes to vibrations at least in my opinion. Kove is much less viby than all of these.
First glad your ok. Second your not riding if your not crashing! Lol been a lifetime saying but shit man I'm getting to old so my riding gets less aggressive to stay alive longer.
Liikkeen pärrrä. Lite Bike oli hyvin ymmärtäväinen. Tosi mukavan olonen tyyppi ja toivottavasti tehdään lisääki videoita josain välissä. Vakavasti meni kyllä harkintaan tuo Kove omaanki ostoslistaan. Mitään sponssihommia tää video ei ollu, mutta antoivat kalustoa testiin. Saatan käydä vielä viritettyä versiota jossain vaiheessa testaamassa ja videoimassa.
@@PatchedBandit Nonii sehän oli hyvä. Joo tuo vaikuttaa ja näyttääki hyvältä, kakkos pyöränä vois olla hyvä. Itte ajelen T7:lla, mutta välillä tuntuu turhan raskaalta mettässä. Meinaakko tehä mitään prätkäreissua vielä tälle kesää?
@@PatchedBandit Norja on kyllä hieno paikka, riittää nähtävää. Mee ihmeessä tuaregilla, siitä olis kiva nähä enemmän videoita. Maanantaina lähtö etelän reissulle prätkällä. Viro, Latvia, Liettua, puola, saksa, tanska, ruotsi ja siitä takas kotia Kokkolaan 👍🏻
Seki on kiva lenkura. Kävim tuon saman joskus ajaan 650 gessulla. Saatan lähtee Tuaregilla, kun siellä on niitä nousuja paljo norjassa. Tuareg videot eioo kauheen hyvin vetäny verrattuna Hondaan 😅
Pääasia et on ukko kunnossa. Onneksi ei ollut kiinteämpi pölli mikä tuli kulkusille😅 Tämähän on täydellinen testivideo. Toi pyörä on nyt virallisesti koeajettu. Rymyämiset kuuluu lajin luonteeseen🏁🇫🇮✌️
Well. Not really because of a few reasons. BUT let's take the brands, dealer networks, parts availability etc. off the table for a second. For me it is pretty hard to say that the CRF300 is a better bike in any aspect of the bike it self. If they both wore Honda badge would we even be having the conversaiton 😊 Just a thought. But personally as I already own the honda and have put a lot of work and money towards making it my own I don't see a hasty reason to start selling it. Also I am probably not the direct target buyer for this kinda bike as my personal limitations as a rider are reached pretty well with my modded CRF300. So I would not realistically be gaining all that much with the Kove even though the bike can certainly do a lot more than me or my Honda. Always hard to do these test rides and direct comparisons as there are a lot of things to consider when we go to personal choises etc. If I didnt own the honda and had to pick from a fresh plate I would have a harder time making that choise. For most riders Kove is a better bike. Is it a better ownership experience is yet to be seen.
@@PatchedBandit - I was expecting that the Kove was a low version considering that you didn't mention that the bike is too tall 4 you. Compared with the Yamaha Tenere 700 ( my bike at the moment and she is not too tall for me) the kove is taller or just lighter and easier to maneuver.?
I've owned the T7 myself and the Kove even at this high version is much easier to maneuver. Coming to a stop is not as intimidating and the weight is carried very low as the front tanks touch the skidplate. I was very surprised that I could ride the bike as easily as I did. The tallnes on paper is not something most people need to worry about if they have a bit of experience. This being said taking all the potential out of this bike requires a much better rider than myself. This bike is a serious piece of kit cabable of a lot more but also easy enough to ride as a dualsport machine for most people.
Great review, but in my opinion this bike can not be compared to CRF300 or even to ktm 690enduro, because this bike has oil change interval of 1000km. So this bike is more of a “race rally bike” than a bike that you can kill kms on an adventure The better match for comparison with CRF300 from Chinese manufacturers is CF Moto 450MT (oil service interval 5000km) Would be nice to see review from you if you could get a hand on that bike
I own the K450R and have tested the CFMoto450MT, Cf is very nice bike but it's not compatible with Kove. Imo CF compete with T7 as a lighter version, less hp. Kove is unique within it's rally concept, field maintaining, list is long...
@@PatchedBandityou where sitting down, right? No problem with that but it looked like you didn't put the weight on the pegs and compensate for that corner.. that you didn't saw due to the bump 😅 been there, done that .. full throttle keep you in pole position, as long you're not ditching 😂🤙
@@PatchedBandit I get it. Having ridden a Kove 450, Its really easy to forget how fast youre going. The bike is just so smooth and comfortable at speed it is effortless and the slightest distraction and boom your in the ditch.
Doest need to be a long distraction in the right place and right time 😅 bike got light going over the hill and had 0 grip to turn. Didnt follow the rule ”drive slow enought to stop in the distance you see” i guess
You mention several times offroading on the video. I didn't see that at all despite that diving on the ditch. I think those are gravel roads, not offroads.
@@suupaltti I say all kinds of crazy things when I try to improvise 30 minutes of useable material. It's not the first and will not be my last mistake. I should use wording like off the paved road. Biggest hurdle is to do this in my second language. I would love to do content in Finnish but nobody would watch it. I would love to take Kove out where I live so I could find some better more technical riding too to mix things up but I don't know anything in Lahti so I just had to do TET and most of TET is like this.
