Joe Henner from Kove USA was down in So Cal last week showing around a preproduction version of the company’s new 450 motocross bike. He was down here visiting dealers, but he decided to spin a few laps around Glen Helen Raceway and he called up to ask if we wanted to take it for a few laps.

The Kove MX450 has a motor similar to the one in the competition version of the Rally 450, which has captured everyone’s attention with good finishes in the Dakar Rally. To make it into a motocross bike they built a new chassis which is similar to the one in a current KTM. This particular bike has already seen extensive use as a test mule. The gearbox is still the six-speed from the Rally and the mapping is a work in progress. The fork was brand-new for this ride; the  43mm KYB AOS was fresh out of the box. That will be the production fork. The final version will have Yuan shock, a titanium exhaust and multiple maps. The importer weighed it and came up with 220 pounds (no fuel) and then put it on the TacoMoto dyno in Las Vegas. They saw 54 horsepower.

We put four riders on the bike and everyone was impressed. They all said pretty much the same thing. Its strongest point is overall handling. It turns extremely well–pretty much like a KTM. It feels light and the ergos are comfortable. The Tiasko brakes were also excellent. Mid-range power was right in the hunt with anything in the 450 class. In fact, there were only two real complaints. First, the gearbox wasn’t right. First gear was too tall and the spacing was gappy for motocross. That’s not surprising considering that the transmission was made for a rally bike. The second issue was mapping. It was very rough below a quarter throttle, and that killed the low-end power. On the track, you could deal with it, but obviously this is an area that needs work.

Everything else was in the hunt. The new gearbox should be ready very soon and the mapping is still being sorted. They say the first production bikes will be in dealers this November with a price of $7699. We can’t wait!

Source: DIRT BIKE