Back in March, we told you about the Excelle ZF450LS Rally, an off-the-shelf race bike you could buy—and made in China. This machine is now going to be available in the US through GPX Moto in 2023, under the name GPX Moto Kove FSE 450R Rally.
Kove is the actual brand name, then, and it’s just being sold through GPX dealerships (about 70 of those in North America, according to GPX’s website here). In case you don’t remember, we just saw another Kove-branded motorcycle recently, the 800X Super Adventure, brought to market billed as the best Chinese adventure bike ever made, and a spec sheet that would rival other machines from established manufacturers. Note, of course, that that spec sheet has not been verified by ADVrider testing or any other media outlet we’re aware of.
The FSE 450R Rally is, like that 800X, billed as a far different product from the Chinese motorcycles we’ve seen in the past. While some of those bikes were very reliable, none of them were performance machines. This new 450 is intended to race; it comes from the factory set up for rally raid. In the US market, it is not sold as street-legal.
The engine is a Zongshen-built 450 with DOHC top end that is exclusive to this bike. Of course you get EFI and a six-speed gearbox. Service intervals are set at 5,000-mile installments. There’s even a quick-access air filter, as you’d expect on a proper race machine.
There is also the interesting promise of fully-adjustable suspension and a Scott stabilizer, along with an 8-gallon fuel tank that is supposed to be good for 300 miles of riding. Front and rear brakes come from Nissin, with offroad ABS function.
Currently, MSRP is listed at $9,000 in the US and expected to be 9,200 euros overseas (where it will also be road-legal, it sounds like). You can’t put down a deposit yet, but you can request updates via email pre-order forms (no money will be accepted until full production is underway, says GPX). More details below and, there’s a long-running forum thread here. The GPX website listing is here, and—let’s just stop and think about how crazy this is. While it was theoretically possible to buy an over-the-counter KTM Rally Replica in years gone by, or a Yamaha 450 rally bike in the years that the European arm of the company offered those, none of those machines have ever been mass-produced and intended for Joe Public. If this machine is reliable and actually makes it to the market under $10K USD, it could change the face of privateer rally raid racing. Kove is running a factory team at Dakar this winter, and we are very interested in their results.
THE LONG-RANGE, LIGHTWEIGHT RALLY BIKE YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR IS ALMOST HERE!
INTRODUCING THE GPX MOTO KOVE FSE 450R RALLY FOR 2023
Tired of the same old same old heavy adventure motorcycles or lack of range from your standard dirt bike? You’ve been asking and now its time to deliver THE FSE 450R Rally! We have sourced quality components and parts from around the globe to bring you the FSE 450R Rally!
GPX Moto’s latest full-sized motorcycle, the FSE 450R Rally, is a competitive, lightweight, and long range rally bike. The FSE 450R Rally is the first ever mass produced “Dakar Rally” type motorcycle in the world. With a range of over 300 miles the FSE 450R Rally is ready to take you to the ends of the earth and back.
The engine is a tuned counterbalanced Zongshen 450 engine with a completely new top-end that is unseen elsewhere. This has been tested extensively.
Three years in the making, this is not a lookalike rally bike. It is the real deal and it is designed to be raced. The KOVE 450 Rally has a double overhead cam and when combined with mapping high performance exhaust and different manifolds, increases the performance. This engine revs, while simultaneously being very smooth and mechanically quiet.
The GPX FSE 450R Rally is designed to be raced. It’s a properly tuned, tried, and tested bike. It’s designed as something that you can use in the Dakar or other equivalent rallys. It’s very unusual for such a high spec machine to be released. This is not designed for gentle trail riding although it will no doubt do it very well. The engine and the whole bike have been in development for 3 years whilst tests have been ongoing. We’ve been waiting for this particular model for this amount of time , but find the delay to be reassuring.
These are a very niche and unique type of motorcycle and not for everyone. If you have been looking for the ultimate light-weight, long-range race adventure bike, the GPX Moto FSE 450R Rally IS your ride!
