If you've never heard of Kove Motorcycles, a company established in Lhasa, Tibet, you’re probably not alone. Recent developments suggest that it may soon hit the global market. According to a report from Cycle World, the brand name "Kove Hyper" has been registered as a trademark in Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Mongolia, and the good old US of A.
This hints at the brand's aspirations of achieving world domination, or at least a presence in the international market, as its other fellow Chinese manufacturers have achieved. Brands like CFMoto and QJ Motor have stepped up their game by introducing their models in Europe and other parts of Asia. In fact, CFMoto has already set foot into the U.S. market, with a small selection of models set to launch soon.
In the past, Kove, also known as Colove or Tibet Summit Colove Motorcycle Sales in its native market of China, has created motorcycle designs that are startlingly similar to those of other manufacturers, particularly those from Japan and Europe. Furthermore, some of its bikes, like the 321RR, have what appears to be a Yamaha R3 engine reverse-engineered into it, while the Colove 500X is said to be an exact replica of a Honda CB500X engine.
Tibet New Everest Industrial Group's Colove is a business that was established in 1995. The company produces medium and large displacement bikes, commuter motorcycles, three-wheelers, and electric vehicles at facilities in Chongqing, Taizhou Zhejiang, Jiangmen Guangdong, Chengdu, Yanshi Henan, Xinhua Henan, Renqiu Hebei, and Linyi Shandong. Yes, this seemingly obscure Chinese manufacturer is actually quite large, pretty surprising, if you ask me.
The latest news from Kove, apart from its intentions to hit the global market, are rumors of a new 400cc four-cylinder engine with a stated redline of 16,000 rpm and a peak power of 72.4 horsepower at 13,500 rpm. This could hint at the company developing its own engine in-house, as no mainstream manufacturer is currently offering a four cylinder engine in these proportions. That said, the mill could bear similarities with Kawasaki’s quarter-liter inline-four in the ZX-25R, or Honda’s now-discontinued 400cc engine found in the CB400 Super Four.
Furthermore, similar to the engine featured in the KTM 790 series, Kove has also displayed drawings for an 800cc parallel-twin. The actual 790 LC8 parallel-twin engine is now being produced in China for KTM by CFMoto, and is installed in the CFMoto 800MT adventure-tourer. As such, it's likely that acquiring the designs for this engine are within the capability of a company like Kove. The question is simply whether they'll officially license it or just copy it, like they supposedly did with other popular engine configurations.
