Exciting news just hit the rally raid world with the announcement that Skyler Howes will ride for Spain's Joyride Race Service, which is ZXMoto's factory race team. To put that into perspective, Howes threatened to win the Dakar in 2026, and ZXMoto has never even competed in the Dakar, much less shown that it's deserving of such a talented pilot.
ZXMoto was founded by Zhang Xue back in 2024, and if his name sounds familiar, that's because he also founded Kove in 2017. Xue brought Kove to the Dakar, and just the fact that all three riders finished what's arguably the most difficult rally of all time was considered a huge win; since then, the best place a rider has finished aboard a Kove is 15th. So, I have to imagine Xue has Kove firmly in his sights as the brand to beat.
Whether beating Kove's 450 Rally is possible is hard to know, because we know almost nothing about the offering from ZXMoto. All we know for sure is that the platform will run a 449cc engine that pumps out 60 hp and weighs 128 kg (282 lbs), although those figures are for the road-legal version. Pairing this relative unknown with Howes raises eyebrows. He's a rider in his prime and seemingly improving, with his most successful Dakar run in 2026, when he took 3rd place after leading six stages.
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In many ways, this feels like a repeat attempt of what Xue tried with Kove in 2023, but entirely different at the same time. ZXMoto has far more elite riders in Howes and Tobias Ebster, who's an established rally raid rider in his own right, finishing first in the Original by Motul in his 2024 Dakar Debut. Kove made its debut with three relatively unknown Chinese riders, and just having all three bikes finish was a success.
When Kove finished with all three bikes, it proved its platform was legit—the one that had already been on sale for a year. On the flip side, ZXMoto doesn't have a rally bike on sale, and we know relatively little about what it's bringing to Dakar.
There are similarities, and aspects are totally different, but the one absolute commanality line is Xue. Can ZXMoto's founder take what he learned leading Kove to its first Dakar, and use it to help his new company beat his old one? ZXMoto will compete at the Rallye du Maroc on September 28-October 3, which is essentially the 450 Rally's first proper shakedown and race.
