Leaked Chinese type-approval documents show Kove’s new 660X midweight adventurer will be lighter and more powerful than the existing 625X
Kove is another of the fast-growing motorcycle brands from China’s rapidly expanding motorcycle industry and already offers several models in Australia. The next could be this: the 660X.
Leaked in new type-approval documents from China, the 660X is a successor to the existing Kove 625X, a parallel twin adventure bike that itself only recently reached production and still hasn’t even appeared on most of Kove’s export markets. As the name suggests, the big change is an increased capacity, but not quite in the way that you might expect.
Oddly, the existing 625X doesn’t have a 625cc engine. Instead it’s powered by a 581cc twin making 46kW at 8500rpm. And despite its name, the new 660X isn’t 660cc: it measures in at 626cc thanks to a 2mm increase in the bore, up from 76mm to 78mm.
Power rises, of course, although only to 49kW so it’s not a night-and-day change from the 625X, and both the chassis and the styling are unaltered. Including luggage, the bike’s weight is listed at 236kg, which is 3kg less than the claimed figure for the 625X with the same side and top cases fitted.
It appears this is another instance of the different approach taken by Chinese manufacturers when compared to the western and Japanese brands we’re more familiar with. While those companies normally wait for a new model year to introduce specification changes, in China it’s much more common for products – not just motorcycles – to be updated in a more rapid, less structured way. Spec changes can appear unheralded mid-year, and improvements are often applied as soon as feasible rather than delayed until a flashy launch presentation can be made. Given the speed with which Chinese motorcycles are improving, it’s an approach that seems to be working.
