Ok I watched his video. He even ranks the Kove off road below the Honda CRF450 which in turn is destroyed by a KTM 500. The Kove is an off-road only bike at this point.
The Kove Rally is 368 lbs and has 51 HP. It needs Ozempic.
The 500/501 is 243/250lbs and has about 40 HP corked and 58 HP uncorked.
And yet the Kove runs away and hides from the KTM500exc in the video on the street.
p
I'm not sure why you keep comparing Enduro weights to Rally weights? These are different motorcycles. Even KTMs six figure, Dakar winning rally bike weighs more than a stock KTM 500. I'm starting to think you don't really know Rally?
And I think you're misunderstanding something. Both bikes weigh 320lb. The extra 48lbs you see is when they reference the wet weight with 8 gallons of fuel...Which is 368lbs.
And that 320 lbs dry is excellent...right there with the KTM 450 Rally Replica. They BOTH have heavy curb weight because they hold 8+ gallons of fuel! So with 8 gallons of fuel, 368lbs. The KTM fully laden is 362lbs. And the "unicorn" AJP PR7 is 364lbs. Mighty impressive!
You certainly can build a Rally from the 500 EXC. I've explored it at length. It's $14.5k for the bike and $2000+ for the tower/fairing that I'd use (Rade Engineering). Then un-corking. Then making it more comfortable for the street. Then getting bigger fuel tank. And the list goes on and on. So yea, it's totally doable. How big is your wallet?
KTM did it too...and charges $28k US for it!
I'm totally satisfied with $12k for the Kove. Impressed even.
FWIW, Mike Johnson 4th in class Sonora rally. Then went to the NORRA 1000. 2nd. Really digging the passion of the founder of Kove for racing.
Love it!
This may have been the first article I read (apart from all the speculation threads at Advrider)
https://www.advpulse.com/adv-news/kove-450r-rally-review/#:~:text=With%20only%205%20years%20in,FIM%20World%20Supersport%20300%20Championship.