124 hp and 162 mph! Kove's new track monster 650RR launches for just $5,060

Kove has launched the 650RR standard edition at a unified retail price of 33,977 yuan (about $5,060), with the standard and limited Founder editions priced the same, the latter capped at 777 units.

The bike carries a new self-developed 645cc four-cylinder engine weighing just 52 kg (about 115 pounds), making 124 metric horsepower (124 PS, about 122 hp) and 69 Nm (about 51 lb-ft) of torque, with a specific output of 192 PS per liter, a top speed of 260 km/h (about 162 mph) and a 0 to 100 km/h (about 0 to 62 mph) time of around 3.4 seconds.

The hardware includes an all-aluminum electroplated ceramic cylinder, DLC-coated piston pins, fractured connecting rods, a forged crankshaft and a BorgWarner timing chain, all aimed at cutting weight while holding high output.

The frame is built to WSBK racing standards with a high-strength twin-spar structure and bending stiffness above 8,000 Nm per degree, promising strong high-speed stability and cornering limits, with a 188 kg (about 414 pounds) curb weight.

The braking system works with the frame, suspension, a six-axis IMU and cornering ABS, and third-party test data shows 100 to 0 km/h braking in just 38.3 meters (about 126 feet) with no fade over 20 consecutive stops, plus a 200 to 0 km/h distance of 150 meters (about 492 feet), placing it in the top tier of sportbike braking.

A 124-horsepower four-cylinder superbike with a WSBK-grade frame for 33,977 yuan is the kind of price-performance math that keeps rewriting what Chinese sportbikes can offer, since a Japanese 600cc four-cylinder superbike typically costs two to three times as much, and once again Kove's pricing knife is aimed straight at the track.