Colove 321RR Details Emerge Ahead of Its Release

Admin · September 16, 2021

Colove’s 321RR model is scheduled to be introduced this week at the CIMAMotor Show in China. (Colove/)

Later this week Colove (also presented as “Kove”) will officially unveil its 321RR sportbike—a twin-cylinder machine with impressive specifications and undeniably attractive styling—as the company joins the growing ranks of Chinese brands that have a range of convincing-looking machines. Although not due to be officially shown until China’s CIMAMotor trade show opens its doors on Friday (September 17), details of the 321RR have emerged thanks to the country’s type-approval process, and in response the brand has released images of its own.

There’s no denying the fact it’s an impressive-looking bike. Whereas Chinese machines used to be awkwardly proportioned, with heavy-handed styling, or direct copies of existing Japanese or Western models, the Colove 321RR is notable for its clean, uncluttered appearance. A razor-edged nose leads into a crisply folded set of body panels with coherent lines flowing all the way from the front to the tapering tail. If there was a famous Italian brand name on the flanks instead of an unknown Chinese one, the plaudits would be flowing freely.

Styling and spec-wise, the bike looks impressive, with a unified design, solid components, and appropriate power claims. (Colove/)

The technical specifications don’t let the side down either. The 322cc parallel-twin engine is rated at 29kW (39 bhp) at 10,500 rpm and 28.5Nm (21 pound-feet) of torque at 9,000 rpm, and is already used in the firm’s similarly spec’d naked bike, the 321NK. The NK also donates its tubular steel trellis frame, upside-down fork, Nissin brakes, and cast alloy single-sided swingarm.

While a lot of Chinese bikes are far heavier than their more sophisticated Japanese equivalents, that’s not the case here; the 321RR is rated at 151 kilograms (333 pounds) ready to ride, just 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) more than the unfaired NK model. In comparison, a Yamaha R3 comes in at 170 kilograms (375 pounds).

Related: China’s Big-Bike Revolution

However, it’s when you dig a little deeper that even more striking similarities to the R3 emerge. The engine’s 322cc capacity is within a whisker of the Yamaha’s 321cc, for a start, thanks to near-identical bore and stroke figures—68mm x 44.2mm for the Colove, 68mm x 44.1mm for the Yamaha. In terms of power and torque, there’s barely a cigarette paper between them. The Yamaha has a slight edge with 30.9kW (41.4 bhp) and 28.8Nm (21.2 pound-feet), but the difference isn’t much more than you might get in a rounding error.

A deeper dive into the engine reveals it has much in common with Yamaha’s R3, though Colove is named as the engine maker. (Colove/)

Looking at the Colove’s engine, it becomes clear that the similarities with the Yamaha go beyond the dimensions. The castings and the layout of components are similar, but not identical. And digging through the firm’s other models, it’s something of a trend; Colove’s 471cc 500F retro and 500X adventure models use an engine that’s very like Honda’s CB500 twin, with the same bore and stroke, and earlier this year the company unveiled an 800cc parallel-twin engine destined for a range of future models that borrows its layout and internal dimensions from KTM’s 799cc LC8c 790 engine.

It’s not clear whether the company has arrangements with the firms that developed the original engines, whether the intellectual property is simply free enough to be copied, or if Colove has made enough changes to the designs to label them its own, yet the Chinese type-approval document clearly marks the 321RR’s engine as being made by Colove itself rather than bought in from another supplier.