2020 Ohvale GP-0 190 first ride

That’s pronounced “oh-vahl-ay,” by the way. We might as well get that straight. An exotic, or at least Italian-sounding name, which is fitting. A cursory look at the components will tell you that it’s got a little more ambition in its DNA than your average mini bike, despite the tiny wheels and elementary school seat height. The engine is a 187 cc single, cranking out about 25 horsepower, mounted in a steel-tube trellis frame. Add to that some spicy little pieces like the radially mounted front-brake caliper squeezing a 180 mm rotor, custom fiberglass bodywork, and an upside-down fork. Even at a glance, it’s pretty trick stuff for what looks like a kid’s bike.

I dug a little deeper, trolling the translated-from-Italian brochure copy and spoke to Brandon Cretu, the Pennsylvanian with an illustrious racing career and a working plan to keep Ohvales flowing to North American shores. Predictably, a lot of the parts are made just for Ohvale — the brake calipers, for example, are made by Formula, the same company that makes components for mountain bikes, as well as Husqvarna and KTM minicross machines. Ohvale works directly with PMT to produce the tires, and suppliers local to northern Italy for the bodywork and suspension.

Plenty of work went on inside Ohvale’s brain trust, too. Before building the GP-0, the designers studied dimensions and ratios from full-size sport bikes, from sprocket positioning to triple-clamp offset. The team even went so far as to worry about ideal weight distribution, “judged on modern sportsbikes to be 53 percent at front and 47 percent at the rear.”

A swift kick through the starter and the one, air-cooled cylinder jumped to life with, I have to say, a pretty bellicose tenor for such a weensy machine. The 187 cc engine I rode is the top of the line (aside from the bored-out, no-holds-barred Limited Edition), with a four-valve head, an oil cooler, and an Arrow pipe pumping out that threatening bark. There are also 110 and 160 cc versions of the GP-0, the smallest of which being the bike that has helped Ohvale make its mark with roadracing youth across Europe. The smaller mills are made by Zongshen in China (the same company that makes CSC machines) while the 190 engine is made in Japan by Daytona.

Monkey, meet coconut

No word on the weight distribution once I plopped my 200 pounds in the saddle, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say "less than ideal.” The 27-inch seat feels low, but it’s not crazy — that’s the same height as some Harley Softails and a few inches lower than a Honda Grom. However, there’s practically no rise at all to the aggressive clip-ons and the seat-to-peg distance is about 15 inches (a couple inches less than an average sport bike). All of that definitely does make the bike feel small. Shame on anyone who is surprised by that.

Mercifully, for once in our motorcycling lives this track review will not cover ride modes, traction-control levels, ABS adjustments, or any other electronic mumbo jumbo. There’s none of that — just a kick-starter to get it running and a kill switch to shut it off. The rest relies on instinct. Or it would, if riding any other motorcycle could prepare you for this potent little rocket. I’m fortunate to ride many different machines, including on occasion very small ones. Even so, it was a massive adjustment to wrap my head around the Ohvale’s potential.

To throw some more numbers at you, consider the 10-inch wheels and 42-inch wheelbase. It’s a tidy package designed for tight corners, and to say it’s agile would be an absurd understatement. It changes direction like a housefly. It reminded me most of riding a CRF50 mini moto, the big difference being that a CRF50 has spindly suspension, woeful brakes, and only a few horsepower. This GP-0 has a proper front-brake caliper, a burly chassis, and enough power to wheelie over backwards if you’re not careful. Things happen fast. (My colleague Ari was on the track with me this day, riding his Suzuki RM85 supermoto bike, and even going from that small bike to the Ohvale was a huge screwball.)

After a few laps of adapting, I was finally getting out of my own way and stringing corners together, even if I felt like I had to do some sadistic yoga moves to get my foot to the shifter in a couple of turns. As I asked more and more of the bike it kept on delivering, and I quickly picked up what Ohvale is putting down. Usually, on small/mini bikes it’s easy to override the machine — that’s part of the fun — but here, not so much. From the tiny slick tires, to the upside-down fork, to the frame badged proudly “made in Italy,” the GP-0 stuck to the track. My only practical complaint about the bike is that the throttle response is abrupt from off to on, which made throttle pickup mid corner especially delicate.

Eventually, I went fast enough to get under the bike’s skin, in part because my weight clearly overwhelmed the shock on this test bike, set up for a rider about 60 pounds lighter. The brakes faded slightly, and the tires started to smear and slide under cornering loads. Crucially, when the Ohvale did misbehave it reminded me very much of the feelings I’ve had on a full size bike at the edge of control, and that gets back to the painstaking mantra of trying to create a small version of a real motorcycle. Whether it’s a kid racing around cones in a parking lot or a MotoGP racer training on a kart track, the point is to learn or hone the skills that apply to larger machines.

In other words, while adults can and do use an Ohvale for training, even fast ones like MotoGP rider Jack Miller, the original intent and biggest benefit is for kids. Pre-teen racers can learn skills on a bike that behaves in similar ways to the bigger and more powerful machines they will hopefully race later. There are Ohvale racing series for kids in Italy, where the bike originated, and the Mini Cup by Motul is a three-race series that took place at three MotoAmerica rounds this year where kart tracks are available at the larger race track complex. Kids not only get the thrill of racing, but they can also look over and see MotoAmerica pro Superbike racers hanging on the fence, watching, and usually saying something like, "I wish I'd had something like that when I was a kid."

What’s in a name?

This obviously isn’t a completely new concept. There have been, and will continue to be, small motorcycles built, modified, and ridden on go-kart tracks for the sake of training or just for having fun. I was especially curious to try the Ohvale GP-0 because it is the flavor of the week for professionals sparring on small courses when MotoAmerica, British and World Superbike, and MotoGP races aren’t happening. And even as an amateur racer, I’m charmed by a bike built with such purpose.

There’s also a price to pay for all of that engineering and “purpose.” The base price for the GP-0 190 is $6,900, which gets customers the made-in-Japan engine and slightly lengthened ergos for 2020. Pricing goes down over the course of a few tiers to the 110 cc automatic version, no clutch required, with a price tag of $4,700. It’s certainly pricier than getting a used mini moto machine and equipping it with slicks; at the same time it’s arguably the most sophisticated way to get started dragging a knee, at least on a kart-track level.

So, that brings us back to what it should be called, now that I’ve ridden it. It’s understandable that the company doesn’t want it seen as a pit bike — it’s not a toy, or a joke. It’s more a tool to tap into the world of riding a motorcycle quickly around a track without going a hundred miles per hour. What it should be called, I guess, is an Ohvale. Oh-vah-lay. We’ll get it eventually.

2020 Ohvale GP-0 190 EVO
Price (MSRP)	$6,899
Engine	187 cc, air-cooled, four-valve, single
Transmission, final drive	Four-speed, chain
Claimed horsepower	25 @ NA rpm
Claimed torque	NA
Frame	Steel-tube trellis
Front suspension	Ohvale 33 mm fork, adjustable for spring preload; 2.3 inches of travel
Rear suspension	Ohvale shock, adjustable for spring preload, compression and rebound damping; 3.5 inches of travel
Front brake	Formula four-piston caliper, 180 mm disc
Rear brake	Formula two-piston caliper, 150 mm disc
Rake, trail	NA
Wheelbase	~42 inches
Seat height	~27 inches
Fuel capacity	0.9 gallons
Tires	PMT, 100/85R10 front, 110/80R10 rear
Claimed weight	150 pounds
Available	Now
Warranty	NA
More info	risemoto.com