Ohvale announced the GP-5 in late August, and the interesting thing about it is not the bike. It is the hole it was built to fill.
Anyone whose kid has spent a couple of seasons on 12-inch wheels knows the shape of the problem. The GP-2 190 teaches respect for the throttle. And then the ladder runs out, and the next rung is a full-size machine on 17-inch wheels — a bike that is taller, heavier, faster and a completely different animal to load into a trailer, let alone to ride. That is a big step to ask a young teenager to take in one go.
What it actually is
The GP-5 is a 250 on 15-inch wheels, and Ohvale has been plain about where it sits: between the GP-2 and the GP-7, to make the move to full-size wheels “more natural and progressive.”
There are two engine options. The one in these photos is the Honda CRF250R unit — 249.4 cc, liquid-cooled DOHC four-valve single, 44 mm throttle body, five-speed, electric start, with an upshift quickshifter standard and a cable-operated wet clutch. The alternative is a ZS RR250 at 249.8 cc with a 46 mm Dell’Orto throttle body and a hydraulic clutch. Both can be ordered with a racing or a restricted ECU.
The rest reads like a small Moto3 bike rather than a scaled-up pit bike. Aluminium perimeter frame, Ohvale’s own aluminium swingarm and wheels, 35 mm fully adjustable upside-down forks, a linkage monoshock with an Öhlins TTX on the options list. The brakes are a proper Brembo system — twin 240 mm front discs, GP4-Mini radial four-piston calipers, a 15 RCS radial master cylinder, 190 mm at the back. Pirelli has made dedicated 100/70 R15 and 120/70 R15 tyres for it, in slick and wet.
Ohvale has not published a weight, a seat height or a power figure. Those are the three numbers a parent actually wants, and all three are missing.
Where it races, and where it does not yet
European pricing has been quoted at €8,500 plus tax, with European availability from October. What I cannot tell you is where it races in Canada, because as far as I can find, it does not race here yet. Our classes are built around the 160 and the 190. A 250 on 15s is not a bigger version of those — it is a different category that would need to exist first, and neither MiniSBK nor FIM MotoMini Canada has said anything about it. I am not going to guess what they will do with it; a guess dressed up as news is worth nothing to anyone deciding how to spend a season’s budget.
Why I am watching it anyway
Because the gap is real, and I have watched families hit it. The kids who come off the small wheels are not short of skill. What they are short of is a machine that lets them add speed and size in two steps instead of one, and the small bikes force precision before they allow power. A 250 on 15s, with a real Brembo front end and adjustable suspension, is the first thing I have seen that is built for that specific handoff rather than adapted to it. Whether it ever turns a lap at Shannonville is a separate question, and one I will write about when there is an actual answer rather than a hope.
