Trail Rider Magazine

standing or sitting. The body work is neatly tucked away and does not snag boots or gear. Seat and peg height are about what you would expect with a riding position that angles slightly to the front. The forks provide 11.8 inches of travel while the shock provides 12.6 Out of the box, the fork was positioned about �� inch about the triple clamps, we lowered them down to about the second line on the WP forks and had no complaints. For the first part of the test, we headed down to South Jersey where we rode the bike along side of the new Husaberg 350. The obvious first impression that the Sherco makes is how light and nimble it feels. There are 2 strokes out there that cannot hold a candle to the 4 stroke Sherco in terms of weight and agility. After a day riding the Sherco, it was easy to conclude that it is the lightest, quickest handling 4-stroke we���ve tested to date. What���s more impressive is how planted the bike feels along the trail and how stable it is at speed. After riding the Sherco for most of the day in typical single track, we ran it through a few long stretches of tight trees. With its natural agility and an impressive bottom end, I had no trouble slinking through the tight stuff. It was almost fun. Almost. The six speed transmission shifts smoothly, is well spaced, and worked well in each setting. What about the 300cc displacement? In some ways its about what you expect, more grunt off the bottom than a 250f but less than the new 350���s. The Sherco has a heavy flywheel feel right off the bottom before transitioning back into a 21st century, fuel injected four stroke through the mid range and into the top end, where it has longer legs than you would expect. Despite technically being a ���big bore,��� the Sherco needs to be wrung out when the terrain opens up. While you may not win a corner to corner race against a hopped up Japanese Lites Class MX���er, you just may win it in the corners as the Sherco slices through the corners better than most bikes, 2 and 4 strokes alike. This is not to suggest that the Sherco is slow, it is not - it just has a smoother power delivery, courtesy of its Enduro lineage. If you are the type of rider that can carry momentum, you will be well served by the Sherco as you can carry an extra gear when cruising. We will try to get a hold of an EFI tuner and see what we can find for different settings. The engine is quiet, if not a bit corked-up courtesy of a heavy exhaust. We removed the exhaust insert and managed to find a little more power. However, I would opt to leave it in as the additional noise wasn���t worth it. Once things get balanced out in the suspension department, and it didn���t take long, the Sherco excels in the corners. It holds a line and tracks cleanly though ruts with the best of them. As we mentioned earlier, the upright, on the pegs turning characteristics are equally sharp, slinking through the stick farms with ease. We also never had any issues with the Sherco spitting coolant into the over flow tank, which is located along the left side of the bike, tucked neatly under the fender. The WP suspension is something that I like and am familiar with. It was also very compliant. The forks were plush with a smooth progression through the stroke, both front and rear. The suspension soaked up the choppy Jersey single track and only complained when trying to hammer through whoops. The back shock is mounted to linkage and soaked up the trail junk, providing slightly more bottoming resistance than the forks. Overall, the suspension was another high point. As we alluded to earlier, the overall handling is excellent; light and agile yet rooted to the ground. The Sherco will slink through tight trees, crawl over bedrock and chug through rock gardens. The bike doesn���t do anything unexpected and is remarkably well behaved. So what���s not to like? You need to remove the fuel tank to adjust the sag. It also doesn���t come with a kick starter. Throttle jockeys may be put off by the enduro lineage. However, we really want to see what an aftermarket exhaust and more aggressive ignition curve will do for it. Overall the Sherco 300 surprised us, in a good way. We are looking forward to running it through some more New England terrain where we suspect it will really excel. More testing to follow. The EFI is clean and crisp and meters fuel perfectly. There were no cracks or pops while decelerating and no flame outs when hot. The EFI is also tunable. 16 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com

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