Trail Rider Magazine

Long Term relationship: gasgas xc 300 I t has been almost six months since we did our initial report on the 2013 GasGas XC 300. I got the bike from Motoadventure of Loveland, Colorado and as of today, have compiled about 50 hours on it. Within that 50 hours is the varied terrain that constitutes the Rocky Mountain Enduro Circuit; the open plains of Texas, the desert of New Mexico and western Colorado and the twisty, whooped out single track of PPIR in Colorado. Most recently, I've spent some time running the GasGas through the high country single track of the Rocky Mountains. So, safe to say the data pool is fairly comprehensive. If you remember, the first thing we did was ditch the stock springs. This was because I need firmer springs as the stock set is best suited for some emaciated, pencil-neck Euro. It's important to note that the valving is much improved from the previous year. Last year, the soft springs coupled with ultra plush valving would cause the suspension to violently bottom out - when it wasn't deflecting from the quick transition into the harsher portion of the stroke. As improved as the suspension is, it's still best suited for the eastern single track. For the suspension work we went with Enduro Spec out of Englewood, Colorado. Warren Healey (Owner) has been gaining notoriety with his new revalve & chasis tuning company. He is also helping out the Dirtwise/Shane Watts team rider Jason Thomas. Jason currently sits in 1st in the XC-2 class. Here is what Warren had to say about the suspension changes: "We found the GasGas platform to be narrowly scoped. This is a good thing if you only ride tight, technical areas, but to really unleash the potential of the bike and make it versatile enough to tackle a range of terrain, it needed a little massaging. Because we are a huge fan of MX-Tech and their Speed Sensitive Bottoming Control (Huck Valves are in most Enduro Spec Race bikes) system for closed chamber forks, a quick call to the owner Jeremy Wilkey was in order. We knew that he did not yet have a Huck Valve for the Marzocci fork but we did know that he in fact runs this exact same fork on his Honda CRF450r test mule. After a few emails and calls he agreed to make two prototypes, one for Enduro Spec and one for his personal bike. We would test the off-road version andhe the Motocross version. This system allows more of the stroke to be utilized and to soften the "click" when you bottom. It is speed sensitive in nature, so it won't compromise the ride quality in slow technical situations. This allows the bike to be valved soft enough to soak up the chop and rocks but with the Huck Valves laying in wait for the big hits. It's a win-win situation because The "Huck Valve System" is pictured to the left. we don't need to run a crazy stiff compression 30 Trail Rider shim stack. We then sprung the bike correctly, installed the Hucks, revalved all the circuits and installed SKF Low Friction Fork Seals. The Ohlins shock is tried and true for off-road and only needed a new spring, re-valving to match the rider and installation of a MXT Low Friction Piston Conversion Kit. Testing revealed exactly what we had hoped. That we could make this bike work in a variety of terrain: soft enough for demanding single-track and the versatility to be used in faster hare scramble type terrain without fear of overriding the bike. This was important because the bike is used across three different race series and disciplines". Once we got the suspension squared away we swapped out the radiators. The stock radiators are thin and leaked from just the bikes vibration, which was something we experienced last year and didn't want to deal with it again this year. We went with the Mylers because they are thicker, more durable and lighter than the stock set up even when accompanied by radiator braces. These things are super stout and you really don't need additional protection. They also hold more volume which kept the bike from overheating in the deep sand races. We then played around a bit with the exhaust system. We initially swapped the stock set up for a Scalvini expansion chamber and muffler. This Scalvini system provided significant gains through the mid range but at the expense of the bottom end. What we eventually ended up with was the stock expansion chamber fitted to the carbon fiber Scalvini muffler. This maintained a strong bottom end and provided significantly more pull up top. It also shaved about 2 pounds of weight from the exhaust system! Aside from the aforementioned modifications, the bike is largely stock, aside from the steering damper. In fact, I am still running the stock drive train and will probably get 2 more races out of it. If there is one area that I felt disadvantaged on the bike it was the high speed desert races. The GasGas is more of a twisty single track, technical terrain specialist. While quite capable in most settings, asking it to be an effective desert racer may be a stretch. Overall the GasGas will make a large number of off road riders happy right out of the box. It's when the emphasis shifts from traditional woods riding to high speed terrain that necessitates some modifications. www.TrailRider.com

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