Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1519754
May 2024 17 We were si ng around talking about how explo- sive the Pro was and how it was fun to get it on the pipe, but that it would wear most of us out in short order. Kevin started to adjust the power valve to see what effect that would have when we suddenly remembered "Hey, this thing has a mapping switch." A couple of the test riders have other brand two strokes with mapping switches and said they can't hardly tell a difference be- tween the sun and rain se ngs. The four-stroke guys said their mapping switches did work well, but we had our doubts about the two-stroker. Well, Rieju has hit it out of the park with the mapping on their 300. We switched to the rain se ng and the bike immediately became more rideable for the majority of us. There was s ll plenty of snap, but the abruptness went away. All of us felt much more comfortable hi ng corners and accelera ng through chop. Gone was the fear of grabbing a hint too much thro le and launch- ing yourself someplace you didn't want to go. The rain se ng became our go-to in the ght and twisty stuff, but the sun se ng was just a thumb flick away when we got out onto the dirt perime- ter road and wanted to let her rip. That mapping switch is going to be a huge hit with the weekend racers. On the stuff I do in Texas, a mix of ght single track and open grass track, hi ng that sun se ng when you pop out of the woods would be a hoot! The Ranger, as expected, was milder, mellower, and more plush than the Pro. Our shorter testers had to really swing a leg up and over the Pro, whereas the Ranger was much easier to mount. Once on board, you could touch the ground with ease due to the shorter seat and the fact that the suspension wasn't riding at the top of the stroke like the Pro. Our test riders immediately felt more comfortable hi ng the corners as the bike squa ed a bit and se led in. You were a bit closer to the ground if you needed to put a foot out and the suspension tracked nicely through the few whooped sec ons of trail we had. The Ranger felt much more manage- able in the ght stuff, too, simply because it was so predictable. A couple of our testers remarked about how quickly the bike became comfortable to them. No having to adapt to this or that or think about how the bike might react in certain situa ons. They just hopped on, rode, and had fun with no "rider break-in" me required.