After a 1 year sabbatical, I am finally back on a Gasser. This time it's a 2015 300 that my good friend Rod helped me locate. Saturday was my first chance to give it a shakedown and man am I impressed. I had a 2011 300 and a 2005 300 previous so I a pretty familiar to the brand and thought I knew what to expect out of the 15. Man was I wrong, this is a whole different bike than anything GasGas has produced before.
First up are the ergos, the bike has a very narrow feel and the cockpit is nice and roomy. The factory bars are a little low for my liking but, I typically run a pretty tall bar to accommodate my Neanderthal qualities. My only complaint in this department would be the seat, I like the shape but man it's hard.
The engine characteristics are just unreal. It has the famed GasGas low end power that prompts you to see just how low you can get the RPM's before it finally dies. Once you get into the mid and top end is where these newer engines differ from the older bikes. They flat out RIP!! Even with a plugged up Q-stealth silencer on it I believe this bike revs higher and pulls harder than my 11' would even with a House of HP pipe and silencer. The power valve adjustment is a really nice feature too. When I first took off I noticed the bike was really "peaky" and lacked bottom end, so I checked the power valve adjustment and it was backed all the way out, I ended up settling at 2 turns out which seemed to give the best spread of power. Overall the engine is just amazing and has really been refined over the years.
The suspension is very plush compared to my 11'. It was the "race" model so it had marzocchi up front and Ohlins shock. I always just felt like it was unbalanced from from to rear in stock form. The forks were a little soft and the shock was just so harsh. The new bike has a very balanced feel and is super plush through the travel. The bike is a little under sprung for me so I can't give too much insight into the suspension but, I really think the stock valving may suit me just fine once I get it sprung. One thing I did notice was an odd "clunk" sound when the forks would top out off of a jump?
This bike is a billy goat. The tighter and slower it gets the better the bike performs. We were riding old deer trails that run across these super steep ridges and it made me feel like a hero to run off and leave my buddies scratching their heads trying to figure out how I got through there so fast. We were also doing some really long, steep, technical, hill climbs that required a lot of clutch work to get up them and never once did it make any noise or do anything silly. Just super smooth and easy to modulate.
Overall I am just blown away with how good this bike is and I am so excited to be back on a GasGas. With a few tweaks to the setup and a softer seat, I believe I will have found the perfect dirt bike!
Huge thanks to Rod for helping me find the bike and then coming up to help me go through it and get the setup done!
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