2014 Gas Gas EC300R

[n_green]

Hmm

So I started it up for the first time today, got it warm and rode it round the yard a few times then played with the air screw. With 40p, NECJ#3, 172m it seems lean off the bottom. I only played with the idle circuit but whilst it had a reasonable idle, if anything a bit low, I had to come in to 5/8 turn out on the air screw to get a decent response when cracking the throttle. Over 1.5 turns and it lean bogged when cracking the throttle, although it settled back down and didn't race on the idle so not the classical lean symptoms.
Closing the AS altogether it took a while to stall,
It also seems to run a bit better with the choke opened.
It was its first heat cycle so I didn't crack the throttle too much or play for long. But it appears that the settings seemingly working well for Simmo on his '13 are lean for my '14. We are both in the same location, same sea level etc.

As I understand it the '13 and '14 use the same cylinder, but the '14 uses different cases and vforce 4 reed valve not vforce 3. I wonder if this causes different jetting requirements?

[Jakobi]

The ktm site should highlight any differences in reeds. The carb will have a leak jet now too (which your old bike didnt have), and you've got big squish which can cause all kinds of strange behaviour in that idle efficiency area. Throw a 42 in and go break her in

[Simmo737]

Originally Posted by n_green

Hmm

So I started it up for the first time today, got it warm and rode it round the yard a few times then played with the air screw. With 40p, NECJ#3, 172m it seems lean off the bottom. I only played with the idle circuit but whilst it had a reasonable idle, if anything a bit low, I had to come in to 5/8 turn out on the air screw to get a decent response when cracking the throttle. Over 1.5 turns and it lean bogged when cracking the throttle, although it settled back down and didn't race on the idle so not the classical lean symptoms.
Closing the AS altogether it took a while to stall,
It also seems to run a bit better with the choke opened.
It was its first heat cycle so I didn't crack the throttle too much or play for long. But it appears that the settings seemingly working well for Simmo on his '13 are lean for my '14. We are both in the same location, same sea level etc.

As I understand it the '13 and '14 use the same cylinder, but the '14 uses different cases and vforce 4 reed valve not vforce 3. I wonder if this causes different jetting requirements?

It's got a new head as well, the uk mags comment on the stock jetting being crisp, never head that from a pundit about a gasser before.

[n_green]

Originally Posted by Simmo737

It's got a new head as well, the uk mags comment on the stock jetting being crisp, never head that from a pundit about a gasser before.

Interesting. I didn't even start it up with the stock jetting.

Got some reading to do now, I can't see the reeds making much of a difference, more then likely the cases/head are to blame.

I also have to read up on this leak jet thingy and figure out what it does.

One day I'll be able to simply copy other peoples jetting specs

[n_green]

Took it out for its maiden voyage today. Its had a few heat cycles in the backyard so today was the day to test everything out. 60 k's of a local rock garden, not a skerrick of loam in sight; clay, sand, boulders and rock shelf/ledges were the order of the day. Most of it 2nd gear, some 3rd and 4th gear but never above that.

In general:
I like this bike, it looks sexy The build quality is well above what it was for my '11. They've actually thought about things like fastener commonality etc.
Having said that, I still need to carry a torx bit for the kickstarter and the fork protectors and a 17mm spanner which is only for the float bowl drain (it was a 14mm on the 36mm carb) so I could save an additional 50 grams of weight out of the tool roll yet

It sits nice and high, I'm pleased to say that not once today did my feet get dragged off the pegs going through ruts, and it rarely bottomed on the bash plate over typical 30cm trees/rocks etc.

The riding position is great, this bike really seems to reward standing up and whats more the ergos are perfect for me (6'3") to do so comfortable for long periods. Getting forward over the bars is far easier then on the '11.

Sitting I struggled with a bit, as the day wore on and I got lazy and tired I became aware of just how hard the seat is, not really a big deal as I shouldn't have been sitting anyway. Where I struggled though was going through corners sitting down, I found it difficult to get far enough forward on the tank to weight the front wheel and get it to turn in, cranking the bike right over my knees and elbows started crowding the cockpit too. A tall seat will most likely be a future addition for me. Having said that there were other issues at play preventing the bike turning. See below.

Nitpicking:
The side stand spring is ridiculous, even after modding the mounting with a hammer to prevent it auto retracting (thanks for the tip simmo) it still flicks up at the speed of light at the slightest touch.
The same side stand spring sticks out a tad and rubs my left boot when standing, hasn't got in the way yet, but I have noticed it.
The side stand bolt came loose twice, trackside locktite didn't work so I'll do it properly now I'm home.
The top shroud mount, as has been mentioned a lot, the grommets just don't hold, especially with the Force radiator guards pushing the shroud out even further. A longer lug or tighter grommet would be good.
The radiator shroud extensions that run back to the subframe are the perfect height for the top of my boots to catch on occasions.

The engine:

The e start worked flawlessly all day. From the factory they run a dedicated earth to it which is nice. By the end of the day it was starting to squeal a bit like it wasn't quite disengaging properly. I was meaning to convert it to wet mod anyway so I'll check all the clearances etc when I do that.

The engine is awesome. Super torquey and tractable as GG's are known for. It was a break in ride so I stayed away from WOT during this ride but I can tell from the few times it did come on the pipe its going to rip.

Jetting - the new bike definitely likes richer jetting then the '13's. I am not sure why, but it does. I'm still working on it, the bike is still rich off the bottom and far too burbly for my liking at 1/8 throttle, also loads up slightly.
Settled on 40p, N3EH #2, 178m. AS 1 turn out.
Used 7.1L for 62k's so not great.

Side note: What a pain to remove the carb cap, I was spoilt on the '11, the new frame making the carb top so difficult to access has me more determined then ever to get the jetting right and leave it alone.

Clutch: Same old it seems. I didn't get into any techy/clutch abusing moments today but the few times I stalled and needed to work the clutch to get traction and get going again got a few noises out of it. I'll be looking into that shortly.

Brakes: Are sensational. The front has good strong progressive bite and it was very easy to lock the wheel with one finger operation. The rear are also very very strong and made it a breeze to brake slide, which is something I could never do on the '11.

Suspension:

Hmm. A bit confused about this I am. First up let me say prior to even riding it I changed the 5.2 rear spring for a 6.0 and the stock forks (.44?) up to .50.
I get sags of 32mm static and 105 race sag on the rear with 9mm preload and 30mm static and 70mm race on the front with 0mm preload. I believe my fork springs are one rate too stiff and the sags tend to confirm this.

I found the bike didn't like to turn in unless I was standing and weighting the front wheel, this was made more obvious when sitting, the front wheel just wanted to push and not tuck in and turn. My thoughts on this is that the front isn't sitting low enough due to the stiff springs, that coupled with little rebound damping is causing the difficulty in turning.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the stock suspension. The shock is bloody good stock. I wound out a few clicks of LSC to get it to squat and grip a bit more as all it wanted to do was sit up and spin on the std clicker setting. HSC is a tad stiff, not bad at all and I probably won't go in and change it until I have to as I could live with it, but the stock HSC caused some minor kicks on square edged objects at speed, if there was a HSC clicker, I could probably adjust it out..... I wound a lot of rebound on, no idea what I'm at now, but it would be around 10 clicks out (std is 22) and I probably could have gone in a bit further still. This I expected given the new spring so its no surprise really.

The forks - today was like riding a pogo stick tethered to a jackhammer Ok they weren't that bad, but the lack of rebound damping on this fork is plain scary, again I've beefed up the springs a lot so I expected it, but wow its not fun on fast downhills with lots of rocks and drop offs. Settled on rebound at 6 out, at 5 out they started packing. Even at 6 out there is still far too much rebound, LSR causes the front to push wide and climb ruts all the time, HSR causes wheelies just from rebound and acceleration, which is fun, but not all the time
I was pretty happy with compression, where I rode beats the hell out of even the best suspension so I won't pass judgement on it based on todays ride but it seems very plush and compliant. I ended up winding the PFP right off to 0 turns, this made the forks even plusher and allowed them to sit down a bit to aid in turning. I hardly touched the compression clickers, I only bottomed them once on a big drop off where I punched the front wheel into a rock at an awkward angle, so I could come out a few more clicks yet. I didn't go quick enough to evaluate them at speed so that can wait for another ride.

Ive also picked up on a rattle coming from the bike somewhere that seems suspension related. I can only really here it when not on the throttle (i.e. rolling down a hill with a lot of rocks/roots/drop offs etc) when the suspension is working a lot, almost sounds like a marble rattling in a can. I'm thinking its the fork carts topping out and due to the poor bleed they are topping out quite hard. Sound right?

In summary -

First ride impressions are that this bike is awesome. Its already a better bike then my old '11 which I spent a lot of time and money getting sorted and once I find decent jetting and throw some rebound shims in the fork and shock it should be good to go

[Fred1956]

Originally Posted by n_green

I get sags of 32mm static and 105 race sag on the rear with 9mm preload and 30mm static and 70mm race on the front with 0mm preload.

Nice write up! Is the above quote a typo? You get more sag with more preload? Just checking...

[n_green]

Originally Posted by Fred1956

Nice write up! Is the above quote a typo? You get more sag with more preload? Just checking...

Nope not a typo. First sag numbers are for the shock, second numbers are the forks.
Just not very clear the way I wrote it.

[Fred1956]

Originally Posted by n_green

Nope not a typo. First sag numbers are for the shock, second numbers are the forks.
Just not very clear the way I wrote it.

Gotcha! Thanks again for the write up

[Jakobi]

Hey Bunyip! Good ride report..

Love the feedback on the Reiger! Wish the Ohlins 888 was the same. Stock is not bad, but has some room for improvement!

The chasis! Forget your previous concepts of sag. The new chasis needs to be set up to turn. I run the forks at the first marking (top of the tube), and 98mm race sag. Sitting on the 2013 feels worlds taller and much firmer in comparison to my 2010 which so plushly squats down to 105mm. Don't fear that the bike will become unstable - it'll be perfect!

The forks - deserve a thread of their own, but in saying that once you get the rebound under control you'll be able to run them up in the stroke a bit more and still get the bike turning on a dime.

[n_green]

Originally Posted by Jakobi

The chasis! Forget your previous concepts of sag. The new chasis needs to be set up to turn. I run the forks at the first marking (top of the tube), and 98mm race sag. Sitting on the 2013 feels worlds taller and much firmer in comparison to my 2010 which so plushly squats down to 105mm. Don't fear that the bike will become unstable - it'll be perfect!

The forks - deserve a thread of their own, but in saying that once you get the rebound under control you'll be able to run them up in the stroke a bit more and still get the bike turning on a dime.

Regarding the sag, as it is at the moment I have 32mm static, 105mm race and thats achieved on the 6.0 spring with 9 ish mm of preload. Winding more preload on to achieve a lower race sag will come at the expense of static sag and possibly turn a reasonably plush rear end into a not so plush rear end.

Im considering upping the rear spring rate to a 6.2 or even 6.4 which should allow me to get the 95-100mm of race sag with 35mm of static and less then 9mm preload. It should also even up the balance of the bike, which isn't great at the moment due to the .50 fork springs.

Either way I have to buy new springs, whether it be lighter fork springs or a heavier shock spring. And in all likelihood my weight won't be going down anytime soon, its remained between 92-95kg for the past 13 years, and I'm pretty fit, so I doubt I'm going to get lighter anytime soon.

Opinions?