EC300R and the 2009 Dirt Rider Torture Test.

[Berkyboy]

Just finished up participating in the 2009 Dirt Rider magazine torture test and I think GasGas can hold its heads high. Twenty-three motorcycles competed for six future “in depth” feature magazine articles to be printed in future issues of the off-road motorcycle magazine.

Unfortunately our GasGas EC300”R”didn’t make the final cut but we did turn some heads with a specially prepared EC300 we put together with the help of RB-Designs (head and carb mod) and Powerband Racing (suspension).

All of the minors (GasGas, Beta, Husaberg and Husqvarna) failed to make the final cut as (no surprise here) the big 5 grabbed most of the attention, sans Suzuki and Kawasaki who also didn’t make the short list at the end of the day.

The metric used to determine who got an invitation to the “big dance” full length feature magazine articles was a series of off-road torture tests including an escargot test, extreme test, enduro test, acceleration test, supercross test (boo!) motocross test (double boo!!) to name a few. As predicted GasGas got high praises for its handling and power delivery in the “tight-stuff” but fell a little short in the MX style tests.

The routine for the day was your rider, we had Cory Graffunder from Canada flown in to ride our EC, would participate in a timed test and upon completing it he would immediately hand the bike over to a Dirt Rider test rider who would then run the same test. After the magazine test rider finished the test your test rider would take the bike to the next test.

Cory and the Gasser turned plenty of heads with very respectable times in the escargot, extreme and acceleration tests, not too bad when some of the other test bikes where being ridden by guys like Jason Raines, Randy Hawkins, Barry Hawk, Ty Davis, Destry Abbott, Ricky Dietrich and Ryan Hughs.

GasGas took top two-stroke honors in the 1/8th mile up hill acceleration test where the 300 easily left ‘em all dust. Officially Dirt Rider will post test times sometime next week on www.dirtrider.com.

Our bike weighed in at 250 lbs completely full of fuel with LTR power valve cover, in-line radiator hose intercoolers, rear brake reservoir cooler, Galfer wave rotors, o-ring chain, OEM hand guards, Enduro Engineering tall seat (Cory is 6’4” tall), FMF pipe and the new FMF Stealth spark arrestor (this thing is incredible efficient at dampening sound.) The bike had no working headlight (only the shell) and no drop down or taillight.

Feedback from Cory, he normally rides KTMs and specializes in extreme riding including enduro cross, Erzberg Rodeo, Roamaniacs and Last Man Standing, was the bike felt and handled very predictable, (like we didn’t already know that) and the power delivery was sweet for technical riding and all he needed for a little extra boost was a flick of the dual map ignition switch.

Mid-day, after the team’s test riders and the magazine test riders were finished with the timed test all of the bikes were turned over to Dirt Rider where they re-evaluated each bike in a “closed to the public” special evaluation session with more “torture tests.”

Feed back from Jimmy Lewis and other test riders was the GasGas pulled very hard and the complete package (moto, suspension and chassis) shined in the technical stuff but fell a little short on the motocross tests. Lewis said that like most European models it’s a “love hate relationship with GasGas. You either love the way the bike handles or you find yourself struggling to adapt to its manners.”

Lewis said, “A lot of these bikes (that didn’t make it) did a lot of things well and it was hard to just pick six bikes but the test riders had to have a consensus on what bikes were the best all around.”

Our spirits where lifted a little as we where asked to help make some suspension adjustment after Dirt Rider took the bike for the closed evaluation session as we where told that four bikes, including the EC300, were in the running for the final sixth spot. Oh well better luck next year I guess.

One of the faults of the test was that when the bike is turned over to a Dirt Rider test rider the bikes set up is what was working for your rider. Cory is very tall and weighs 190 lbs where the range of Dirt Rider test riders ranged from short (5’7ish) to tall (6’plus) and range from150 lbs to 225 lbs.

Another fault of the testing procedure is there is no time to explain the special characteristics of your motorcycle to the next “in line” Dirt Rider test rider where I know the hi-lo ignition switch was thought to be a headlight switch as we continually had to tell test riders that they had the option of two different ignition maps and their response was usually something like, “oh, I didn’t even know I had a choice.”

The “by invitation only” 2009 Dirt Rider Torture Test was kind of a circus as Rynoland, located near Anza in southern California, was also opened to the public for the day and I would estimate 500+ spectators/riders showed up making it hard to chase around and support your rider and bike and/or interact with the Dirt Rider test riders as spectators crowded most test sights. To make things worse they opened Rynoland for public riding midway through the scheduled timed torture tests.

I would like to thank West Coast GasGas rep. Shane Scrimshire and his son Perrin for all of their help as we had to overcome some adversity as Shane’s toy hauler was damaged just a few days leading up to the test and was not available so we had to work out of U-haul with very few amenities.

Hats off also to Cory for turning some heads with his technical riding skills on the EC300. A special thanks to Jimmy Lewis and Dirt Rider magazine for the invitation to participate in this year’s torture test.

As a side note after Dirt Rider magazine took the EC300 away mid-afternoon Cory spent the rest of the day, actually he rode till sunset when he couldn’t see anymore, on a 2008 FSR450 where he quickly hailed praises for the bikes handling and power delivery. Cory said, “I would’ve loved to have a chance to do some of the test on the 450 as I know I could’ve improved some of my times.”