gasgas sherco demo rides

[canamfan]

I haven't posted much on here, because I don't own a gasgas. However I am interested in buying one. I saw where there was going to be a demo ride near gravette AR. about 150 miles away so I went last thursday. They had the 2014 sherco 300 and 290 xride 4 strokes and the sherco 250 2 stroke. gasgas was represented with the 2013 300 and 200 2 stroke models.
I'll give a little info on my background, I'm 55 and rode a little mx in the late 70's and 80's I started riding vintage on a can-am in the late 90's I rode vintage for a few years, then kind of took a break and rode my first hare-scramble in 2011 on a 83 can-am ase, soon after I bought a 200 kdx, and thought what a great machine this is. I rode the kdx in 2012, then picked up a ktm 300 exc I thought again what a great machine this is, quite a jump from the kdx. That brings me to the demo ride. I am just an average rider, ability wise, the wildcat ranch where the demo took place is typical south mo. nw ar terrrain. Some average sized hills, and the ground littered with baseball size rocks and tree roots. They had a 0ne mile loop setup. I jumped on the 200 gasgas first as I've always wanted to try one out. I really liked it, a lot of torque for a 200 with a much stronger mid-range hit then the kdx has, i don't know what the suspension settings were but it felt good to me. i know there's been some bad press on the 2013's but i liked it, a lot! Next up was the 300 gasgas, it felt alot like the 200 handling wise, noticeably heavier though, great torque, lots of power, similar to the ktm 300. I think it had a little more torque then the ktm 300 i have. overall a nice bike. I didn't care for the kickstands auto retract feature, and the electric starter on the 300 looks like an afterthought, although I was told it would be incorporated into the bottom of the engine cases for 2014. Now onto the shercos, first up was the 300 4 stroke. My first impression when i swung my leg over was wow this thing is tall.The videos I have seen of the frenchman riding that sherco up the rock ledges made it look small, so he must be a big guy. I'm 5' 10" and it seemed really tall to me. To be honest this is the first modern 4 stroke i've ridden, my only experience is with an old honda xr. The first thing I noticed was how quick the steering feels, kinda skatey feeling like it's gonna knife under on you. However it didn't. Then i realized when you left off the throttle, you get engine braking a lot more then the two stroke. It had good power but not what I'm used to. I didn't really like the motor, not knocking the sherco i'm just a 2 stroke guy. So i hopped on the 250 2 stroke sherco. It was tall like the other, from what I was told they share the same chassis, the 2 and 4 stroke bikes. It felt totally different nice power, took the rocks well, just an overall nice bike. I also rode the x-ride 290 which was a hoot, 34" seat height, conventional forks, trials type power and gearing. You can start out in 3rd or 4th. A fun bike to trail ride on, I purposely stopped at the bottom of the hills and it just climbed like a goat in 3rd gear.
Overall it was a great day, got to meet Clay, Fred the land owner, and Mark from gofasters. There all great guys and you can tell there interested in taking care of there customers.
It seems like the emphasis was on showcasing the shercos but for me the gasgas really shined. I can't wait to see what 2014 brings as I'm not quite ready to buy.