Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Rlllln~ WE GiVE IIII-iE KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY MICHAEL DEMAREE AND TYLER MADDOX he Gas Gas guys have good tim- ing. I was pretty much packing my gearbag, getting ready to head down to Laughlin, Nevada, for the final round of the World Off-Road Championship Series when Matt Stavish, one of the representatives for the Spanish motorcycle company, called and said he was in town and wanted to know if I was interested in riding one of their new off-road models for a quick impression. Of course, I was, and it didn't take much coercing to get Stavish, a long-time National Enduro Series racer, to join me at Laughlin, where I could not only ride one of their bikes, but race it. (And so could he.) Considering the desert-like terrain at Laughlin, the deep sand and the high-speed layout, I chose the stouter XCO 300 over the 200 and 250cc Gas Gas models I had to choose from. I had little time to get acquainted with the Gas Gas. Actually, I had no 14 JANUARY 30, 2002' c u e I GAS GAS time (unless you count getting to know the bike riding from the pits to the start-line). When the green flag dropped for the start of Open Amateur race, I was truly riding the bike for the first time. My original plan was to take it easy the first lap, get to know the bike, and then worry about the riders ahead of me. After all, it was a 90-minute race, and I would have plenty of time to catch up, right? Unfortunately, I actually got off to a great start and couldn't get myself to back off, so I threw my original plan out the window and charged as hard as I could right off the bat, whether I knew the bike or not. Since I had competed in another race earlier in the day on a Suzuki RM250, I at least didn't have to worry about learning the track, just the bike. But I found the Gas Gas to be super-easy to ride and adapt to. Sometimes, hopping off a Japanese bike and right on to a European bike isn't an easy transition, since most European bikes have that ... well, "Euro" feel and are just plain differ- By T 2002 Gas Gas XeD 300 • n .. _ s XCO ~OO TI-tE WORCS ent. But not the Gas Gas. The bike feels trim and tight, and has fairly neutral ergonomics, but what really caught my attention first was the motor. This bike has tons of Open-biketype power and didn't have any problems in the power-sapping sand. (I wish I could say the same for myself.) It also has good torque. which I used to bail myself out of trouble many times in the deep, loamy turns. I could enter the sandy turns a gear higher than I usually would, roll on the throttle and let the Gas Gas' torquey motor pull me out of trouble. Occasionally, I would actually execute the turns correctly and would really feel like a hero when the thing came on the pipe. In the high-speed straights, the powerful motor made it easy for me to keep my speed up, so I could stay on top of the sand and maintain momentum over the whoops and grooves. When I did mess up in the soft sand, which was quite often, I could just jam the gearshifter down a cog, open up the throttle, shift back up and continue where I left off without wasting too much time. I must say, I enjoyed the Gas Gas' motor very much, at least at Laughlin. I'm sure, however, that the 300 would be a bit more of a handful in the tight woods. But there were no trees where I was, just a lot of bushes, straights, sand and whoops. There are two versions of the 300 XC - the XC and the XCO. The XC comes with WP forks and the XCO with Ohlins; yes, you'll pay more for the "0" hlins version. (Both bikes come with Gold Series Ohlins shocks.) I rode the XCO model, and considering I had no time to make any personal suspension adjustments before the race except for setting the sag, the suspension worked quite well for me. In hindsight, though, I probably would've softened things up a bit, mainly the initial part of travel, both front and rear. But, as it was, I was able to attack the many whoops in the Laughlin race without too much reservation, but I got beat up just a

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