Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128163
2002 KTM 300 EXC REVISITING AN OLD FRIEND. strokes. And there have been many By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY TYLER MADDOX y ou might have already noticed that elsewhere in this issue we have shown you KTM's complete (well nearly complete) line-up for 2003, and you might have noticed that hardly a word was said about KTM's 300 EXC off-road model. That's because, since its introduction many years ago, the 300 EXC, which has seen little changes as of late, has taken a backseat to some of the company's more "interesting" and newer models, such as KTM's 400cc thumpers when they first came out, and now there's the new 250, 450 and 525 KTM four- other attention-grabbing models, including street and dual-sport bikes, from KTM that have stolen the spotlight from the 300 EXC over the years, as well, but no matter how trick some of these new models might be - and they certainly are trick best bikes. And I was reminded of this after having gotten reacquainted with one recently. Ever since I first rode a 300 EXC many years ago, it has been my alltime favorite off-road bike, hands down. It has always been the bike I'd want to be on if I knew I was about to participate in a particularly difficult trail ride, hare and hound or enduro. I like the bike because its lighter and easier to start than most off-road thumpers (though more and more off-road four-strokes mQdels are now being built with electric starters), it generally handles better and is more flickable than the four-strokes, and, compared to other two-stroke offroad bikes, the KTM's middle-of-theroad 300cc displacement means that it has better torque than most MXturned-off-road 250s and is, at least, as powerful as them, overall. Plus, since it's not what you would call a true Open-class bike, it doesn't produce open-bike horsepower, which can be a handful and tiresome in certain situations, primarily in anything but a desert race or grand prix. And to make the pot even sweeter, the KTM 300 EXC is pretty much enduroready right out of the crate, meaning it comes with an odometer and spark arrestor. About the only thing the 300 EXC doesn't have that I would like to see are handguards, but a phone call to Acerbis took care of that problem. The addition of handguards wound up being the only modification I made to our 300, which actually got a fair amount of use while it was in our care. Our 300 competed in two WORCS races, two district enduros and kept us happy on a number of quality trail rides before we were forced to return the bike to KTM. There wasn't a race or ride where I didn't think to myself at least once that I really couldn't be on a better bike than the 300, especially in one enduro that just worked me so hard that, had it not been for the KTM's - the venerable 300 EXC is still, in my opinion, one of the company's It's easy to overlook the long-standing KTM 300 EXC with all of the fourstrokes emerging on the scene these days, but the two-stroke 300 Is stili one of the best production off-road bikes ever built. ~[j)@@n(Jn@@(Jn@[Ji)fB8 ~@@~ ENGINE COOUNG SYSTEM DISPLACEMENT BORE x STROKE STARTING SYSTEM TRAI'ISMISSION CAJUl(JRETOR !Xf1[]!j] @@@ §Z{@ _ _ _ Single cylinder, two-stroke Uquid-cooled 297cc 73 X 73rnrn Kick _.. __ .Five-speed, wide-ratio __ . _• _•••••• __ •••••• _.. _..•.......Keihin PWK 38 AG EXHALIST VALVE ...................• _ , ..•..•.•••.•..•..1VC KTC LL1BRlCAllON _ Premix PRIMARY RAllO 25:72 F1I"IAL ORNE 14/52 O-ring CHAIN CLUTCH .......•............. , ..•......Wet, multi-disc, operated hydraulically IGNl1l0N Kokusan Digital 2K-3 SPARK PLLlG ..•.....•......................••............NGK BR 8 ECM fRAlIIIE ........•...••.••.••••••.••.•••••...•......Chromium molybdenum SLlBfRAlIIIE ....••.•• _•••••• _••.•. _•. _••• _••••................ Aluminum HANDLEBAR Aluminum SLISPENSION FRONT WP-{lSD 43rnrn REAR ..........•• _••••••• _•••• _•••.................WP-PDS single shock BRAKES FRONT 260mm Brembo double-piston caliper REAR ..•...............................220mm Brembo single-piston caliper RIMS 0.1.0 WHEELBASE ....................•.•............................ .57.3 In. GROLIND CLEARANCE _ _•.................... 15.2 In. SEAT HEIGHT .....................•..•......................... .36.4 in. FLIR CAPACITY ..........•..•.• " •••••••••.•••.••.••••••••......2.9 gal. WEIGHT 228.6 lbs. MSRP $6298 28 .lULV 17. 2002 • II: U II: I D n D _ so