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/128600
By MATT FREEMAN than a stock motocross bike. The factory in Girona, Spain, and Don Knight, the boss at North American Gas Gas, took that exact thought into account some time ago. And after much R&D, they came up with the XC (Cross Country) lineup of Gas Gas motorcycles for '00. The beauty behind the project was that Gas Gas did not have to look far when developing the XC line. The company just had to fine-tune the existing platform Jor its already-successful ECs in order to make a more desert-friendly machine. We got a wide-open speed and less technical terrain. It seems that the production of enduro bikes is on the rise again, and that's a good thing, but there is an entire portion of the country that has never experienced a tight and technical enduro. And desert racers who have done it make no bones about the fact that it takes almost as much time and money to turn an allout enduro machine into a desert sled as it does to do the same to a stock motocrosser. Either option requires a lot of running around, ordering parts, testing and (unfortunately) compromising when you could be out practicing or racing your new screamer. The irony behind this scenario is that it took a small Spanish motorcycle company, which has little or no experience outside the enduro or trials world, to join KTM in the vision that there is a wide-open market for West Coast-biased off-road motorcycles. Obviously it has been proven that Gas Gas EC (Enduro Cross) models are quite successful in enduro type situations, but in high-speed world of desert racing and even some hare scrambles, the EC might be no better 16 FEBRUARY 1 6, 2000' c: Y c: I White Power fork soaks it up without deflecting the chassis or rider in an uncontrollable direction. The Ohlins Gold Series shock accepts the hit equally. The shock really shines when tackling big whoops, which are not hard to find in Lucerne. It performs equally as well across choppy terrain such as that found in the seemingly endless valleys around Lucerne. Taking the XC to a motocross with stock suspension settings probably is not the smartest thing to do, as it is chance to briefly ride an XC250 model the day before round one of the AMA National Hare and Hound series in Lucerne, California. Yes, Gas Gas is even making a small effort in the AMA's prime West Coast series by supporting a handful of riders based out of Motowest, a dealer in Brea, California. • • • ith the exception of KTM's . .M/XC lineup, it's nearly impossible to find an off-road-ready race machine for those who crave more The biggest differences between the XC model and the already-proven EC model lie in the suspension components, the compression ratio and the exhaust. And when we say different, we mean different. For starters, the XC model employs a White Power 43mm fork, like the current crop of off-road KTMs, although the valving is much different between the two. The EC model uses 45mm conventional Marzocchis. An Ohlins shock holds up the rear end on both the EC and the XC, but the difference is in the valving (obviously) and in the fact that the latter is equipped with the 338mm Gold Series Ohlins instead of the EC's basic 320mm shock. The XC250's suspension worked very well in the Southern California desert. The bike can be pointed straight into a rock cropping and the set up on the plush side for off-road use. Hitting deep, bike-swallowing Gouts with the XC is less than a pleasant experience no matter what speed you're going. The suspension is definitely soft, but don't forget, that's what it is required in almost all offroad conditions. Spanish-made Gas Gas motorcycles have been key players in World Championship-level trials and enduro series for many years. In the mid '90s Paul Edmondson even gave Gas Gas a World Enduro title over in Europe. By ] 998 Gas Gas boasted 139 dealers in the U.S. and was starting to make a bigger presence among the off-road elite, thanks to Don Knight, the Massachusetts-based North American distributor of off-road and motocross Gas Gas machines. With the help of former National Enduro champion Terry Cunningham, Clay Boreing and Knight's two sons Nathan and Nolan, Gas Gas motorcycles became a recog- nized force for the U.S. at the '98 ISDE in Portugal. Boreing and Nathan Knight e n e vv s were appointed to the U.S. Junior World Trophy Team and Cunningham and Nolan Knight represented club teams. After six days of competition, Boreing, Cunningham and Nolan Knight all collected silver medals. Nathan Knight's attempts fell short due to an event-organizer fuel mix-up. Coincidentally, Cunningham's threeman team finished a close fourth in the club competition. And that only speaks for the four Gas Gas-mounted U.S. riders. The usually successful European contingent of Gas Gas riders at the ISDE was, well, successful again.