FEATURE I 2023 CYCLE NEWS BIKES WE LIKE
P150
plenty of torque and zippy power (and quite
a bit of it, too) and feels impressively light
for a "medium-bore" four-stroke. It has the
best of both worlds of a midrange two-stroke
and four-stroke. I could ride the Sherco all
day at a good clip over multitudes of terrain
and with tons of confidence. I also rode the
outstanding Sherco 300 SE two-stroke on the
same day on the same trails. As I said, 300cc
two-strokes are almost always my go-to bike
for the trails, especially the challenging ones,
so I was surprised that I had more fun on the
four-stroke. Is the 300 SEF a better-performing
off-road race bike than the 300 SE two-stroke?
That's a different story and difficult to say, but
of the two and all the motorcycles I rode this
year, the Sherco 300 SEF registered the high
-
est on my purely-for-fun meter.
A street bike, however, almost topped my list
of the most fun motorcycles I rode in 2023. I
always get a big kick out of riding sport-touring
bikes, and had it not been for the Sherco, the
all-new Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ would have done it
for me. When it comes to getting away and hav
-
ing a good time on paved twisty backroads, the
Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ is hard to beat. And the
price is right for what you get.
Another grinner for me is, not surprisingly, an-
other dirt bike. This one's been around the horn a
few times, but I never tire of riding it, and some-
times I forget how much fun it is. It's the Honda
CRF450X. I know, it's heavy and old-school and
goes against what I said earlier about big-bore
off-road four-strokes, but the fun-loving CRF450X
is a big pussycat with knobbies and a headlight.
And I enjoyed riding it again this year.
