2017 Gas Gas EC 300 Racing First Riding Impression

Gas Gas Is Back.

Photos By Jimmy Lewis and Daivd Donatoni

Spanish Bike maker Gas Gas is back in business under the arms of Torrot, a bicycle and electric motorcycle manufacturer. DBT got a chance to ride the fresh 2017 EC 300 Racing, just into the country.

We were told to take it easy as this bike has to make the rounds for a lot of other outlets but we still put close to 150 miles on it to make sure we had a good evaluation and some time to try things. The 2017 model is very similar to the 2015 model which was the last one produced before the company ran into financial troubles and quit production. Yet a small team stayed on to work on parts production and they made some small upgrades in that time.

The biggest changes were to the electric starter to make it more powerful and more durable. It is now mounted alongside the ignition side cover and runs through intermediate gears to the flywheel. The wiring harness has been simplified and the starter relay in now attached to the bottom of the seat as is the battery. A Moto Tassanari V-Force 4 reed valve is used as is an improved FMF pipe design. The powervalve has some adjustability through a cover on the clutch side.

The frame is a chrome-moly perimeter design and it is beefy. Of note is that the engine does not have a head-stay or an upper attachment to the frame like most current bikes. Suspension duties are handled by a Marzocchi 48mm fork and a Reiger shock out back. For sure the shock is not familiar to US riders and the current status of Marzocchi motorcycle suspension is unclear as they were sold off and have notified motorcycle manufacturers on the street side that there would no longer be production. 

The Gas Gas 300cc engine has a six-speed semi-wide ratio transmission and a hydraulic clutch. Fuel is handled by a 38mm Keihin 38mm PKWS carb. The EC comes with a non-spark arrested muffler. The Gas Gas is equipped with a head and tail light, odometer and trip computer, a plastic skid plate and handguards standard. It also has a keyed ignition and the light is on any time the key is on. Watch your battery.

The first thing that anyone will notice about the Gas Gas is that the spring loaded kickstand will try and hit your shin any time you move the bike from the right side. Then you will notice that the 300 is heavy. 268-pounds with a full tank of gas and we don’t know where they are hiding the mass? It carries just over two-gallons of fuel in the transparent tank.

The new starter really spins the bike to life easily and the Gas Gas settles into a very nice purr for a bigger two-stroke. The jetting on our bike was said to be standard and for lower elevations it was spot-on. Very crisp and responsive. The next thing some riders loved was that fact that the EC has that bigger bore chug and torque where you can feel each stroke of the piston on the bottom end. It has tons of torque and some flywheel mass to back it up and keep it moving, even if you chop the throttle at the wrong time. The build of power is progressive and just above what we’d call smooth because it had some punch. It isn’t the most powerful 300 we’ve ridden but is isn’t slow by any means. You can feel the powervalve open and you can feel the bike surge into the top end with pretty decent over-rev if it is jetted correctly. The main jet makes a lot of difference in how far the 300 will pull. But the really strong suit of this engine is the bottom end and its excellent control-ability and big torque.

But along with that chug and torque comes some vibration. In fact with a lot of the newer bikes going lighter and even some two-strokes using counterbalancers, the Gas Gas stands out here and not in a good way. If you start revving the bike up into the mid-range and beyond it starts to shake and rattle. Extended running in the top-end and hands and feet tingle. Five years ago this was common but now it is not so every rider felt it through the bars, footpegs and the seat when sitting. And the seat is pretty hard too. On our ride the bike vibrated enough to loosen an engine mount bolt which surprisingly didn’t change the amount of vibration felt in the chassis that much.

The shifting and gear ratios were excellent giving the bike decent legs. It crawls in first and squirts right up to 80 MPH quickly before running out of gears. As expected the clutch is great control and feel, normal lever pull and positive in durability in our tougher or abusive sections. The activation components appear to be built by AJP and use mineral oil. Plus the bike was very reluctant to overheat and we credit the clutch and torque for a lot of this. There is a small handlebar mounted choke lever mounted above the clutch master cylinder, where a decompression lever use to reside on old four-strokes.

The suspension was another area we struggled with, especially in getting the right balance. If the clickers are anywhere near the middle range of their settings the bike becomes unbearably choppy. We basically had the fork’s compression and rebound adjusters almost all the way open to get some bump compliance and get close to the shock’s more free feel. And the shock was pretty open as well as there was a point, about 7 clicks from full soft or harder, where the rear end would spike into a mid-stroke harshness. Knowing that this bike might be set from the factory to go around grass tracks fast and planted, which requires a setup like this for stability, can explain the setting. But it still isn’t ideal for most riding we do in the states. And in being stiff in the beginning you might think it stayed stiff? Well the fork does and the shock doesn’t. We were bottoming the rear too much and our conclusion was that we needed a stiffer spring (even though we had the right static and rider sag and riding the bike has the right attitude) to lighten the load on the valving in the shock. We suspect most riders will need to have suspension valving done.

One of the best or surprising aspects of the EC 300 is that it rides and feels way lighter than the scale tells us. Especially through the bars and in side-to-side movements you’d be hard pressed to say the bike weighs over 240. A rider has excellent leverage on the bike as it is very roomy and spread out without being one bit awkward. The chassis is very rigid and as stable as anything. Once you get the suspension balance right and weight on the front wheel it turns well too. We think this has a little to do with the flex character of the chassis and it not having a top engine stay tightening up the latitudinal movements. The chassis gives great feedback and never did anything funny.

We were lucky to get 60-miles out of a tank of fuel trail riding as the Gas Gas can guzzle gas. But it is very thin everywhere. The brakes were about average in stopping power and feel with both needing a little more lever or petal pressure than most bikes these days. Getting to the air filter requires removing the seat and there is a spring-loaded plunger pressing the filter to the air box. We get the feeling the bike is built strong, if not overbuilt and it has some very sharp looks to top it off.

So the question is, “Who is the Gas Gas for?” Well it is obvious that this bike will not be one of our favorites for 2017. It isn’t a bad bike, it just has some issues. Some might call that character. In fact that character (and the fact that this bike is not Orange) might just be one of its strongest selling points. The only tough one is the vibration and we’d love to try balancing the crank on this particular bike to see how much that could help. The suspension is some valving and spring rates away from being right as we feel the components are fully capable. One could easily drop five-pounds off this bike and with simple things and there is a lot more if you were serious, but the bike acts so much lighter than it should, we wouldn’t bother too much.

Gas Gas is making a strong push to get ready for the future all over the world and in the US with a significant investment from it’s parent company. Guys like Broc Helpler and Geoff Aaron are riding and racing as well as winning on these bikes at the highest levels so that proves that set up proper they are as capable as needed. Yet if you are a larger rider who loves a bike with a lot of two-stroke torque, this Gas Gas may be an excellent choice. And it is definitely different.