Yes I did get a "new" 300 and if I was as detailed as the rest of you I would have taken pictures of it when I got it and as I tore it down to grease everything and do some modifications. So since you asked......I drove to Idaho Falls after we got done with the Knolls race three weeks ago and picked it up. I took it out to the motocross track to put a few laps on it and get a feel for how the bike performed. While the bike was not built to be a motocross bike, it felt really good on the track. The one thing that took me a little bit to get used to is the rear suspension without linkage. You would not think that it would feel much different, but it really does. Not in a bad way, it just feels different going through the stroke.
After that day of riding I took it home and began the tear down to grease all the bearings and just do a general clean up of the bike. All the bearings were in good order and the only one that needed any real attention was the lower steering stem bearing. With the way KTM uses a nipple on the side of the steering head to hook the gas vent hose to, it will over time put some gas down the steering neck causing the grease to disappear. No big deal, it just needs to be maintained more frequently than other bikes.
The 300 motor has to be the closest thing I can think of in a 2t to what my 450 was in the way of low end torque and the ability to lug the motor. In stock form it is simply quite impressive......but there is always something you can do to improve performance. With the 300 you can really give it a little extra low end grunt by taking 20 thousanths off the head and I went ahead and pulled the head off and had a friend machine it for me. While the head was off I went ahead and pulled off the cylinder to see how the piston looked for wear and it looked almost brand new. I am guessing the guy I bought the bike from probably put somewhere around 2500 miles on the bike and I was really suprised how little wear was on the piston. But like any of you, if you got it apart, you may as well put a new top end in. It is nice to be able to do a top end for under $200.
The break-in ride was on some tight and technical single track in the north part of the swell and the bike performed flawlessly. BTW.....Greg, you missed a great ride
. We did get out into a few old race trails and I got to open it up a little and it was very comfortable at speed. The real test for the bike was over the last week when I spent Wednesday thru Sunday out at Jericho for the Sage Riders National Hare and Hound. Between riding the course at slower speeds marking it, to doing some pre-running of the course at race speed, the bike was great. Any of you who have rode the Jericho/Cherry Creek area know that there is no shortage of whoops. The torque of the motor allows you to get up to speed quickly and get up on top of the whoops. If you get off rythm, a simple twist of a little more throttle brings the front end up and you are in business again. In fact I could not believe how easy it was to just ride a wheelie through a 100 foot section of whoops......somethng my WR would never do.
I was really suprised with how well the stock suspension works for my style of riding. As I mentioned above, I could really pound the bike through the whoops and it tracked really whell, even without having my steering dampner on it. The one time I expected the bike to buck me off, I was going down hill through a set of whoops that crossed a small ditch then headed up a small hill filled with whoops. I was in 4th gear pinning pretty hard when I hit the gas a little to get over the ditch and it picked up the front end and slammed the rear into the other side. It bottomed and tracked straight throught the next set of whoops. If I would have done that on my WR, I would have been picking myself up off the ground.
I loved my WR....it was a great trail bike and comfortable ride, but it was a tank to race. Especially in the sand. The couple of times I raced it I was able to run in the top 35-40 overall in the expert class, but with this bike, I think I could easily shave 10 positions off that just due to endurance and not having to man handle the bike so much.
