Was speaking with a friend / suspension guy today that has a 300i and said it rocks. Feels super light due to the battery and starter motor being low on the bike and that the motor is powerful. He deals in KTM and GG but said the new Sherco 300i is a far better bike in his opinion than the 350 KTM. Lighter, faster, handles better. Interesting times.
I asked the trail rider magazine owner who was testing the 300i. He said in the tight stuff it edges out a 310 and open the 310 edges it out. Seemed really comparable though, this new 450 is interesting if they can keep the light feel like with the 300i. Sherco has some pretty cool stuff for being so small. I think I like Beta more. They just need a 250/300 four stroke. The 350 based on the 450 just doesn't do it for me
Yeah was thinking same thing. Would you really want to be 40 miles out in the middle of nowhere without a kicker? What happened if there was a drain on the battery. I would need a backup unless i only rode the thing at a track only
Everyone gets hell bent on kickers for some reason. I have been riding for 2 years without kickers and I can't say I miss them one bit. Worst case scenario, bump start it. If you are 40 miles from somewhere, you should be riding with a buddy. I think there are way more bad things that could happen then a dead battery. But to each his own, thats why we have so many different beautiful bikes to oogle
I had a really good look at the bikes the last 2 days at the Sydney Motorcycle Show. Sherco sent two of their guys from the factory in France to man the stand. One of the guys focuses on frame development. I had good chats with both of them and they were very helpful and informative. Must say, the bikes look great. I love how much thought they've put into component commonality between all the models - makes a lot of sense for a small manufacturer like them too. They've put a lot of thought into the mass centralisation which makes a lot of sense. Putting the starter motor under the engine to lower the mass and run the motor more directly to the crank is pretty clever I think. It means they only need about 80 CCA (Cold Crank Amps) to start the bike - just as a comparison I need a 220 CCA battery in my Husky to start it. That means they can have a smaller lighter battery, as well as locating it below the air filter to keep the mass lower. The air filter is very easy to access which is great. And the bikes felt damned nice to sit on... as well as looking very sexy! I must have circled back to the stand a half dozen times. Eventually the 2 French blokes just laughed at us and said "Looks like you're going to be buying one of our bikes!" IMO you really are splitting hairs. My KLX250 has no kick starter and I have not missed it at all since I got it in 2010. That, and I have never actually needed to use the kick starter on my Husky. I have tried to use it a couple of times just to see how well it works and have not successfully started the bike with the kicker. Like the guy on the stand said to me, it's analogous to insisting that your car still have a hand-crank starter - and the excuse of there being a difference between bikes and cars doesn't really fly either... do Land Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers have crank starters and they go in very remote area's reliably. A couple of years ago I walked straight past the Sherco stand and didn't bother wasting my time... things have changed now though. They have done a lot of development and actually have a quality product now. And if you really need convincing look at David Knight. He has made the mistake of selecting a lemon to ride on (BMW) and won't make that mistake again in if he can help it. He's the one that actually approached Sherco for a new ride - they didn't approach him and offer a massive cash bonus to get him on board. I've seen a few video's of him cutting laps on his test track and he has that Sherco singing! Check out http://www.enduro21.com/ if you're interested: http://www.enduro21.com/index.php/component/k2/item/1441-onboard-–-knighter-endurocross-hot-lap
This might interest you... when you take the seat off the 2-stroke Sherco you'll notice the imprints on the tank for where a fuel pump assembly goes. If I were a betting man I would think there's a reason for that. Sure, it could just be that Sherco are trying to do as much common parts for their whole range that it just happens the 2T tank has that moulding... but it could also be that DI is close. If I remember correctly, Sherco were one of the early adopters of EFI for their 4T bikes, so it's not that much of a stretch to think they may do something similar with their 2T bikes. That being said, the French guy I was speaking to from the Sherco factory told me that DI is not a simple thing to do. There are hundreds of variables they need to try and fctor into fuel maps and get them right, so it will take a while to get it right, and they'll only launch it once they've got it right. That being said, the 2T bike they had on the stand was pretty sweet. And with the trouble I've had with my Husky's EFI & electrics lately makes me wonder whether it is really worth taking the risk moving away from the carb system they have working so well on current 2T bikes.
