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THERE’STHISCOMMON
misconceptionthattwo-strokes
arelow-maintenancebutI’mnot
sold.Low-maintenance
comparedtowhat?AFormula
Onecar?Two-strokesrequire
justasmuchregular
maintenanceasfour-strokes.
Theystillhaveanairfilter,they
stillhavespokes,theystillhave
airinthetyresanddon’tforget
theystillhaveoilwhichneeds
changing.Ifyouwanttruly
low-maintenancegoelectric,
thoughthat’smoredifficultnow
thatAltahasshutupshop.
Thetransmissioninadirtbike
copsanabsolutefloggingno
matterhowmanystrokesandI
believetheclutchinatwo-
strokehasaworsetimethan
oneinafour-stroke.
GasGasrecommends
changingtheoilintheEC300
every 20 hoursbutIliketoerr
onthesideofcautionso,at 10
hours,Icrackedthedrainplug
andletitbleed.Thishasbeen
myusualscheduleforallthe
two-strokesI’veowned.
TogettothedrainplugIhad
toremovethebashplateandI
was happy to see it was only
held on by two bolts at the front.
The back of the bashplate hooks
into place on the frame
cross-member, so no tools
needed on the rear.
The oil which came out wasn’t
in very bad condition and still
had some life in it.
Changing the oil in the latest
EC300 brought back badEven though I was having
a great time playing in the
sand, when Geoffrey Braico
arrived he was quick to
point out the oil oozing out
of the Gasser’smuffler
OLLY GOES DOWN THE PLUG HOLE
FRESH
BLOOD
memories of doing the same
thing on my old 2003 EC200.
The oil fi ller cap on that Gasser
was in the most diffi cult spot to
reach and without the right size
funnel you were dreaming. You’d
end up with oil absolutely
everywhere, except inside the
transmission.
Fifteen years later and
nothing has changed! The oil
fi ller cap on the 2018 EC300 is in
the same spot. I’ll admit I spotted
it as soon as I picked up the bike
so I got the right funnel to avoid
the headache. With the right
funnel, it’s a painless job. The
Gasser gearbox takes about
800ml of 10W40.
If you fi nd yourself without a
suitable funnel, fi nd a sheet of
thin plastic, like the backing from
an A4 folder, roll it up tight and
pour away.
It wasn’t all oil changes and
cleaning air fi lter, this month we
rode somewhere new! For the
past few years we’ve held
motocross shootouts at Larbert
MX track outside of Braidwood.SOFAR...
HOURS:
17
MODSTHISMONTH:
Freshgearboxoil
MODSNEXTMONTH:
DunlopMX33tyresGAS GAS EC300
RRP
$12,490
WARRANTY
Six months parts and labour
DISTRIBUTOR
Gas Gas Motorcycles Australia
INTERNET
gasgasmotorcycles.com.au1.Thebashplateisveryeasytoremove
thankstothishookattheback
2.Nottoomuchgungeafter 10 hoursThere’s always a million things
to do on a shootout but in
between holding fl ashes for Lee
Hogan and slicing up tomatoes I
would look out at the sandy
singletrack surrounding the
circuit and wish I was riding.
They say be careful what you
wish for because last month my
dream came true. We decided to
hold the 500cc enduro shootout
on the Larbert trails and looks
can be deceiving. The whoops in
some spots were handlebar
deep and the sand is super soft.
We arrived a day early to sus out
the track and it was my fi rst time
riding the EC300 in the sand.
I was surprised with how
effortless it was to navigate the
Gasser through the soft whoops.
Compared to the Beta RR430
(my 2018 long-termer), the
EC300 felt sharp and nimble and
the KYB suspension was in its
element. It did not wallow
through the sand whoops.
While I was having fun, the
same couldn’t be said for ADB
Ed Mitch Lees, who was fi ghting
with his big CRF450L the whole
time. Four-foot deep sand
whoops were not in the design
brief for that Honda.
Even though I was having a
great time playing in the sand,
when Geoff Braico arrived he
was quick to point out that there
was two-stroke oil oozing out of
the Gasser’s muffl er. According
to the legendary brown snake I
wasn’t riding fast enough and
the Gas Gas would be better off
in his shed. Jealousy is a curse,
Geoffrey.
Digital Editor Olly Malone12http://www.adbmag.com.au JUNE 2019| 113
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