You have to watch out for...
You have to watch out for the pipe, but that's about all that's worrisome on the KTM 300.
So FMF hooked on one of its new Q Stealth spark arrestors and the bike was ready to go. Talk about an easy prep! In fact, during the radar run the bike was still pretty tight and felt a little loaded up; nice break-in! Here, especially in the roll-on it was evident that the two-stroke is working through a lot less of a usable rpm range. It will pull at low revs but not with the authority that a thumper does. Then it signs off a lot sooner yet it isn't the cutout of a rev-limiter informing you. Instead, it's a progressive flattening of power telling you for a long time to shift! This doesn't do much damage to the engine, either, I might add (unlike the valve-chattering that four-stroke rev-limiting does). But in every test the bike competed in it was praised for a super-smooth motor. It offers four-stroke-like (if not better than) smoothness and a full-range torque that just keeps on giving. It scored the low times in both Escargot and in EnduroCross and was pretty much top three in every other test it took on, we'll give Kurt Caselli some credit, but even our test riders backed it up. What? This in a nearly stock KTM trailbike? think we chose the right one.
In the Escargot it was billed as the "fun machine" and was one of the few bikes that didn't need to be shifted, so there are no "between gears" here. Take that, all you four-strokes with long powerbands. The "super smooth" motor didn't hurt a thing, especially traction. In EnduroCross its superlight feel was out of place with the power available; usually you have to . ght the girth of a 450 to have this much boost and lunge on tap. Metzger called it, "the perfect EnduroCross bike." Out on the trail our resident novice Peterson said it had, "throttle response that a four-stroke can't match." He was only put off minimally by the vibration and it would be his first choice as an off-road race bike.
Heavier riders and large guys like Kramer and Brian Cornelius definitely felt the suspension was on the soft side. Even for trail riding, guys over 210 pounds are at least looking at springs. I also felt the softness in the GP test where the bike bottomed, though not enough to cause much concern, especially considering it didn't do anything funny when the suspension was maxed out. On the other end of the suspension spectrum, the bike can feel a little on the dancy side and gets busy in choppy ground at speed. This is a trait lighter bikes have and it was a far cry from anything we call headshake. Yet the hookup on acceleration bumps was superb. But when it comes to flicking the bike side to side, quickly, this bike is king. And at the same time it goes just as fast as the four-strokes, which are heavier, even as much as they have progressed in just the last two years in the weight-feeling department.
In a GNCC-type setting, the two-stroke and this KTM particularly have an advantage since the racing is happening at middle throttle openings and rarely do you pin it and chase gears. You're also doing a lot of turning and changing directions, quickly and oftentimes side-to-side where less mass really comes into play. Out west in a WORCS or GP setting you can still keep the speed on the 300; it just takes more shifts to do it. Shifting isn't as much of a disadvantage as extra weight can be in tighter racing. If the going gets tight, technical or downright tiring the KTM, a lot like the CRF400F, is easy to conserve energy on since the motor is smooth and sweet and the KTM 300 is truly light. And you have electric starting if you should stall. But going full-bore the bike actually feels a little slow in a four-stroke world of 11,000 rpm and you feel like you're short-shifting it in comparison.
The jetting on the bike was stock and just perfect for racing conditions, though we've found it can be set leaner for trail riding. Add to the package that the bike has a deep tank carrying three gallons of fuel while staying reasonably thin. As much as this bike is billed as a single-track trail hound, it can race just the same.
Kurt Caselli | 
Clint Castleberry |  |