You've seen Mike Metzger way high and upside down, but he had to get low on the KTM 300 XC-W(e).
For the test that was most heavily judged, the GP course, the bike shined in a way that was more than impressive. It acted a little like the fun 250F in outright power, but with a substantial amount more torque and at much lower rpm than those screaming meanies. It was very easy to keep the motor in its long, sweet spot; it had plenty of power everywhere and never too much. It pulled the gears just fine and the only place you were thinking you needed more was on long steep climbs. Karel was impressed enough he was wondering what the bike would be like in moto trim.
Some of the notable upgrades since we last saw this bike was the swap from an aluminum skid plate to a carbon-. ber one. This and a revalved set of Precision Concepts suspension gave the bike a very planted feeling where it rode low in the stroke but didn't bottom excessively as it felt like it would. And it had no funny handling issues, either.
The R&D carb mods had the bike jetted perfectly and never missing a beat even when the rider grabbed a big ol' handful. And with a power spread that started at such a low rpm and pulled out so far, that was a good thing. This motor ran like a tuned package. Are you crazy to debore a 450? Only as crazy as boring out a 250F. In a lot of ways they arrive at the same point. Sure, you'll gain a little weight in comparison (the 400 feels lighter than the 450 for sure), but you'll have more torque and certainly better durability as you're putting less power through a motor designed for more.
The 400's times were, as expected, faster than the 250F's but slower than the bigger bikes' in most of the tests. But here's where we run into that old debating topic of, "Yes, but how are you going to be riding it when you get tired?" For the record, most likely better than anything else, we'd say. You don't need to be as aggressive as you'd have to be when riding a smaller bike. And you don't have to worry about getting into trouble with excessive power, the kind of power that tires you out in the first place. So this bike was a really good performer just lacking in that one-lap gusto that we all love to pontificate over.
Good, impressively so. Impressive? Dude, it was a 2006 and it kept up with the brand-new bikes just fine- are you kidding? -Jimmy Lewis
Charles Jirsa, Kurt Caselli, Tom Moen and Mike Lafferty waiting for the smell of pre-mix in the morning.
#113 KTM
300 XC-W(e)
Armed And Dangerous
When planning for the Torture Test, KTM responded to our request for bike proposals with a simple, "Tell us which models you want and we'll stick spark arrestors on and show up. Oh, and since we won every major off-road championship last year, which champ do you want on the bikes?" Pretty cocky, eh? But the company is backing it up and running with its "Ready to Race" slogan.
The 300 XC-W(e) was a pretty easy choice since we'd raved about it in previous testing, but was it the right choice? There's one thing for sure: KTM has variety in the 250-300cc two-stroke range. Would a 250 XC have been better? Stiffer suspension and a lighter feel with identical peak power as the 300? Well, for the majority of us it seemed the electric starter was the golden nugget that had us compromising with the wide-ratio W gearbox and nonsealed cartridge fork.