Is the GASGAS EC 300 GP the best-looking new bike on the market? Enduro21 takes the retro coloured 300 two-stroke to the woods for first impressions test review.

Enduro fans and rider of a certain age will know immediately what the colours on this bike are all about. It was something of a masterstroke from the GASGAS designer’s eyes to swing in the direction of the ‘90s classic enduro models and mimic their colours for this 2025 EC 300 GP.

Even if you have no clue who the hell Paul Edmondson is or care about the formerly Spanish manufacturer’s early days and their giant-killing ascent to the top of the world enduro championship, you gotta admit this bike looks peachy?

The retro colours, the black rims (which help a lot), the design and shape of the plastics compared to the other Austrian models (this is the first time we’ve had a new shape GASGAS model in our own hands to ride and take apart) all add up.

From the moment Enduro21 rolled this bike out the back of the van for the first time one thing is clear: wherever we go people come over, have a look and a talk about it (in a way people never do with a KTM tbh).

We missed that extra punch of power

We’ve clocked just under 10 hours riding so far after taking hold of EC 300 GP boxfresh. A quick spin setting it up with some friends and we went straight into our favourite local time card, forest enduro. 

After spending a load of time on the then all-new KTM 250 EXC, the chassis and feel of these new gen Austrian bikes is familiar as our boots are. But it’s been a while since we had a 300 and funnily enough we missed that extra punch of power.

We got used to the agility of the 250 KTM but the immediate difference at this enduro was having more mid-range to use and less gear changes overall. The extra punch means more power out the turns and more speed between the turns – this is obvious but it bears saying the difference between the 250 TBI and the 300 motor is more marked than you may think.

That leads to the only criticism that the power does tail away a little more than we’d like. As it drives through the mid-range strongly you can find yourself running out of gear quickly if you try and living higher in the revs doesn’t reap the rewards the 250 does.

More speed and a little more weight meant more use of the clutch and definitely brakes by comparison to the 250 too. If you want a quick verdict on whether the Braktec brakes on this GASGAS are better or worse than the Brembos on the KTM, we’re saying there’s hardly any difference based on this test.

We found no brake fade despite needing to carry the rear brake quite a lot and the only issue really was the newness of the bike meant the front brake lever span was too far out, even on minimum adjustment. For this tester that meant a bit more arm-pump than usual.

There was no clutch fade either which we know is something some GG owners have problems with but we’ll take it to some more hard enduro conditions asap and put that to the test.

Our only issue is the naturally heavier clutch lever on the 300. The 250 is definitely lighter and brings less fatigue to the left forearm when you are using it a lot this matters. We have a solution which arrived in the post, the R&Duro EZ Clutch which is going on asap.

Aftermarkets parts going on already

Before we raced we swapped out the standard handlebars for a set of Astra Gemini 35mm bars. Astra sent us a small range of bars and they have become a default setting. The bend and their concept of putting you in a better riding position makes perfect sense.

So too does it makes sense to try some lower footpegs. Parts By Sweden make some glorious parts for enduro and they have sent us pegs and these engine covers to try on the GG EC GP.

We’ve already fitted the 6mm lower and 6mm further back pegs – 1mm more in each direction than we’ve had from other manufacturers notice – and it feels like a benefit. The 2024 EXC 250 kept its standard pegs all during our testing last year but there was something not quite the same about the GASGAS riding position so we fitted these to adjust the body.

P.S. we were at a track without a small enough allen key to fit the bolt studs in the footrests (they come in a bag with the pegs), so haven’t fitted them yet. Despite that the grip was good and the extra width (5mm more than stock ones) helps the boot/foot stability.

That little extra lower also puts the gear shift lever in a better position too – there’s nothing wrong twith the standard bars and footpegs but it’s always good to tweak these things to suit yourself and we prefer bars and pegs to be lower than GG OEM.

All of this said, the EC 300 GP does have a healthy list of standard parts compared to the standard model:

• Black frame
• GP-inspired graphics
• Black and red grippy seat cover
• Black Neken handlebars
• Black handguards
• Red front axle puller
• Semi-floating front brake disc
• Stronger rear brake disk
• Rear brake pedal safety wire
• Red Supersprox stealth rear sprocket
• Skid plate
• Map select switch – two power choices to suit conditions
• Radiator fan
• Black rims
• Metzeler 6 Days Extreme tyres

The suspension issue laid bare…

For all the pride having a good-looking bike brings it also has to work and do its job. In this case, this being a GP Edition bike, it should be a racer and should be able to cope with the races, right?

A bike for the masses clearly doesn’t need the same suspension Andrea Verona is using in his factory bike but a bike aimed more at racers than the standard EC models surely then needs suspension to meet its own remit?

The latest generation WP Xplor open cartridge forks and WP shock are way better than the previous generation standard WP kit. This much is clear but GASGAS won’t thank us for saying it’s still not up to the task of racing too hard and fast because it runs out of damping control.

Sadly, it doesn’t come with these fitted.

Limiting how fast you can go

It was a familiar story rolling round that time card enduro after several hours and many riders making the last tight time check a 35 minutes workout.

With the bike having a “limit” to how fast you can ride, push too much in the enduro test or whooped-out and it bucks and bounces, less than the old standard equipment but still not good enough.

Presumably cost prohibits the Pro Components kit coming as standard (we’re not convinced someone didn’t make a mistake offering the US Hard Enduro version of the 300 XC-W with Cone Valves) but could they not have fitted the stock motocross suspension?

When you ride the same test track on different bikes you get to know the lay of the land and the differences in handling and the bare truth is for actual enduro racing you will likely want to upgrade the forks and shock on this bike – if nothing else to cut down on the blisters!

More to come on this one.

Photo Credit: GASGAS + Enduro21 + Michael Bennett + Michael Schroder + Sebas Romero