 
A sight not often
seen... Heath upright in muddy conditions!! On
the right, SXS carbon tank cover. |
...
Steve had set out a couple of training sections for the
school riders on a very wet and slippery grass bank with
a fast flow of water giving no chance for a rev
and run type of attack. I played on the steeper side
of the bank away from the lesson and tried all ways of
getting stuck but the bike just gripped and wheelied
out of the top... even finding grip when I stopped half
way down the slope and hopped the back wheel around and
started back off again... No throttle required, just
let it ride.
The next stop was down
in the rocky stream bed, as expected the water was
a bit higher which hid all the small rock but the bike
just rode over it all anyway. I found a little section
I had played on before that required a drop into the
water followed by a sharp climb straight out the other
side up a root covered very muddy bank. This really showed
the diference in the engine... it shot up with no hint
of me hitting the rev stop that I found on the 250.
That had been my major concern with the standard model,
with my 2 stroke way of riding i was hitting the end
of the revs very frequently, usually just where I didn't
want too causing a few step offs and aborted efforts.
On everything I rode today, including a long, steep
and very slippery hillclimb in the woods, I never once
run out of revs. If I was to buy the standard model
I would have to learn to ride with far more throttle
control and use the 4 stroke engine as it was meant
to be... on this bike I didn't have too!! |
If you ever want
a bike to flatter your wet and muddy riding ability
then this is the one, and even better... i didn't have to
wash it at the end of the day!!! |
It
didn't matter what I tried in the stream, whether it
was up the little rocky steps or trying to get out of
the water by taking nasty cambered mud bank routes the
bike flattered my wet riding ability... which like most
of my riding is very bad! I tried some sections in the
first 3 gears and other than covering the clutch a bit
more in 3rd I achieved the same result every time...
a no effort clean ride. I would actually say this bike
could be geared up a bit, 2nd was very flexible and could
be used for the slowest trickle type sections and some
big climbs.
On the biggest climb Steve tried 2nd upto 4th and it went
up from a standing start no worries in all... you can use
the slip the clutch method or just roll the power on, either
way it works. Of course there is a little extra weight in
the 4 stroke over the 2's but I never noticed it at all,
and I haven't ridden for about 3 months now so I am sure
if it had felt like a heavy load it would have knackered
me in 10 minutes!
I have been trying to
come up with anything that I didn't like on the bike...
and the only thing that caused me grief on the day was
the right foot kickstart!!! I am so used to the left
hander now that I put the wrong hand down to nudge the
lever out almost every time I went to start it!!! In
fact I would go as far to say that if this bike was very
close to the cost of the 2 stroke model I would really
have to think hard about what to buy... something the
guys I ride with will find hard to believe as they have
had to listen to me sprouting off about the point of
4 strokes in trials for the last 2 years.... but I really
liked this bike so much that given the money available
I would have one instead of the 270 Rev3 that is coming
my way shortly.
As of yet I have no info
on cost of the kit, or if a full 300 bike will
be available... but the man to speak to would be John
Lampkin.
Huge thanks to Steve Saunders for
the invite to ride this bike, and thankfully I didn't
break it. In fact I actually never fell off which shows
how good it is as I would normally have trouble riding
down the track in the mud..!! The extra graphics and
silver carbon tank cover you see on this bike are available
to fit the Rev4 and Rev3 range directly from SXS
online.... |
