Last month I had the opportunity to ride with a bunch of ADB readers. When I turned up, they were all mounted on Beta RR300s, with some of their whips showing 300 hours on the clock! I turned up with my shiny Sherco 300 SE Factory long term test bike with barely a scratch on it and hardly 30 hours and felt a little out of place. That was until we started chatting.
After a brief introduction, I was reminded of how awesome the dirtbike community is. This group of legends welcomed me as part of their own riding family and the connection was instant. When you’ve got something like dirtbikes in common and you all obsess over the same passion, it’s not hard to make that connection.
We headed off for a ride and within five minutes we were laughing and jeering at each other like we were old buds. The track we were riding was gnarly and I think that helped build that instant bond. Rock gardens with ledges and nasty tree roots everywhere meant the riding was slow-going. Slower, more technical riding actually helped bottle us up a little and that meant you could talk shit as a group more. I guess it’s the same as mates at a motocross track that go out for a 20-minute moto then come back in to talk about what just unfolded.
Being the only Sherco-mounted rider was interesting. All the boys said they could tell when I was behind them as the pre-mix carby machine has a distinct note to it. They reckoned the exhaust note sounded more old-school than their oil-injected Betas and they were blown away at how the Sherco was able to produce torque at such slow speeds.
The Sherco 300 SE Factory long term test bike is an absolute grunt monster. The incredibly strong motor with super smooth clutch makes groveling so damn easy. The motor combined with the Dunlop AT81EX gummy rear tyre and Nitro Plushie mousse I’m running rarely breaks traction.
I love how well-balanced the Sherco 300 SE Factory long term test bike is. I can easily stick my inside leg down and pivot-wheelie the bike around rocks and tight turns. The clutch and throttle are incredibly accurate which makes feeling this so easy. Even sitting down over the rear wheel and rocking back and forth on the clutch and throttle to get up over obstacles is so easy on this bike.
After that challenging ride I still can’t fault the Sherco. Nothing has broken, even the levers, which are protected by motocross-style handguards not wrap-around handguards, are still in one piece. I was the only one on this ride without wrap-around handguards and I crashed in the first five minutes but the levers were still fine. The only significant wear and tear has been to the anodizing on the rear sprocket. The rest of the bike is still in excellent condition.
Full report in issue #529 of ADB.
MITCH LEES
