Jesse Ziegler | July 27, 2019
Seat Concepts did all the work. All we did was ride it. What a deal.
GasGas’ enduro bikes are more than capable at technical obstacles. We like the stock versions just fine, but adding MotOz Mountain Hybrid Gummy tires makes it a rock crawler.
Photography by Spencer Owens
The crew at Seat Concepts knows a thing or two about building comfortable, durable products. So, when they chose a GasGas EC300 to create their own Idaho-worthy trail bike, we expected them to keep it simple, high-quality, and sweet like their great lineup of off-road, adventure, dual-sport, and competition motorcycle seats. As you can see by this bike, they sort of went the all-out route with a healthy budget of bolt-on upgrades that can make any two-stroke fanatic drool with product envy. But maybe they went a little too far? I mean, I can take a stock GasGas and go to Idaho and have a good time. Could this bike be a lot better than that? We tried to find out.
So, why the heck are we riding this bike in the desert? Well, it was winter when Robert from Seat Concepts brought the bike down as he raced the Adelanto Grand Prix, and we weren’t going to just let him take it back to Idaho without getting it dirty. Look at it! It made us ride it.
This bike isn’t a desert bike, it’s more at home chugging up the trails of Colorado and Idaho’s high country than it is doing berm blasts and sand whoops. But in our experience with completely stock GasGas 300s, we’ve been pleased with them running in both styles of terrain. The same goes here, but with way more bling for some big bucks.
If we had our way, we’d meet these guys in Idaho for a proper rip on some gnarly days in the mountains, but the bike was still a blast to rip in the softer sand and sunnier skies of SoCal for a day.
Sitting pretty and waiting to get dirty
So, how did it work?
A few of the mods on this bike are things we personally love and have done on our own personal two-strokes in the past. We’re not a fan of massive mods just for mod’s sake, and this bike certainly has that appearance. A closer look shows some products that simply work, and we can undoubtedly endorse.
The Flexx bars are a great addition to kill vibration and improve long-day comfort. On the GasGas, this is welcome because the bike vibrates more than the current KTM and Husqvarna counter-balanced motors.
The TM Designworks skid plate and chain guides are high quality and have never failed us, and the FMF exhaust is obviously great at tuning power to get massive traction and massive fun. Trail Tech’s voyager pro is a navigation marvel with a lot of bike diagnostics on board a sweet touch-screen display. If your small bike pretends to be an adventure bike, it’s an amazing and fun tool.
Motominded builds some of the absolute best LED lighting setups for modern dirt bikes. I’ve personally owned three of them, and they are top notch. Their 3D printed parts, intelligent protoyping, and constant research, development, and updating mean you will always have the best setup available.
GasGas gets low. The traditional two-stroke stoke is alive and well.
If you’re into stabilizers, the GPR system on here comes complete with the top triple clamp so you can buy it all in one stop. Most of us leave the stabilizer off our off-road bikes in the mountains and save them for two-stroke track days or actual open-country builds.
Having more fuel is a great idea, and often a must have on bikes with small tanks. This IMS unit is 3.4 gallons—plenty for a full day of riding no matter where you are. Footpegs are becoming less of a must-have mod in our books as the stock stuff is so good these days. If we’re saving money, we’d leave the stock pegs on.
A lightly modified engine looks to get the full potential out of the GasGas two-stroke.
FMF is on sound duty
There are some clear Idaho mountain mods here, too. The Motoz mountain Hybrid Gummy rear tire is pretty great. It sticks to rocks and, somehow, wears like iron. If you’re crawling across the backcountry, it’s a good choice. And the Rekluse Radius CX clutch has Idaho written all over it. And this auto clutch is the one that most manual clutch lovers can get along with. It will eliminate stalling, and that’s always a good thing if you’re on the edge of a cliff.
Keep the tank full! It’s easier with “clear” tanks like this IMS unit.
The addition of Flexx Bars brings a weight handicap, but a comfort benefit. GPR top triple clamp and stabilizer are on-board. The Voyager Pro GPS unit from Trail Tech give vehicle diagnostics as well as a fully functional GPS.
The 2strokeheads.com Billet Head is a mod that can make a big difference on a two-stroke. Adjusting the squish and optimizing the burn of the bang action inside the cylinder is something you can certainly feel on a two-stroke. The GasGas 300 could use some cleaning up on the higher revs, in our opinion, and this bike seems to be on its way to getting dialed. Of course, we had to play with some jetting at our near sea level test ride. But, this is something that goes hand-in-hand with building a modified two-stroke for the mountains—you’re going to jet it to work correctly.
It wouldn’t be at home in the Seat Concepts garage without a serious seat upgrade.
TM Designworks chain slides are a durable partner off-road.
As far as the suspension mods, we’ve been pleased with stock GasGas KYB units. So, improving on that setup is going to be a personal bias on what you want your bike to handle like. The Dicks Racing mods to the GasGas didn’t do anything wrong, but we’d like to get it home to the hills and see how it handles the roots and rocks that can really throw your balance off.
In the end, this is a bike that drools cool but probably has a few too many dollar signs attached to it for most people. Based on how good the GasGas stock bikes are, we’d use this as a top-end for our build scale and pick and choose a few pieces to add to our own bikes.
Now, let’s go to Idaho and try it!CN
MotoMinded makes some of the best fitting and best performing LED headlight setups in off-road.
Seat Concepts-modified GasGas EC300 Goodie Bag
