DEATH OF THE BIG TRAIL BIKE
GasGas and Pierer Mobility Group have to be congratulated for making a trail bike that can be ridden distances on the road and still take on a trail ride or remote track – something that lends itself to more hardcore adventure riding . With New Zealand following Australia on the ABS laws , the GasGas ES700 ( along with its Pierer Group stable mates ) is the only big capacity single cylinder trail bike to be road legal in New Zealand , as it sports ABS ( the reason why the DR650 and XR650L can ’ t be imported or sold in NZ ). And this is where we have a bit of speculation ... People are asking why there are three models that are all very similar . Well , we think it ’ s possible the Pierer Group has introduced the Gas- Gas ES700 , it will then drop the 690 as a KTM model in favour of a rumoured lightweight 690 parallel twin adventure machine , leaving the ES700 as the last of its kind to be introduced . The last big trail bike . BEN WILKINS
seat and exhaust is slightly different to that of the Husky , more similar to the KTM . The seat is not shaped to go around the top of the radiator shrouds like the Husky , making it a little slimmer and the connection to the lower outside of the single curved radiator appears stronger . However , the big news ergonomically for the rider is it is slightly taller , 15mm to be exact . These are tall bikes anyway , which makes the GasGas bloody tall – unhelpfully so for most riders . The seat height is 935mm and with the rear grab handles on top ... gymnast-like flexibility is a must to get your leg over . It certainly feels tall to manoeuvrer at slow speed – this is not a great bike for the short of leg ( there is a GasGas lowering kit which includes springs , spacers and a shorter sidestand to reduce the seat height by 40mm ). Wheel travel at both ends is 250mm , which is not that much for a dirt bike , a lot for an adven-
62 KIWI RIDER