200-MILE TRAIL TEST: GASGAS EC450F

[MotoFactory]

By Ron Lawson

I  don’t have a history of wise decisions. I’m blessed and cursed with entirely too many options when it comes to picking motorcycles for specific rides and races. I’m the guy who rode a Honda XR650R at the Laughlin Hare Scrambles. I’m the guy who rode a Suzuki DR250 at the Kauai Hare & Hound. I’m the guy who rode a Honda XR400R at the ISDE in Finland. All those were great motorcycles in their proper environment. None of those events was the proper environment.

This time, I did well. Days before leaving for the 41st Motion Pro Nevada 200 Trailride, a GasGas EC450F showed up at the Dirt Bike shop. Weirdly, it didn’t immediately occur to me that it was a divine gift. I was still considering motocross bikes, 125s, dual-sport bikes and other mistakes. Finally, a shaft of light beamed down on the GasGas. It was perfect.

GasGas, as I’m sure everyone knows, is in the Pierer fellowship of motorcycles alongside KTM and Husqvarna. Those guys certainly get maximum mileage out of their hardware. The EC450F is very closely related to the KTM 450XCF-W and the Husqvarna FE450. It has a secondary kinship to the KTM 500EXC, Husqvarna FE501s and GasGas ES500 dual-sport bikes. And, you can also see a resemblance to the KTM 450XC-F cross-country bike, which is just a half step removed from the three 450cc motocross bikes. Mercifully, the GasGas EX450F and Husqvarna FX450 cross-country bikes have been trimmed out for 2025. Enough is enough.

So, here’s the legend for the EC450F: it’s a true trail bike. The motocross bikes and cross-country bikes are all racers. The ES500, FE501S and 500EXC, on the other hand, are all street legal with emission and noise restrictions. The EC450 is perfect for 200 miles of Nevada singletrack.

GASGAS A GO-GO

The easiest way to identify the EC450F as a trail bike is the inclusion of a headlight, taillight, odometer and kickstand; otherwise, it’s a dead ringer for the MC450F motocross bike. Just under the surface, there’s a long list of differences, starting with the six-speed gearbox. The EC also has a lower compression ratio, a smaller throttle body and completely different mapping, making for a much milder power delivery. It is not, however, nearly as detuned as the dual-sport version. The fuel tank holds 2.37 gallons (versus 1.9 for the MX bike), and the suspension is much softer. The EC450F comes with the WP Xact coil-spring fork. Despite the similarity in the name, it’s a very different component than the Xact air fork that comes on the competition models. Also, the EC didn’t get the new frame that was bestowed upon the 2025 competition models. The difference is hard to spot, but outwardly you can see that the EC450F has more gusseting around the top shock mount compared to the MX bike. It sounds kind of backwards, but the trail bikes and the dual-sport bikes in the GasGas line actually have a more rigid frame than the motocross bikes. 

GasGas has a number of components that provide separation from the other bikes in the Pierer family. The brakes are Braktec, while the handlebar and rims are unbranded in order to offer the bike at a lower price point than KTM or Husky. It doesn’t get a map switch or hand guards, either, but it does have a radiator fan. The price is still a little hefty at $11,549. That’s $600 less than a KTM 450XC-W but $1550 more than a Honda CRF450X.

The GasGas EC450F is the red version of the KTM 450XC-W. The main differences are the rear suspension (PDS on the KTM, linkage on the GasGas) and the price. The EC450F sells for $11,549, which is $600 less than the KTM.

CALAMITY AT CALIENTE

I had ridden the Nevada 200 Trail Ride before, so I knew what to expect. The event might have the word “trail ride” right in the title, but it eventually degenerates into a trail race. Here’s the routine: At the start of each day and after each stop, the riders queue up behind Scot Harden and Rodney Smith, who’s one of Scot’s main lieutenants for the ride. We’re all instructed to wait four minutes or so before leaving in groups of two, allowing dust to clear between each row. Skyler Howes, Lendon Smith, Pete Murray, Gary Jones and I were in front, and the riders generally followed instructions—until they didn’t. Eventually, the grumpy old men behind me all had racing flashbacks, and it was game on. 

In the course of three days of riding, the perfect bike should be equally adept in the role of a racer as well as an off-road touring bike. That’s why the EC450F was ideal. It’s not slow. The motor has around 15 percent less peak power than a 450 motocross bike, and while that sounds like a big step down, you have to consider that a modern MX bike is preposterously overpowered for anything off the racetrack. So picture this: I drop into a sand wash with any one of 160 grumpy old men on my tail. He’s on a YZ450F and still angry over something I did in 1987. We both hit the sand, open our throttles and the EC accelerates with just enough power to stay on top of the sand. The YZ hooks, knifes and fishtails. He straightens out, gets his 15 percent more horsepower under control and starts catching up fast. But, by then, we climb out of the sand wash and get into the rocks. The Nevada 200 has a lot of rocks. The EC might not have a map switch or access to traction control, but the power delivery is so smooth you don’t need it. The proper method of dealing with rocks is to hold the throttle in one position and don’t move it. It will find traction, while the YZ is crushing bushes and bouncing off trees like a 60-horsepower pinball. 

A different scenario would play out if the grumpy old man was on a 300 two-stroke. Those guys had an advantage in the rocks because they could drop down to zero rpm and still accelerate at will, whereas I was stuck at the aforementioned one throttle position. The EC450F still went straighter in the sand with less knifing and more traction. The EC is still a four-stroke, though, so stalling is a danger that you can’t ignore. If you drop the revs too low, it could happen; it didn’t, but it could. The mapping is about as perfect as could be. This particular bike isn’t subject to state or federal emission standards. Technically, it’s imported as a closed-course competition vehicle, and that means that GasGas was free to get the fuel mixture perfect. It comes with a reasonably quiet muffler, too. As usual, if you change the muffler, run race gas or mess with anything in the motor, all that perfection is null and void. Anything can result.

With a six-speed gearbox, the EC450 is similar to the GasGas ES500 dual-sport bike, but has a good 10-horsepower advantage in peak power. It might seem odd, but the EC450F trail bike has a more rigid frame than the MC450F motocross model. You can access the filter without tools, just like the other GasGas and KTM models. The radiator fan comes on automatically when the GasGas gets hot, and it does get hot.

THE FORK TO END ALL FORKS

We’ve gone on record saying that the Xact coil spring fork is the best product that WP has ever put on a production bike. The EC confirms that. It’s set up for hard riding on moderate off-road terrain and has a range of operation where it’s simply incredible. That range can be expressed in terms of speed. From 10 to around 35 mph, the EC’s suspension is in its happy place. It absorbs everything you throw at it, doesn’t dive and usually transmits less impact than you expect. In rough terrain, it loses a little stability when you start going faster, but it’s still predictable and comfortable. At the super-low speeds that usually accompany rocks, it’s not as cushy as some trail bikes and dual-sports. Those bikes often come absurdly soft, and while that might be welcome for crawling through technical sections, it’s very limiting overall. The EC450F has the ideal balance, both front and rear. It handles the virtually impossible task that all off-road bikes face as well as any bike on the market.

Other things that I came to love about the GasGas: It always used less fuel than I expected. It charged through three days of dust without completely clogging the air filter. The Dunlop AT81 tires held up well, didn’t go flat and provided decent traction. I’m not crazy about the lack of handguards, but I’m okay without the map switch. The EC450 is a great trail bike, and for me, it came at the right time to ruin my perfect record of imperfect bike choices.

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