GasGas EC250F

Leaving the smallest motorcycle till last is intentional. It only takes one look for you to know that the GasGas is the one of the trio that is built with pure off-road intensions. It is, essentially, an enduro bike with only the very bare minimum of niceties to make it road legal. It is pared down to the bone, in every sense, with no pillion provisions; no ancillary components to aid navigation; no rider aids; no selectable modes; etc. Hell, it hasn’t even got a key – just sling a leg over, press the button and go…

And yet, despite the very clear focus for the GasGas, it doesn’t actually seem compromised in any way. I’ve very little experience in riding true off-roaders, but the EC felt every inch a normal motorcycle. Okay, so it’s quite tall, but the seat (and everything else) is skinny, and it weighs two parts of sod all, so it’s about as easy to move around as a push bike, and threads through traffic better than just about anything else I’ve ever ridden. Who would have thought that a bike that has off-road as its main priority would actually make the perfect commuter? But then, if you did want to take the GasGas into town, you’d be wanting to take a big lock and chain with you as well. This is not a model with much in the way of security features – there is no remote ignition or steering lock. There is not even a key!

I’d expected that an enduro bike would have had a certain element of attitude – either a snatchy power delivery, or a narrow powerband, or a snatchy clutch. But no, the GasGas has mild manners personified. The virtually vibe-free powerplant uses a multi-functional balance shaft which, aside from quelling the shivers and shakes from the larger moving parts (crank, con rod and piston) also drives the camchain and water pump.

Despite the fact that the engine is a mere 250cc in capacity, it has real punch. Next to no requirement to slip the clutch, just get rolling and the little Gasser rips. Of course, this being a pukka off-road focused machine, it will be geared really low, and will be totally out of puff before you even get out of any speed limits, right?

Er, actually, no. It’ll keep on motoring right up to the national speed limit and beyond if necessary, and even when sat at above 60mph on the Kirk Micheal to Peel coast road, it felt perfectly happy and not at all strained.

And off-road? Perfect. I needed no more power, and at no point was I having to feather the clutch to keep rolling – just treacly-smooth power that found grip in all the conditions we encountered. Naturally, there is a flip side to this, and that is that servicing is a major consideration, it requiring attention for every 15 hours of ride time. This is fine if your attention is purely on the dirt, but if you did happen to enjoy its abilities as a commuter bike, you’d probably get a little bored of having to service it more than once a month…

Clearly, the Michelin Tracker tyres are a far more aggressive tread pattern than the two different versions of the Anakee on the Husky and KTM, and gained grip in places that the Anakees couldn’t, although on the mostly dry trails of the Isle of Man, it was only after a sharp downpour that the Trackers really came into their own and allowed the GasGas to find grip and clear off, while the Anakee-wearing KTM and Husky were struggling to gain enough traction to move away from a standing start.

Surprisingly there’s no sump guard, but the skinny engine, colossal ground clearance and lower frame rails that sit lower than the crankcases mean it doesn’t really need one. The pared-back build might suggest that it’s flimsy or brittle, but this bike is made to be ridden at the scenery (rather than negotiated over it) so it’s tough. As an example, the rear mudguard isn’t just a plastic ’guard bolted on top of a tubular subframe, but has plastic covers beneath the aluminium subframe that attach to the mudguard, both strengthening it and making it a more comfortable and sturdier way of grabbing hold of the rear of the bike if you get stuck (or when you want to haul it around the garage or in the back of a van).

Perhaps the only hint of any cost-cutting (although it could just be an effort to ensure the lowest possible mass), is the quality of the switchgear. The headlight dip/ main, horn and kill switch are in the tiny cluster on the left, and aren’t especially easy to use (at no point did I manage to get the horn to work if I was wearing gloves), with a start button on the right-hand side being the same as a kill switch on a motocross bike, that earths out on to the handlebar. My initial concern was that this could be problematic in the rain, or if it got a drowning in a water crossing, although this is perhaps a little overdramatic a statement given that we had no issues whatsoever.

For ‘just’ a 250cc single, the price tag of £9500 may seem a little high. So, while the GasGas is the lightest, smallest and skinniest, it seems that you’re paying more to get less. In reality, what you’re paying for is a sharper focus, and to buy a bike that is more capable of delivering in an off-road environment. But it’s still an absolute hoot in traffic…

Any one of the two-wheelers that we had on test would provide you with some excellent riding and allow you to explore the less well-known areas of the Isle of Man.

The one thing that we all took away from our trip wasn’t which bike was the best, which was the fastest, or which took you to places that the others couldn’t access (the pushbikes could go on more trails). It was how wonderful a place the island is for anyone, at any time. And it soon became clear that there is a lot of space for such a small island (about 30 miles long, 12 miles wide), and a lot of green lanes and trails to explore as well.

While we only rode on three trails – as the video explains – they showed not only how easily you can access some of the more remote parts of the TT course while racing is in progress (the climb from the back of the Creg up to Windy Corner was our first, and an epic eyeopener!), but also how you can experience parts of the countryside that no road bike will ever take you to.