Laughs, pure and single
Need more grins and chuckles in your life? You’ll be needing a new Gasgas SM700
If your two priorities for a motorcycle are: a) shits, and b) giggles, then the new Gasgas SM 700 should be at the top of your shopping list (along with a moped and an excavator). It’s a modern day TDR250 – Yamaha’s ground-breaking supermoto that first introduced the world to sitty-up tomfoolery back in 1988.
Of course, with an extraordinary 74bhp available from the 693cc single-cylinder motor, the SM is in another performance universe to the old Yam, which brings us to an admission: the Gasgas gets its high-tech engine and virtually everything else from KTM’S 690 SMC-R. All that separates the two – and Husqvarna’s 701SM come to that – are paintjobs and the Gasgas’s lighter wheels.
KTM, Husky and Gasgas – originally a Spanish trials bike specialist – are now owned by Pierer Mobility, and as I merrily thrash round a go-kart track at the SM’S UK launch, my cynicism about such blatant badge engineering dwindles. The base bike is so, so good that I can see why the Pierer bosses want to sell it to more than just the KTM faithful.
The LC4 motor is an engine designer’s wet dream. It has a single overhead cam with roller rockers for the exhaust valves (ie, there’s no metal-on-metal sliding), twin spark plugs (each with their own ignition maps) and – cleverest of all – a balancer shaft in the cylinder head, as well as one by the crank.
If you’re used to singles like Yamaha’s XT660 which chuff along with all the ferocity of a hamster, the KTM-GASGAS motor is, frankly, mind-blowing. It’s not just the lack of vibration that impresses – blind-folded I’d probably guess it’s a twin – but the way it picks up revs, and then keeps going… and going.
The track is a mishmash of hairpins with only a couple of properish bends and for the first few laps I use first and second, marvelling how the motor can be tazzed up to the 9000rpm redline (9000rpm! From a single!) before I quickshift into second.
Then I try going round in second gear only and it’s definitely faster. If you carry enough speed into the hairpins – easy enough – the SM drives hard from the apex, hits its stride as you lift the bike up, then accelerates with enough gumption to lift the front wheel most of the way down the short straights. I can’t get enough of it – to have this much flexibility and power in something so light is heavenly.
We didn’t get a chance to ride the Gasgas on the road, but because the gearing is identical to the KTM and Husky’s, it will offer the same practical ability to cruise at motorway speeds without your ears vibrating off. Expect a top speed of 115mph and a respectable 140 mile fuel range at an easily-achievable 50mpg.
The suspension is WP’S finest – stonking 48mm-diameter forks at the front, fully adjustable shock at the rear. The bike I’m riding is set up for the track, with five clicks more rebound and compression damping than standard at the front and a similar treatment at the rear. For my moderate weight and talent it’s all-but perfect. Grabbing the brakes – one 320mm disc and Brembo caliper – provokes plenty of fork dive, but the suspension action is calm and syrupy, and the chances of me bottoming the forks out are precisely zero. And then, with the forks compressed, you turn in and the SM swoops majestically to the apex. There’s something about the height of supermotos that makes apex bombing more fun than usual – one moment you’re perched up as high as a Tranny van driver, the next your bonce is only three foot from the floor. Obviously there are downsides. A pillion wrecks the handling, valves need checking every 6200 miles and there’s not much wind protection. But cobblers to all that. If you can afford to spend £9349 on something that exists purely to make you smile, buy this.
‘A pillion wrecks the handling and there’s not much wind protection. But cobblers to all that…’