For those Australians and New Zealanders, I have some exciting news; Rieju Motorcycles are coming in March 2021. For those viewers from elsewhere in the world, you’re in luck, Rieju are launching pretty much worldwide too.
If you don’t know anything about Rieju (or Reyhoo as the Spanish seem to pronounce it. I’ll stick with Rey-ju), they are nearly exactly the same as the 2019 GasGas bikes. As you may or may not know, GasGas was bought by KTM and they now use the KTM platform. They are now basically entry level KTM’s. After the sale to KTM, Rieju bought the GasGas platform and their bikes are all based off the previous models.
Rieju have stated that they are going to further develop the bikes as time goes by. Now the last ‘real’ GasGas bikes models were absolute pearlers and frequently won their class shootouts. They handle great; have an old school style two stroke engine and the best suspension, KYB. I’m keen to see where Rieju go with development.
The bikes are expected to be available in late February to March this year. In Australia, the website is up but there is limited information at the moment. They still haven’t finalised dealers and pricing. Overseas, the US website has all the details on the bikes, pricing and dealers. I’ve had a look and my local dealer has a couple in stock so I’ll try nab a test ride.
Alright let’s look at the bikes. Rieju will be bringing 6 bikes to Australian and NZL, the MR Pro 250/300, MR Racing 250/300 and the MR Ranger 200/300. I’ll explain the bikes for you because the naming scheme is pretty confusing.
The Pro is the fancy version with all the trick bits, kind of like a KTM 6 days or Sherco Factory. The Racing is the standard version and the Ranger is more of a trail bike/user friendly machine.
The Racing version seems like it could be ‘the buy’ for me. It has KYB suspension, Nissin brakes, Neken bars, Excel rims and an FMF pipe. The Pro is more expensive and has a X-Trig ROCS triple clamp, DLC coated KYB forks, a thermo fan, skid plate, clutch and ignition cover, Goldspeed rims and hubs, Renthal bars and an upgraded seat cover. I’d be interested to see if all the different gear is worth the extra cash, especially since the stock KYB suspension is so good.
The Ranger is a fair bit different. It has the same base but some pretty big differences. The suspension is softer, the seat height is 1.5 inches lower, the brake calipers are lower spec and the engine has a softer power delivery. This is pretty much a direct competitor to the Beta Xtrainer.
There’s no prices just yet, they are said to be announced in February. I’ll make some guesstimations though based off the previous GasGas models and the US prices. The 2019 EC300 was $12490 AUD, so I’m expecting a similar price or it to be $12990. The Ranger 300 was a thousand dollars cheaper so let’s presume $11500. The Pro version, I’m not sure. In the US it is a thousand dollars more than the Racing, so I’m expecting it to be between $1500-2000 more. The prices in the US are pretty much on par with the Beta range so they should be similar in Australia and New Zealand.
So there we have it. I’ll let you know as soon as I have prices and I’ll either update this article or do a new one. I’m pretty excited to see how these go, fingers crossed some dealers jump on board. I had a GasGas EC300 in the past and it was a great bike. Going by the 2019 GasGas EC300, the suspension will most likely be the best in class. Nearly all the other two strokes have counter balanced motors now, so the Rieju (bar the Ranger) will still that raw, two stroke feeling that a lot of people love. My only concerns are that the other brands have some newer tech now, like fuel injection, oil injection and as I just said, counter balanced motors that have tons less vibrations. But hey, if it rides the best, none of that really matters right?
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