As soon as I heard that Rieju were coming to Australia, I was very excited and interested to see what their prices and dealer network would be like. Well that was a couple of months ago and now we’ve got the prices and dealers. Let’s have a look and see what they’ve come up with for their Australian launch.
For those who don’t know who Rieju is, I did an article on them not too long ago detailing their history and their bikes specs. So if you want more in depth details, check out that out. For those who don’t want to read that, Rieju are the old GasGas bikes and made in the old factory in Spain.
Alright, we have prices and the dealer network. Let’s get into the prices first, and then we’ll look at the dealers.
Ok let’s start from the bottom, well not necessarily the bottom, but with the cheapest, the MR Rangers. The Rangers are a really interesting bike and kind of made for softer trail riding and technical terrain. The Ranger 200 is $11790 and the 300 is $11990. Let’s compare the Rangers price to their direct opposition, the Beta Xtrainer. The Xtrainer’s come in a 250 and 300 and they are both $10995. So, the Beta is significantly cheaper. Specs wise they are pretty similar, except the Beta is 7kg lighter and has automatic oil injection. So, that could be hard sell at that price, especially when in this category you are generally after a lighter, easier to handle bike.
Ok let’s step up to the mid-range bikes, the MR Racing. The MR Racing 250 is $12990 and the 300 is $13290. And this pricing put it pretty much bang in line with Beta range. The Sherco 250 and 300 are a bit cheaper and if we move to the new GasGas bikes, the 250 is pretty well the same price but the 300 is a whopping $14155. So if you want a 300cc enduro, this seems like a pretty decent buy. Probably the biggest advantage the Rieju’s have is their top notch KYB suspension. The 250 is a bit of a hard sell at this price point, because you can get a GasGas 250 with transfer port injection for basically the same price. But hey, I know a lot of people don’t like fancy tech on their bike and want the old school carb.
Ok onto the top spec Pro range. The 250 is coming in at $14690 and the 300 is $14990. So you are paying a bit more here, but it does come with some upgrades. Those upgrades are anti-friction treated forks, a lightened XTRIG ROCS triple clamp, GOLD SPEED rims with anodised hubs, a fancy air filter, different bars, stepper seat cover, clutch cover protection and a thermo fan. Looking at this, I don’t know personally if I’d pay the extra, but that may upon change riding it. You know the forks might be significantly better or something like that, I’m just not sure. I hear Gold Speed rims are very durable but the base model is running Excel rims, and they are great too.
The Pro compares to the KTM 6 day range, Sherco Factory and Beta Racing. And, the pricing is bang on with Sherco and Beta. What’s interesting is the up spec Beta and Sherco bikes come with KYB suspension, more on that later. The KTM 6 days is kind of in a league of its own price wise. They are $15550 for the 250 and a whopping $16885 for the 300. Damn, that’s a lot of money for a dirt bike.
So price wise, the MR Racing 300 seems like the buy to me. Sure it doesn’t come with fuel injection, but that KYB suspension is top of the line ATM (not the others don’t have good suspension either) and I know the motors are rock solid having owned one. But of course this is all grain of salt stuff; we really need to ride one. But we’re dealing with what we’ve got ATM and in the 250 range the GasGas looks mighty tempting with that TPI and the Beta Xtrainer is really good and really well priced.
Perhaps just as important is the dealer network. Annoyingly the website doesn’t have a map of all the dealers, so what I’ve done is punch in the post code for major centres and gone from there. And, there is surprisingly amount.
New South Wales has a good spread with some dealers in the Sydney area, Port Macquarie, Albury, Thornton and Shell Harbour. Victoria has a decent spread but unfortunately South Australia only has the one. Up in Queensland there is a good mix around in the South East and then you’ve got to head all the way up to Cairns to find another. In Western Australia there is a couple around Perth and there are also two in Tassie. Unfortunately for those in the Northern Territory, you are out of luck.
So there we have it, the Rieju prices and dealers. What do you all think of the prices and are you interested in getting a Rieju? Personally, I’d be very interested in the 300 Racing I mentioned earlier. It’s got that KYB suspension, proven chassis and engine, very tempting. Here’s hoping they do some demo days in the future.
Ok that’s it from me, keep it OnTheBackWheel people.
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