“A GasGas? What’s that?” asked the guy at the gas station in upstate New York. He was probably at least an hour away from the nearest motorcycle dealer, and there weren’t any racks of magazines in his country store, telling him about the latest developments in the moto industry. He’d thought I rolled in on a Honda, and judging by the colour of the bike, I could understand.
“It’s basically a KTM,” I told him, “But with red paint.” That was the easiest way to explain the bike to everyone else who asked me that question over the 5,000ish kilometres I rode the bike (from Ontario to New Brunswick via New England, and then a week’s dual sport tour through Atlantic Canada).
And, it’s the easiest way to explain the bike to you as well.
In case you forgot, KTM’s parent company (Pierer AG) bought GasGas from its Spanish owners back before COVID-19. Since then, they’ve basically replicated most of KTM’s dirt bike lineup into the GasGas lineup. In 2022, they announced the ES700 Enduro and SM700 Supermoto models, which are GasGas versions of the KTM 690 series, with some very minor differences (mostly with the finish). In 2024, those bikes are finally here, and GasGas lent me the ES700 Enduro to test this summer, starting at the KTM Adventure Rally Canada.
I felt at home right away. This 700 has the same liquid-cooled single-cylinder LC4 engine that the KTM 690 Enduro R has, with 74ish ponies at the crank and 54 lb-ft of torque. A bidirectional quickshifter is standard, and the bike comes with a hard-edged Off-Road ride mode and a smoother Street ride mode (you switch modes with a button on the left-hand switchgear). Of course the bike is fuel-injected and the KTM 690 Enduro has traction control as standard.
Whoops—did I just call this the KTM 690 Enduro? My bad. If you were color-blind, you would indeed be hard-pressed to tell the difference when you’re riding—at least, it’s hard to tell after you’ve climbed aboard. And you’ve really got to climb, with that 935 mm seat height—a bit more than the 690 I rode back in 2022, which is the most noticeable difference I found between the bikes. The GasGas uses WP XPLOR suspension in front and back, fully adjustable, same as the 690, but for some reason, the seat height is 25 mm higher on the GasGas. Maybe that’s because the seat itself is different, but it’s actually quite thin, and I don’t really see where they could have shaved another chunk of foam off.
Through the many road miles I rode this bike, I found the seat uncomfortable at first, but it was just fine after I broke it in (or maybe I broke in my own butt). Whatever the case, thanks to the engine’s dual counterbalancer, the handlebar vibration is minimal and you can pound out hour after hour on this machine once you’ve got accustomed to the seat—especially if you’re on a back road, sliding around the saddle a bit.
That’s where this bike feels at home best, I think. With the 13.5-litre rear-mounted gas tank fueled up, the 700 weighs just under 160 kg. The bike’s gearing is perfect for launching that very manageable weight out of tight corners, even on bumpy Maritime back roads. The 21-inch front wheel and 18-inch rear wheel might take a bit of muscle to get through the corners if you’re used to 17-inch supermoto rims, but they sure swallow up beat-up pavement.
You may be unimpressed, and point out that Ducati’s new Hypermotard 698 makes even more power, and you’d be right. But where the Hypermotard must turn back as the back road turns to gravel, then two-track, then single-track, the GasGas ES700 can soldier on.
I rode this bike down everything except single-track (although some of the two-track I rode was very tight), and if you’re a decent rider, this bike will take you just about anywhere. It’s definitely not for beginners, but if you’ve spent years on a Japanese 650 and you want more power, but you don’t want the weight of a twin-cylinder ADV bike, then this is the machine you want. It can haul 130 km/h all day on the highway, or even more, but it’s basically a dirt bike on steroids once you leave the pavement. No, it’s not as slick as a race-bred two-stroke enduro, but the suspension is derived from those bikes and out of the box, it is more capable than any other dual sport in its class.
One other thing that some ADV-hesitant buyers might like: While the ES700 does come with electronic safety features, they are very basic and easy to switch off. There’s no TFT screen to break, no adjustable-level gadgetry. Just switchable ABS and traction control and two engine modes.
However, those same buyers may not like the fact that the ES700 price tag is so high that you might expect more features. This is the biggest problem I have with this machine. Depending which dealer’s website you visit, you’ll see pricing anywhere from $12k to as much as $14k. That’s a lot of money, considering both the Yamaha Tenere 700 and Honda Transalp are priced around $13.5k in Canada this year, and the Suzuki DR650 is around $7.2k and the Kawasaki KLR650 is $8k.
But none of those bikes offer the all-round blend of performance and capability that the GasGas ES700 does. They’re not as hard-edged, out of the box. If you want a true dual sport that can handle anything you throw at it, the ES700 (or its Husky/KTM counterparts) is really the king of this category. Other bikes do individual things better, but no other bike does everything quite as well as this motorcycle.
For a full spec sheet, or to find your local dealer, check out the GasGas Canada website here.
