The evolution of the 2024 GasGas EX350F continues in this video and article. When Brian Storrie and I last left off, we knew we wanted to go up to a 50T for the rear sprocket, and we were still chasing a bit too much weight on the front end of the motorcycle. An earlier call with Jörli from Astra Offroad came to mind where we talked about handlebar height and how I may have chosen poorly for the four stroke.

The original handlebar I bought for the GasGas was the Astra Gemini 27mm; This bar has a rise of 27mm, a sweep of 50mm & a width of 804mm. I purchased this bar because of how much I liked the 22mm rise Astra handlebar on my Sherco. What I didn’t realize at the time, is how these lower-rise Astra handlebars don’t work as well on four strokes.

The weight and rotating mass of a four stroke changes the handling characteristics of the motorcycle over a two stroke. Due to this, the recommendation is to ride four strokes with a bit higher rise handlebar than you would a two stroke. I’ll admit that Jörli did tell me this on the phone, but the 27mm’s were already on the way. As well, I needed to know what “too low” felt like so that I could explain it to others after the fact. The whole purpose of this content is to entertain and educate. That goes for myself included!

After I told Jörli what Storrie mentioned about us still having too much weight on the front of the bike, and how we were trying to combat it, Jörli instantly recommended the Astra Gemini 38mm handlebar. The Gemini Series is their “cross country” style handlebar, with a back sweep and up sweep that helps keep a rider’s weight centered between the wheels for maximum balance and traction. I ordered a 38mm up and set up some time to get to testing.

Handlebar Testing

I was lucky enough to head back to the same private property Storrie and I were at from the previous video. This allows me to build upon what we built the last time we worked on the GasGas together. I didn’t have terrain differences to sort out for different testing sessions.

I did a warm up moto and a regular moto with the 27mm bars and the DDC 50T rear sprocket on the 350F. I have to comment that the 50T rear sprocket, with a longer chain of course, is money right now. I was able to stay in third gear 90% of the time, only upshifting for the big open straights. I never needed to downshift into second, which kept mistakes and stalls to a minimum.

I then came back in and swapped to the 38mm rise handlebars. Swapping bars with the MAKO360 and BrakTec perches isn’t the quickest. For the MAKO360 there are 12 bolts that need to be loosened and then torqued back into place. While the BrakTec perches, with the Enduro Engineering Open Guards, take a bit of tweaking to get off quickly; I have learned my lesson, just take the 8mm perch bolt out all the way.

The first few laps I instantly felt more comfortable on the four stroke. The taller bars were forcing my weight back off the front a bit, but there was still a weird feeling. I decided to head back in and roll the bars back a little. After doing this once, it felt better, but I did come back in again to roll them back further.

While interviewing Jörli for the video, I asked him what rolling the bars back did for me. He said by rolling the bars back, I created more back sweep and less up sweep. This was a way for me to get the bars to work better biomechanics for my arms and a hand positioning that felt comfortable. It blew me away how comfortable I felt once I found that position with the handlebars. I began riding a lot more aggressive, truly attacking the trail instead of reacting to it.

Jörli also mentioned a fun fact about riders who have too much sweep in their bars. If you have too much sweep, you’ll shuffle your palms across the grips to get your hands into a better biomechanics placement for your body. When a rider does this often, they’ll wear the top outer edges of the grips away. This is a tell-tale sign of handlebars with too much sweep for you, the rider, just in case you see this in your grips, but don’t feel it in your hands.

Thanks for reading. Grab a Black STOKED shirt. Enjoy #GettingSeattime & Stay #Stoked! 🤘🏻🤙🏻⚡️

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