It looks to me that only the non-experienced offroad riders complan about the gb ratios.
The HP2 has the same gearbox ratio spec as far as i'm concerned, and the bike was ridden into 2nd place on German Cross Country race series final in the same track where 125-650cc single cylinder enduros-crossers race with the top riders  . The race is extremely difficult and varying, mostly slow speed action! But sometimes a near flatouts too. So it quite says how well the ratios are choosed.
The very-very-very slow "standing" speed offroad is more trial and stunt riding speciality, over the size of three heights-of-human rocks jump from one to another etc, you can't go into such places with a big pig like a big trailie bike anyway.
Experienced offroad riders go through/over the obstacles usually with the accelerated speed when the bike is stable and the front end is light, very rarely with the very low speeds where the bike turns highly unstable and the front end nailed. Thus the very short first gear looks rather like a "academical" option for the newbie offroad riders to me.
Anyways, that's my 2-cents about it...
Last edited by Margus; 23 Aug 2006 at 09:31.
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