Enduro Pro Mode - Black Magic

[WindyChuffer]

Just back from 6 days trail riding in the Spanish Pyrenees on the GSA WC. Two days spent doing The Vince, a trail riding orienterring event. Posted some piccies: Click here for pix in the VINCE 2014 Thread in the Off Road section.

Simply blown away by the off road capabilities of the bike compared to the Hex Head. The Enduro Pro mode is the work of pure genius. This sets up the ABS on the front into off road mode, and also disables ABS on the rear. On the Hex Head, we used to disable everything, usually by disconnecting the front wheel speed sensor.

Steep, loose descents on the Hex Head would be accompanied by the fear of front brake causing front wheel washouts, requiring a lot of rear braking & engine braking. With the WC, you can simply give it a handful of front brake. Give it a large handful, and the rear locks up. Turn the bars at the same time, and the rear flicks out getting the bike around loose hairpin descents in short order. Means you can go harder and faster.

Enduro Pro mode also sets up the Traction Control to be a work of black magic. On the old bike, you needed to be careful where you stopped on a climb and what you went up. The WC traction control just simply works. Period. Steep stuff that would otherwise have had an issue with on the Hexhead, was simply cheating with the WC !

After thrashing the bike up a tight rocky twisty off road section that took us from 1,000m to 2,000m in 35 degrees C heat, saw the dashboard report an engine temperature of 101 degrees C. But the bike didn't complain.

The low seat on the WC is also a dream, making dabbing easier.

I found I was riding the WC harder and faster than the Hexhead and managed to get it airborn a few times. Big grins.

I did get an ESA error on the dashboard one afternoon which seems to be related to having done some fast rough stuff. Of note, this is not mentioned in the manual. No doubt if it was, it would instruct you to get the to a dealer. The fault would not go away and meant I could not make any suspension adjustments, but it rode OK. Thankfully the fault cleared itself over night. Overheating? Dunno - will take that up with the dealer.

Happy days.

 

[blues n twos]

You are certainly using this bike to the max mucho respect to you for that

My off road skills have wained over the years so loose gravel pistes ala Morocco is about my limit

Jon

 

[Nutty]

I'm glad there's people like you to get the most out of the GSA, as there's no way I will!

 

[paulR]

Windy...me and a chum are going down to the Pyrenees in September and intending to do a bit of trail riding on our GS's, have you any recommendations for which trails to try? Is there a map of the area I can buy?

 

[WindyChuffer]

Hey Paul,

Get maps produced by ICC - Institut Cartografic de Catalunya which are available from Stanfords in London, and also some sellers on Amazon.

Llavorsi, Oliana & Andorra are good bases.

If you are camping I'd say Andorra as there is a bit of life there. Camping Valira is good, and also has a pool. Good riding on doorstep from all though. Some cracking high rides from Andorra over to Llavorsi. Will take a pic of maps and ping over to you if you give me your email address.

Basically, any white trail on the map is fine. Generally these are trail capable of taking a 4x4, but some are being tarmacced. Fine for any bike.

Black lines are a lottery - sometimes they are 4x4 type trail, others they are very hard to follow and sometimes quite steep.

Dotted lines are footpath - avoid.

Example maps:

1off Alt Urgell #4 EAN/ISBN: 8414774340675
1off Pallars Sobirà #26 EAN/ISBN: 8414774340644

I'll have a look at my map stash and ping you more details.

Although I cant recall which one I used from Andorra.

Example routes:

1. Take CG4 from La Massana in Andorra, all the way to the top (twisty tarmac), then over the border into Spain where it is trail to Alins. Rustic mountain restaurant nr Alins at end of the trail. Then road to Llavorsi. Easy quick trails.

2. Take CG6 from Andorra to Os De Civis which leads onto some long tails (~20 miles) and choice of routes / circuits. Can get down to Tirvia which leads onto Llavorsi.

3. From Llavorsi head south to Rialp. At the river turn West to old ski resort of Llessui. Cafe here. Keep going up, which takes you trail and top of old lifts and up to about 2,500 metres. At the top can head north on trails which ends up at Espot which is NW of Llavorsi. Can also drop off the other side into the next valley.

All doable on any bike including a GS and also 4x4's. Some exposure, drop offs etc so not for the feint hearted. Views are simply stunning as per my pix which were taken on routes #2 & #3 and highly recommended. Its just great doing 20-30 miles on trails and not seeing a road.

PM me your email address and I can ping you more info.

 

[paulR]

Brilliant, thank you very much for that, I'll pm you my email address

 

[Giles]

Sounds good ... I had fun trail riding in the pyrenees a couple of years ago on the hexhead GSA, and even then I was amazed what you could do with it. The new GS is probably very capable indeed ...

 

[oldnfat]

Agree.....used a GS with enduro pro at the off road school last April....couldn't believe what it would allow you to do. Those steep down hill rocky descents that would have my ares puckering up on my TC were a piece of piss on the WC...came away with deep respect for the brakes and traction control....simply brilliant.