Keeping true to the brand’s core, the 74bhp SM 700 and ES 700 share their spiritual roots with the GASGAS off-road range, with the supermoto styled SM and enduro ES bringing road refinements to a pair of pretty hardcore looking machines.
Unsurprisingly, the machines share almost all their underpinnings with other products from the Pierer empire, specifically the equivalent KTM 690 and Husqvarna 701 models. Indeed, while GASGAS products have generally been a little lower spec and have undercut the other Pierer brands by a few hundred pounds in the off-road world, both the SM and ES 700 wear identical pricetags to their KTM and Husqvarna cousins, at £9349 for all models.
That’s no surprise, as they are essentially identical motorcycles. That means that despite GASGAS being a new brand, it’s a well proven package and buying choice probably comes down to your favourite colour as much as anything else. The GASGAS models are red, as opposed to orange (KTM) or white and blue (Husqvarna), although the SM 700 does wear cast wheels to the spoked items on the KTM 690 SMC R and the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto. The styling and bold graphics are certainly a bit louder on the GASGAS models, but underneath you have the same trellis frame, top spec WP Apex suspension and the venerable 692.7cc single cylinder engine as the others.
Pierer are certainly pushing the GASGAS brand hard. Formed in Spain in 1985, it was most famous for its trials machines but also had a range of motocross and enduro bikes too. Since becoming part of the KTM family in 2019, the name has been applied to entries in the Moto2 and Moto3 road racing world championships, although as with the range of production motorcycles it is largely an exercise in badge engineering.
It will be interesting to see what other KTM models will get the GASGAS treatment in the coming years.
