2023 GasGas SM 700 First Look

Just when we started getting used to the fact that Husqvarna and KTM are one big happy family of stepsiblings, the KTM Group adopted another litter of bikes from Spain, in GasGas. For the past few years, we’ve been trying to wrap our heads around this latest ploy for total world domination, and now GasGas jumps into the tarmac game. The world has clearly gone mad. 

For the past two years GasGas has made great strides in the world of off-road racing taking AMA Supercross, off-road, and MX wins and proving it is here to stay. But more interesting has been the company’s involvement in the MotoGP championship in the Moto3 class, which has often left people wondering, why? That answer just became a little bit clearer as GasGas rolls out two street-legal motorcycles, including the dual sport ES 700 for the first time, and really begs the question, what’s next?!

It seems like KTM’s 690 Enduro R has been reinvented more times than its CEO Stefan Pierer has gone shopping down the motorcycle-manufacturer aisle. Yeah, of course we know the SM is a reskinned version of the Austrian parent company’s long-standing super-single platform, but it has also instantly filled a gap in Husky’s and now GasGas’ product lines. That mission now appears to clearly point to the fact that the company intends on snatching up some market share in the streetbike segment with the introduction of the SM 700, which won’t be coming to North America in 2022, but hopefully for 2023.

At the heart the SM 700 is the tried-and-true 692.7cc liquid-cooled SOHC single with four valves. Power is rated at 74 hp at 8,000 rpm with 54 pound-feet of peak torque delivered at 6,500 rpm. Bore measures a whopping 105mm with 80mm of stroke. Valves are actuated on the intake side by finger followers and on the exhaust side by rocker arms. A pair of spark plugs ensure efficient combustion. Electronic fuel injection is controlled by ride-by-wire throttle. Power is fed through an APTC slipper clutch with hydraulic actuation to a six-speed gearbox.

The basis of the chassis is the chromium-molybdenum steel trellis frame with its self-supporting polyamid subframe which also houses the 3.6-gallon fuel tank underneath the seat for a lower center of gravity. Lastly, the single-piece, die-cast aluminum swingarm is very rigid and light and totally devoid of welds.

Compared to its sibling the ES 700, there are some big differences in running gear. Up front the SM 700 has a supermoto-specific 48mm WP Apex spring fork with compression damping handled in the left leg, and rebound damping in the right. Toolless clickers sit on top of the fork caps for easy adjustment. Out back is a fully adjustable, linked WP Apex shock. Suspension travel measures 8.5 inches for the fork and 9.4 inches on the shock, leaving claimed seat height at 35.4 inches. A pair of beautiful cast aluminum 17-inch wheels are fitted with Continental ContiAttack SM EVO tires. Braking on the SM is handled by a giant 320mm disc grabbed by a radial-mount Brembo Monoblock four-piston caliper, on the rear is a single-piston caliper pinching a 240mm disc.

Despite being a big, raw, single-cylinder Supermoto, the SM 700 has a suite of rider aids and modes for improved safety and performance. First up is the up-and-down quickshifter, and then a pair of ride modes. The first mode is Street mode which has lean-sensitive ABS and traction control managed via a six-axis IMU. The next mode is Supermoto mode which lets the bike off the leash a bit and optimizes TC for rear-wheel drifting, allows wheelies, and turns off the rear ABS completely, so you can back the bike into corners like Stéphane Chambon—look him up, kids.

With the addition of the SM 700 to the GasGas lineup, buyers now have another option when shopping for a large-displacement supermoto single. But now we’re super curious where this is all going. Are future GasGas ADV and street models in the plan too?