RIDING THE 2026 RIEJU FUEL-INJECTED 2-STROKE: THE WRAP

Last week I got to ride the very first Rieju MR Pro 300i in the U.S. Geoff Aaron hauled it from Central Powersports Distributing in Texas to California for a quick test on our local trails. Going forward, it will be small companies like this that give us true innovation on the two-stroke front. How do you pronounce it? Geoff says that even in Spain, they pronounce it differently in different regions. He says Re-Yay-Who, which is good enough for us. Regardless of how you say it, the bike is pretty amazing. It has a brand-new motor with an electronic power valve, a counterbalancer, a diaphragm clutch and throttle-body fuel injection.

 

This isn’t a motor made by anyone else. It’s not a GasGas, KTM, Yamaha or anything other than a Rieju, and it’s been several years in development. The bike once was based on the pre-2018 GasGas motorcycles that were manufactured by Torrot in Girona, Spain. The bike had a brand-new chassis at the time, although the motor went back almost 20 years. So, this new motor was in the plan from the very start. The frame is more or less unchanged for 2025. This particular bike is the MR Pro 300i, which is the top of the line. It has a number of upgrades like a radiator fan, Xtrig triple clamps, premium suspension components, and various extras. It sells for $11,399, whereas the standard model is $1000 less. 

The first thing that hits you when you ride the new bike is how refined it is. There’s very little vibration, very little engine noise, it starts easily, runs crisply and everything feels very mainstream. The clutch has a super light pull with an excellent feel. It’s simply not what you expect when you’re dealing with such a small company. We already knew that the chassis was very good from our previous experiences with last year’s MRPro 300. It has a very spread-out riding position so it’s comfortable, especially for big riders.  

It’s the new motor that turned out to be the real surprise. It’s outstanding! It has three maps available on the handlebar, and in the most aggressive mode (one flash of the LED light) it has great power from bottom to top. Obviously, being a European 300cc two-stroke brings certain expectations. It has to run well down low and be extremely reluctant to stall. Job done in that department. You can lug the bike down to idle, and then whack open the throttle and the motor responds without complaint. The power delivery is smooth and immediate, but not perfectly linear. It runs like a trials bike on the very bottom with that instant torque, then gets  a second wind on top, where it runs like a  two-stroke MX bike. In terms of outright power, it is softer on top than a new KTM 300SX, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The 300SX is a beast by anyone’s standards. We featured Geoff Aaron riding the Rieju in a video last week, so check that out on Youtube. The full test will appear in the August, 2025 print edition of Dirt Bike.

FANTIC RISING

Geoff also brought out a Fantic XE300 on the same trip. This is another import from Central Powersports Distributing that falls into the same category; it’s a fuel-injected 300cc two-stroke with an electronic power valve. This is an Italian bike that uses a fair amount of Yamaha parts. Contrary to kneejerk commentary, Fantic is NOT owned by Yamaha and, in fact, there is no real connection between the two companies. Fantic simply buys parts from the European Yamaha importer. Spoiler alert: There’s a video coming out Monday.

ITALIAN JOBS

The Fantic started us thinking about memorable Italian bikes. There have been a bunch of them. There are two things they all have in common. First, they are all beautifully crafted. Second they have very complicated histories full of in-fighting and corporate squabbles. Here are some I pulled out of the Dirt Bike archives for a feature in the September print edition.

Vertemati has a very convoluted history. Two Italian brothers started off as the Husaberg importer and were quite successful in GP racing with Joel Smets. Eventually, Dirt Bike test rider Mike Young went to race GPs on a bike made completely by the Vertemati brothers. It was a great bike, but when they tried to make a production version, it wasn’t nearly as good. They sold the company and started over again. The bike above was the second attempt at a production Vertemati. It wasn’t very good, either, but it was one of the most beautiful bikes ever made.

Another  Italian brand with a very complicated history was Aermacchi. This was an Italian aircraft company on the shores of Lake Varese that made Italy’s greatest fighters in WWII. The company started making small-displacement two-strokes after the war and was eventually bought by AMF Harley-Davidson. The thinking was that it would help Harley compete against the Japanese bikes of the day. The Harley Baja 100 was most famous for giving Larry Roeseler his start.

Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni had a massive effect on the motorcycle industry that is still felt today. In the ’80s, they acquired the Aermacchi/Harley Davidson factory in Varese and started their own brand. They named it Cagiva as a composite of their family name and the town of Varese. In 1987 they acquired Husqvarna. Shortly afterward they also took control of Ducati and MV Agusta. The company always seemed to struggle, but always  bounced back from disaster.

Ever heard of an Italian KTM? That was how the Austrian company first got involved with minis. An Italian manufacturer by the name of LEM made competitive minis throughout the ’90s.  KTM decided it was easier to rebadge LEMs than it was to make their own 50cc bikes. The KTM/LEM had spectacular success in U.S. racing with Mike Alessi. By 1996, KTM decided to build its own minis.

 

CRE wasn’t really an Italian motorcycle maker, but they had considerable success repurposing Honda two-strokes for off-road. Former U.S. Enduro Champion Kevin Hines imported CRE motorcycles for a while and then started making his own out of parts from Italy.

RANDOM HARD DRIVE SEARCH

This is a photo from a subscription ad in 1995. Roger DeCoster was in charge of Dirt Bike’s testing department back then and we weren’t above exploiting him for subs. He was happy to help.

 

That’s all for now!