http://www.crosstrainingenduro.com A Sherco 300SE v 300SEF comparison to revisit the old twostroke versus fourstroke debate! There have been plenty of arguments and discussions over the years. The more narrowminded riders will claim one is way better. And remember this is not a Sherco 300SE v 300SEF review as such. So it was a great opportunity to compare it to the Sherco 300SE twostroke and see if there was much difference. A quick bit of history. Until around the year 2000 there was a big difference. Fourstrokes were generally seen as the choice for dualsport or beginner dirt riders. Our dirt riding tips are great for developing your hard enduro skills. They were heavy and underpowered. But the fourstrokes were more reliable and had a very linear power delivery. The twostrokes? Try our training vids for working on your extreme enduro techniques. But of course any experienced sensible rider knows it just depends on what sort of riding you do. A few months ago we had a chance to ride the Sherco 300SEF. It was already a quite powerful fourstroke but in 2024 it had a pile of mods to get even more power across the rev range. If you want extreme enduro training see our playlists of enduro skills to learn. If you are enduro riding get into our enduro training vids.Into enduro and dirt bikes? Check out our dirt bike videos. The Sherco 300SE and 300SEF differences are much less. The current fourstroke enduro motorbikes are only a bit heavier and have far more horsepower in the past 25 years. Need hard enduro training? Work through our video lists. The choice of racers and experienced riders due to their light weight and plenty of horsepower. But those vicious powerbands were terrible for general offroad riding until power valves and other mods made the power delivery more linear. Today? Hard enduro techniques are covered in our training vids. Maximum horsepower has barely changes for the twostrokes but the power is far more linear. They rarely foul plugs. And they tend to need far less topend and bottomend rebuilds. And this is why the fourstrokes can be much easier to ride in the hands of your everyday dirt muppet! Grunt? There are still differences though. It's easy to focus too much on interpreting dyno charts, but lets compare Sherco's 300 models. The twostroke clearly puts out more maximum horsepower. And while the power delivery is linear, it occurs over a much narrower rev range. In contrast, the fourstroke is producing its power over a much broader rev range. It's easy to be seduced by the maximum power figures and assume the twostroke is best. Extreme enduro training vids are our focus. The twostroke is clear winner at low revs and of course this is why the twostroke 300s are the choice for hard enduro. But that fast response at low revs can actually cause problems for less experienced riders. Okay. Lets forget the dyno chart and go for real life experiences. In my 60s I find the hard enduro rides are really beating me up too much and I'm trying to decide whether to just get back into more 'normal' enduro riding. If so, a little fourstroke could be tempting. But I would definitely have to know the hard enduro stuff was over. See our full review of the Sherco 300SEF here. What has been your experience with twostrokes and fourstrokes? Any preferences? The first thing we noticed? It's also because fourstrokes only fire half as often so they are much more likely to stall. Have you recently made the changes? I'm keen to hear your stories! We did slowly adapt, but generally fourstrokes are not a lot of fun in hard terrain unless you are a wizard when it comes to clutch slipping! It certainly makes you learn how to use that clutch well! On more open tracks? A very different story.Acceleration? Firing only half as often, the rear wheel tends to dig in instead of spin so it felt every bit as fast as the twostroke under acceleration. In fact we did an impromptu drag race on a dirt road and the twostroke dropped way behind because it was wheelspinning way too much. A possible downside? The fourstroke felt more tiring to ride on the open tracks though. Like many fuelinjected engines, the 300 fourstroke throttle response feels quite snappy. And then the moment you close the throttle, the engine brake kicks in. We found this stopgo tendency quite tiring, but then we have only ridden twostrokes for years now. So perhaps it's just a matter of adapting. Engine brake can definitely be an advantage for some aspects of enduro riding. The fourstroke engines are relatively topheavy due to those complicated top ends, but it was very hard to pick much difference at least with the 300cc. We have ridden these tracks on 450 and 500 fourstrokes and certainly noticed the weight then. Could I see myself changing back to a fourstroke after years of smoking? Maybe. The Sherco 300SEF was a bundle of fun on the open tracks.

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