Thanks for the reply's. I did hear the 97-99 bikes did have jetting issues out of the box, but I "assume" those would have been corrected by now. I'm not too concerned about the "hit" as I could add a flywheel weight to help give more control.
On my KX, I added a 11oz flywheel weight, and lowered the gearing. Its like a tractor... I lost some top speed, but at my age, that's OK... With the current set up, the KX can be lugged, without a problem. Recently I went on a 50 mile trail ride with some friends. I was the only one on a bike, the rest were on quads. It was real slow going, 1st and 2nd gear almost all day. The bike never gave me a problem. I was thinking I'd be able to do the same on the KTM, and have a little more giddy up with the 300.
I thought about getting a 250 which needed engine work done, and punching it out to a 295, but I'm unsure of its reliably, but why go through all that when KTM already has a 300... :ride: