2stroke4stroke

Good find bully, I'd forgotten about the obvious Yamaha link in the Seventies.

You could probably buy a used trials bike for the likely cost of the tank/seat☺ However, raising the gearing on a 4RT would give you a low enough bottom for trail work along with a higher top than the 4Ride has (it's the same as the 4RT which I see as a major failing for the intended use of the 4Ride).

You might be surprised, tshock, to find how parts can be hard to get for fairly modern bikes. Things like mudguards and ignitions just as an example. Sometimes the twinshock stuff can be easier to find as there is enough of a market to make it worthwhile for someone to manufacture them.

I think you need a few more categories at the upper end.

No idea what it came off but I got a minimoto one at the scrappie which worked held on with straps for the road run I did but have not yet figured out how I am going to bolt it on. It's not a perfect fit, but at a fiver.......

If you search for Amal carb tuning you should get a leaflet telling you the various stages of tuning a conventional carb which should translate to the Dellorto.

All else being equal go for the Fantic. The Honda was underpowered even in its day and the suspension simply does not compare with the Fantic.

It has, I was within a 5 (unfamiliarity caused a stall) of the winner first time out and had two route wins last year. Not bad after forty-odd years on two strokes, barring a handful of Enfield outings. Can't remember when I last had that on the Beta.

If make A had many more highly positioned riders than others you might be able to extrapolate but, really, it is the rider that is the factor at that level. No matter the make it will have been tweaked to suit the rider and quite possibly be nothing at all like the production model, the Montesa being the extreme example of this, perhaps changed to be more like the make he came from as that's what he likes.

It's all relative; not so many years ago when all bikes were 6kg heavier than now we thought they were super light. The only time the weight of a bike (short of the old Enfield I used to be loaned) makes itself known, with my riding style, is when I am lifting it in to the car after a trial. Can't say I find the 4RT any worse than my old Rev3. Given that they seem to sell as many as they make, to the point of apparently a rather bizarre marketing approach in the USA that must reduce sales, I think Honda are to be congratulated on still using a design with so many shared components with the 315. Why have obsolesence if the bike, in absolute terms, is still a very competent machine exceeding the abilities, if not suiting the riding style, of most potential purchasers. And it must be lighter than the Ariels I see being hopped around.

The standard tail silencsr was always a bit loud. In recent years I had one with an alloy system consisting of main and tail silencers. Still a bit noisy really - certainly not as quiet as a modern bike. I don't think you will get the sort of noise reduction you seem to be looking for.

Do you have a set of teaps?............

I'm told they don't like that and can be awkward to start if stalled rather than switched off. How are you finding it in that respect?

I seem to recall a few years ago Michael Brown ( I think) embarassing the enduro boys by using a trials bike in some tough enduro in the UK. My recollection is that trials bikes were barred from the event thereafter.

I see there is to be £425 million put in to a development at Circuit of Wales. There will be a motocross track amongst lots of other stuff. Do any locals know if this presents an opportunity for a trials venue?

I think the point is that modern tyres and suspension permit the use of techniques that might not have been so successful in Miller's day. Thus spracklers such as myself can get away with using first to keep the speed to a level where we feel in control but still get up such steps as we have the ability to ride.

I would guess that the Beta fourstroke has the same tank size as the twostroke version due to the frame construction. In the case of the 4RT there is not as much space between the frame spars as with the GasGas etc due to the taller motor so a smaller tank is forced on them by styling factors as riders don't seem to want to see a lot of tank - witness the spate of flat tank fitments in the early days of the Montesa which has now been adopted as standard on the 4RT. I would rather avoid a push off the hill. We all have our own experience, and I won't argue with anyone else's, but mine (on the only occasion that I had a speedo fitted to be able to check) is that my 4RT got about 47 mpg whilst pootling round Moidart peninsula in the snow last year. In normal trials use I have to fill my 5 litre cans more frequently than with my 200 Beta (and I never had the chance to measure consumption on the road with that). I do though confess to being disappointed with the 4RT consumption after a lifetime of fourstroke use on the road.

Perhaps in the laboratory but under real life trialling conditions not necessarily the case.

Depends on the tank size, obviously, but my 4RT uses more petrol than did my 200 Beta in normal trials use. The SSDT petrol guys confirm that the 4RT is thirstier than the two strokes.

I see Boris is on our side - we're sunk now.

I think you'll find that even a race circuit is regarded as a place to which the public has access. Two or three years ago someone was successfully prosecuted on those grounds for riding without insurance (I think the charge of riding whilst under a ban, having had his licence removed, failed) when he was seen riding in the pits and reported to the authorities by someone who must have had an axe to grind. He had not signed in as required so the event cover did not apply, he had no personal cover.

I did know someone many years ago with a Beta fourstroke who was not aware that it had a well hidden button, I think to assist with hot starts (whatever it was it was not the choke). It ran properly once that was in the correct position.

I had a go on a 200 (actually only 160) when it was part of the range a long time ago and it was not a patch on my 200 Beta of the time. Not much use as a reply perhaps but just to make you aware that it may not be the improvement you anticipate, but I can't compare it to the 125.

If you do a search on Allie Beag Cameron you may turn something up by way of photos.

Beta UK website used to have photos of timing setup. It may still do.