Really the heart of trials is the local club. That's where you'll find other people to ride with and places to ride. Nothing advances your ability faster then riding with more experienced riders. So the big question is what part of the US are you in.
I hate to ask but is this the DelOrto or was it replaced with a Mikuni? I replaced the DelOrto on my '95 with a Mikuni because I couldn't get jets and it was the best modification I made.
For the money you get a top of-the-line, state-of-the-art competition machine. The fact that you may have to do a little tweaking every few months is pretty amazing. Buy it, ride it and enjoy. You're only going this way once. Besides if you buy a new bike you'll want to spend more time riding then reading the silliness on the forums.
I seem to remember there being a 280 kit for the Techno. In reality if this is his first trials bike and it is in good shape then a 250 will provide all the power he can handle. Welcome to the sport.
Make sure you don't have the lever adjustment in too far. Try backing it off all the way before putting the whole thing back together. The brake and clutch system is self adjusting but to do that the piston in the master cylinders must be able to return all the way back past the hole to the reservoir where the fluid is stored.
It's also possible that the hole to the reservoir is blocked.
4RT no, you can ride them virtually straight off a cold start up.
Scorpa 4T takes some warming up for whatever reason (I've tried 2 and both the same) Don't know why as the YZ250F I was using in enduros warmed up very quickly
From what I've heard the Beta's are rather cold blooded and like a nice warm up. My friends '07 200 Scorpa liked a little warm up time too but what a lovely little bike that is. I got off my 270 Rev3 and putted around on the Scorpa and felt right at home. Could be an EFI vs carb thing.
OH NOOOOO you Dalesman riders are always picking on the Montesas!
he he he
Thanks to this thread you may be able to tell him to replace a sheared off bolt and be done with a $2 repair. Hope that's the case. Then he can ferociously defend his brand and make us all smile.
I was asking about Woody Hole because he borrowed my bike in '92 at the US world round/TDN and I wanted to give him "mad props". While the Italian minder who borrowed my buddy's bike abused it terribly, we have a video of him throwing it down a waterfall, Woody returned my bike washed, lubed and obviously pampered. Even better was in the Duke video for the event on which he did the commentary he said, "The bike I had to ride was, quite nice to say the least." That made my day.
Oh yeah the OP first sentence seems a pretty general question about four strokes. Looks like a good fit for this forum.
No point in being defensive and going into attack mode. I like the fact that such problems can be discussed. In the long run it helps bike sales knowing that a problem is acknowledged and can be fixed. The one thing that will turn me off of buying a brand is denial of a problem.
I'm a Beta rider for many years and I don't have any problem with postings on problems people have had on their Betas. It's how I learned to fix my carb leaking (Thanks Billy T.) and what gave me the impetus to fix my clutch sticking. Did it make me not want a Beta? No, I went from liking my bike to loving it.
We spend real money on these things and the free exchange of information is the most useful function of a community like this. The, "Let's attack the guy who brings up an issue" mentality is the most sophomoric aspect of a public forum and the most likely to turn it into a useless fanboy slugfest. Save it for slagging your buddy's football team where it will do no real damage.
Dan
P.S. Hey Woody, are you the famous Woody Hole of world round renown?
Let's see.... by next endurocross season that'll be about 25 euros or a tank of gas.
Come to think of it the Montesas do pretty good at the endurocross. Maybe the importer should show up with a bunch of bikes and sell them at the races. Could be the greatest guerrilla marketing campaign in the history of trials.
I typed that as a joke but the more I think about it the less odd it seems.
Nikon D2x. Most taken with a 17-55 F2.8. I've added more and split them into three pages, still available from the original link. I have a bunch from the national on Friday that I'll add next.
Thanks, I've got more to put up but this is a good start. There's a lot to be said for a good camera, fast glass and a powerful flash. It was overcast and dark in the woods most of that day so I really had to push the envelope to shoot. One of my favorite things was I got to talk to Mario Candelone and that was a thrill. He is THE MAN! Absolutely the dean of trials photographers and a real gentleman.
I think my favorites of this series are Fujigas in the air and almost off the bike at the top of the big step in practice and the second looking down on Marc Freixa going up the big slimy rock. Technically not the best shot but the hardest angle to get and have it stay in context.
You should see the raw shots. They are considerably higher resolution.
I put some of my pics from the 2006 Tennessee world round up on the NETA web site. They make good screen saver material at 1280X1024. Hopefully I can get down this year to shoot some more.
Or you could just nip a hole in the vent tubing above the level of the float bowl. I just put a nick in with cutters at the bend. Works just as well and if you're not in water up to the tank it won't make any difference to the bike. The problem is the vent tubes are so long they are below the level of fuel in the float bowl. Any momentary burp of fuel up into the tube starts a siphon which will keep going until the tank is empty or your buddies go, "Hey is that gas?" and you shut the tap off.
Ding! Alright everyone back to their neutral corner.
Ron's right about putting the bolts through the flywheel. If the flywheel turns and they go roundy round they'll chew up the internals. The trick is to put them into the flywheel so they don't protrude through to the inside but connect enough threads in effect making a holding tool for the flywheel. To do this properly you need to make a plate that the bolts go through first that'll sit on top of the flywheel with a hole for the flywheel nut and a long handle. And if you don't use high grade bolts you can shear them off so spend the extra few coins.
Don't rely on the clutch gearbox immobilizing the rear wheel method to get sufficient holding power on the flywheel to torque that nut. Any method that could counter the torque required to properly fasten the the nut risks breaking the case/gearbox and tweaking the crankshaft as this puts twisting force directly across the crank.
You should be doing this with a torque wrench anyway. If you use a torque wrench it will become painfully apparent how little torque you are actually getting on the nut without directly holding the flywheel. Either make a holding tool proper or have a friend who's handy with metal work help you and get a good torque wrench so you know how tight it actually is.
An air impact driver is great if you've got one but I don't and am not likely to get one. I do prefer the feel of assembly with a torque wrench but it has to be at least a 100 ft/lbs wrench to get the required torque. Not that 100 ft/lbs is the number you need to tighten to just that a wrench that will do that much torque is long enough to do the job. Ahhh leverage. Hey Ron, if anybody would know you would, what is the torque spec on the flywheel bolt?
Of course the other option is to bring it to a dealer. Sorry if this sounds expensive but this is the equivalent of major surgery and the proper tools are essential to prevent complications. This is one case where you can do an awful lot of damage if you're not careful.
I run the VForce on my 270 and have the needle in the middle, 27.5 pilot and 145 main. The plug shows some residue from the Cam2 race gas (doesn't run as clean as VP C12 but is cheaper) There isn't much difference on top from the stock reeds (not like I could tell anyway since full throttle is the abode of trials gods and frightening to us mere mortals) but the bike will pull a taller gear at low revs. I can climb really slooooow when I need to. In a nutshell I think the VForce3s were a great investment on my '02 and '05 and since I'm seriously considering an '08 I'll put them on that too.
I've run reeds for years and never replaced them. Unless they are visibly frayed or fractured they are probably OK. The spring tension on the reeds isn't what holds them closed. It's the reverse pressure in the inlet tract that closes the reeds. Even a reed that doesn't make a perfect seal is still going to let only a tiny amount of fuel air charge back into the carb throat at the lowest RPM.
Unless you can see physical damage to the reeds or seats they're probably fine. One thing to note though is the stock Beta reeds,at least on my '02, are fiberglass. Yeah I know they're painted black to look like carbon but I've had them under a microscope and the fibers are clear.
Of course if you're like me you'll just replace them for peace of mind because once it's apart it's a cheap way to feel good about your baby.
Moto Tassani VForce3 carbon fiber reeds. I have them on my '05 and they really smooth out the grunt at the low revs. Makes it much easier to pull higher gears when going really slow.
The other thing I did to my Beta and I'm not sure if they've fixed this on the '08s or not was to pull out the clutch pack and dress the tabs on the fiber plates. Beta clutches have always been sticky and used large springs. That was a mystery to me until I decided to figure out why the Beta clutch was such a bear. When I pulled the clutch out and visually inspected the plates under a microscope I was horrified.
These are photos of the fiber plate tabs with about three months of wear in. Essentially these are bearing surfaces that must slide to engage and disengage the clutch. It's apparent that these are forged but not dressing the tabs leaves an uneven surface. When the clutch is engaged these ridges are driven into the side of the clutch basket slots grabbing as they go. This causes the clutch to slip. as more power is fed to the clutch more side torque drives these ridges harder into the basket. The green between the ridges is residual adhesive from the fiber material. The fix that has been used is heavier springs to force the plates to slide together. On the opposite end when the clutch is disengaged the plates don't have the heavier spring pressure to push them apart so the plates stick together because of the side torque. This also makes the release much more sudden then it should be as a moment with the engine torque released will allow the plates to separate suddenly. The other issues caused by this is uneven wear of the clutch basket so even replacing the plates may not fix it on an older bike where the plates and basket have worn into each other.
What I did to my bike was pull the clutch pack out and dress the ends of the tabs with a jeweler's file. (every toolbox should have a set) and then polish with a polishing stone. I used a Dremel tool but a hand stone will work just fine. Wash the plates thoroughly before putting the clutch pack back in. Soapy water works fine just make sure you rinse all the soap off as a last step so it doesn't damage the tranny oil.
I left out two clutch springs on mine and have been riding the bike almost every weekend (except winter) for two years. No clutch slip and the engagement is super smooth and consistent and I weigh around 235lbs and really beat on the clutch. It's worth it for any Beta owner to pull the clutch pack and have a look.
Could anyone reccomend a dealer in Devon where I might purchase one of these faultless machines?
Fair enough but it is still a great bike no doubt, went through a tank of fuel on people just wanting a play on it after sundays event.
As you would on the superb Sherco 08 Great Gas Gas08 magnificent Montesa or so good Scorpa, just that you don't sell them?
Wow, How touchy are some people that a Beta dealer saying how much they like the new Beta on the Beta forum is required to give equal time to the other brands. If this were posted on the Montesa or Sherco forum I could understand but seriously now...
I find it a little amusing the talk of "extra" power between the 270 and 250 Rev3s. If anything the 270 is smoother and has better low end torque then the 250 making it easier to ride.
Hey fuma It's a shame Sonny had his 250 loaded or you could have tried his bike for a direct 2005 250/270 comparison. The 250 has a slightly higher compression ratio which gives a little more pop but the big (and often overlooked) difference is the primary drive of the 270 has an extra flywheel mass attached to the crankshaft. The other difference between my bike and stock is I have VFORCE3 reeds which make the bike pull harder in the low end.
I don't know what all the griping is about the Mikuni. I've had them on all my Betas since '87 even replacing the DelOrto on the '95 with a Mikuni and all my bikes have run perfectly. Yeah you have to tune 'em but hey it's a competition bike.
When you do get the new bike let me know. I'll help you dial it in and even do a few of the mods I've learned over the years to make it better then stock.
but it is still a great bike no doubt, went through a tank of fuel on people just wanting a play on it after sundays event.
"official" Introduction
in Introduce Yourself
Posted
Hi Pat & Crystal,
Really the heart of trials is the local club. That's where you'll find other people to ride with and places to ride. Nothing advances your ability faster then riding with more experienced riders. So the big question is what part of the US are you in.
Dan