dan williams

Ok are we talking new bike vs used? Body type (wee skinny/clydesdale)? Trick riding vs plonker? Comfort vs impact resistance. Two stroke/four stroke? The more info you can give us the better we can help you. You won’t find a more enthusiastic group to help you.

Hmmm I see on the Moto Tassinari site they list those reeds for the 65SX I may have got that wrong saying 85SX but I do remember reading it somewhere. There is a separate piece that fits into the inlet side of the reed cage and I think that is the difference between the various 351 models but they don't show drawings for all of the variants. I wish they did. On bikes that spend 95% of their life at idle to 1/4 throttle the inlet shape will have no effect. For kiddies on little MX bikes where they are wide open all the time it may cause some small incremental loss of power. I bought some of the Carbon Tech reeds as a backup plan but never installed them.

No changes for the reeds but the bike came with a 48 pilot and the needle on the fourth notch so I changed to a 50 pilot and needle to center notch. (Stock settings for my ‘13) I think the leaner set up is for emissions as that’s now part of the technical data on the web site. Along with the security screw on the intake there were different color markings on the carb which makes me think it will soon be tamper proof fuel systems as the norm.

Some years ago but I don’t like the extra flywheel weight.

Any one who has followed my Beta posts for a few years knows that I am a huge fan of the Moto Tassinari VForce carbon reeds. Much to my chagrin Moto Tassinari discontinued the V351C reeds for the Beta and Sherco. I’ve heard various reasons from reed life to breaking cages and I did have a cage failure some years ago leading to a long push out of the woods. But here’s the thing, the Beta runs soooo good with the VForce reeds that I wanted a set very badly for the new bike. I contacted Moto Tassinari and asked about a set for the new bike and one of their guys said they can build up some for me. Then I never heard back. OK fair enough. He was probably shot down by his bosses. So routing around for an alternative I scoured the website for similar reeds. If you dig deep enough you find the KTM 85SX from a few years back had a reed cage that looks exactly like the standard Beta reed cage, as in Beta buys them from the same manufacturer similar. Hmmm I thought, Moto Tassinari makes a reed for the older KTM 85SX that has almost the same part number as the Beta/Sherco reed V351B. So I bought one. The reed is an exact bolt in and the only difference is the reed petals are 3P412H vs 3P412M (hard vs medium). I had a set of replacement reeds for the previous bike so I disassembled the reed block and replaced the hard reeds with the mediums. The other difference is the original V351C was originally designed for the 26mm Mikuni so there was a lip with the Keihin. With the V351B block there is a slight lip on top and bottom however the opening to the block is a large rectangle so there is in reality much more area. The OEM KTM intake boot (KTM used a Keihin PWK28) looks to be a direct bolt on but I’m not certain until I get one to try. One other thing to note is the reed cage material now seems to be a heavier plastic. Almost like a fiber reinforced plastic. This makes it harder to take apart and snap together and the older 3P412M reeds didn’t fit as well needing a little nudge to get them onto the tabs that hold them. The other thing that was odd was the inner reeds are held in place with a pin that seats them onto their tabs and the reed block I got the pin seems to have been assembled backwards. I plan to talk to Moto Tassinari about that. So how does the new bike run? This weekend was my first time out with the low compression head, carb jetting tweak and VForce reeds. Previously I had two days out on the new bike in stock trim and was stalling all over the place. Yesterday the Beta pulled off idle like a freight train. Power builds smoothly to a respectable top end though it gives a little away on the top due to the low compression head. Fine with me, I don’t spend a lot (any) time at full throttle. Am I happy? Oh Yeah!

Take a look at the clutch fix pinned to the top of the Beta forum. It may help.

That sounds logical. Rode for a good couple hours today and no funny noises.

Well I think the new bike is unimpressed with me. I just changed the pilot to a 50 and moved the needle clip to the middle and it seems to come off idle smoother. So I putted around the back yard for a bit then turned it off and parked it in the garage and it started making raspberry fart sounds at me. Plttttt! Wait a few minutes, PLTTTT! Few more minutes, PLTTTT! I have no idea.

Fortunately a friend of mine posted these so I can see the new ones do appear to be a press fit so yup I was wrong again. I’d still be very wary of a DIY solution for this. Good luck though. I hope you can find a solution that works for you but this might be one case where it’s better to spend the money and buy the factory parts.

Like the Top Gear Stig farm?

How long before Honda responds?

If it’s brand new it could have sat for some time with the pads in one position on the rotor. But first thing is to lift the wheel and eyeball it for true as noted above. If it’s true, It’s twue! It’s twue! Sorry, Blazing Saddles just popped into my brain. With clean dry hands feel the surface of the disk for rough spots. Careful though as new parts can be sharp. If it is a holdover from sitting too long you can probably just ride it until the rotor wears in. Otherwise dress very lightly with super fine emory cloth. It’s also possible some numpty sprayed something on the rotor while cleaning or polishing the bike contaminating it except where the pads were. Brake cleaner and some riding will usually fix that.

Adjusting suspension is a time consuming pains taking endeavor. Assuming the baseline settings are near correct is a real leap of faith. Typically I’ll start somewhere near the middle of the range and adjust to what seems to work best on what I usually ride. More important is to make sure your front and rear are working together. Is there a specific issue with your bike’s handling that you are trying to address?

Yeah I got tired of posting them out so I gave a bunch to Stewie at a certain trials shop that doesn’t advertise here (but should). PM me for details if you need more specific info. I don’t wish to run afoul of the rules.

Too be honest I didn’t design the spacers. IKB did but I haven’t seen him on here for a bit.

EVOs are sweet if not too ugly for you.?

If it isn't the woodruff key then something is very odd indeed. Typically the electronic ignitions are difficult to get running backwards unless something is not connected correctly in the wiring. The trigger coils are only pulsed by two special magnets in the flywheel that have their fields oriented 90 degrees off from the rest of the magnets in the flywheel so even if something were wrong with the coils they can't be triggered by the other magnets. A missing/broken ground can cause transient signals to be generated that can fool the CDI into thinking it has received a trigger signal. So the next thing I recommend is checking your ground connections. After that would be go through your wiring to make sure connectors are not in bad shape. Not on a Beta (Armstrong/CanAm) but I did have a bike where the wires from the stator to the CDI were swapped at the factory. The bike never ran great but it ran and occasionally it would run backwards. Took me two years to figure that one out. If your wiring is intact I'm thinking your CDI box which has a microcontroller in it may be on the fritz. In general the starting position for the stator backing plate on a Beta is in the middle. Please let us know if you find the root cause. We're all learning here.

Most likely scenario.

Actually yes and no. If the lever is adjusted too far in so the holes in the reservoir are never uncovered and the system has no leaks then the brake can permanently pressurize due to temperature rise of the hydraulic fluid which drags and causes more temperature rise and eventually locks the brake. By the same token if there is a leak in the system, and that can include fluid leaking past the piston in the master cylinder, and the holes in the reservoir are never uncovered then the system is never replenished and will go soft once it cools down. This is why I suggested start by making sure the piston in the master cylinder is returning all the way. If it is then the system is self adjusting and the cause is likely a mechanical displacement of the caliper pads. If the master cylinder is not returning fully then you lose the self adjusting ability of the hydraulics and have to go after the subtleties of the hydraulics starting with why is the piston in the master cylinder not returning and there can only be a few reasons. In order of likelihood; One being adjustment as you pointed out. The second being a damaged return spring above the master cylinder piston. The third being a damaged piston/bore in the master cylinder. The hydraulics on a trials bike are pretty simple once you realize they are not a closed system at rest but once actuated (and the master cylinder piston sweeps past the ports into the reservoir) the systems are closed and behave accordingly. But the throws are so small that it doesn't take much to bung things up.

Beta moves in mysterios ways. I can tell you from experience product introductions always take longer than expected.

The glue application is much better now which helps the old cold stick but I still plan to polish the tabs on my new clutch once the succession of blizzards stop here. I have to say though the stock clutch on my 2018 300 isn’t bad at all.

Damn a banana daiquiri sounds really good about now. As Mr. Nou has said it’s a solid machined piece. As for the non-weighted one it’s got no flange or provision for adding weight so you’re pretty much screwed there. On older Betas you used to be able to buy a weight that bolted to the ignition flywheel. If you have the inverted flywheel with the stator mounted to the outer cover that option is a non-runner too.

Seems to be much better.

Though it’s still worth a look into the resevior so no effort wasted. Nothing looks out of place.

No sorry, that’s the resevior. I meant the little round rubber bit that covers the end of the master cylinder where the lever pushes against the piston.