dan williams

There are beginners of all different types. Much depends on riding experiance and physicality. A 250lb athletic enduro rider might handle more power than a 100lb teenage girl but the basic techniques are the same regardless of engine size which is why you will get your ass handed to you at events by teenage girls and old men. Bigger motors have more grunt and can be more tiring to ride but are also able to deal with fast loop trails and there is no substitute for pulling you out of a low speed greasy up hill that you got into too slow. A bigger engine can be detuned but a smaller engine is, well smaller. The other thing to be aware of is sometimes the smaller engines are tuned a bit peakier as some were intended to be quickr revving than the bigger bikes. Beta in particular have oscillated back and forth over the years on the tuning of top models. For example the ‘94 Techno was a high revving abrupt bike that experts loved while everyone else crashed their asses off. The ‘95 was a much easier to ride bike and the big ‘96 was considered by many to be too soft but the 250 was peaky and popular with experts. You really have to try a bike to see if it fits what you need but you will in any case adjust somewhat to fit the bike you’re on because no matter what you choose the bike is never the limiting factor. As pointed out a well maintained bike is the first thing to consider. For that an older rider’s bike is probably best as they don’t beat up their bikes and have the money to replace what they break.

Betas in general don’t seem to have the best method of routing. Tighten the adjuster for immediate response and it will runup the engine in a turn. Make sure the end of the cable is properly seated in the carb top. Add a little slack to the adjuster and get used to that extra 5 degrees of rotation off idle. For a real thrill catch the cable on a tree branch mid loop. Very exciting.

Cable routing? Betas are a bit touchy if your body position is far forward. I know if I lean too far and press on the cable it’ll rev. A ripped or cracked carb boot will also cause what you describe so will a carb that isn’t mounted properly. Another thing that can hang the throttle is the closed end of the grip catching on the end of the bar. Usually happens after a fall or leaning the bar against a tree. Main advantage of running bar ends.

It’s aluminum threaded into aluminum so it can’t really swell. As pointed out though it’s real easy to overtighten and gall the threads especially when new. Tiny dab of antiseize or just wait until it wears in. Duh just looked at my ‘18 and it’s plastic so what I said above is obviously the ravings of a madman. My apologies.

Ah I like this guy! Buys all the spare parts before even cracking it open.

Hmmm if you suspect the water pump pull the screws and have a look. Those plastic impellers are known to disembowel themseles occasionally. Best to look and be sure. I usually put one of the Jitsie high volume pumps with the metal impeller on a new bike. Mostly because of all the reports of damaged plastic impellers and a little extra pump capacity couldn’t hurt right? Oil bathed bearings usually don’t squeal. They knock or get crunchy like a rock crusher. Squeals are usually something rubbing. Does the squeal change with crank speed or wheel speed? Does it change under load? Does it occur in neutral? Is it just something like airbox noise? I know my new 2018 has a surprising amount of airbox squeek compared to my older bikes. Sounds like a fun diagnosis.

You suspension fluid will also be thicker so a couple clicks off the dampers may help. Cold dense air will also affect how the engine runs and will usually result in more power. Depending on your jetting this can also result in a change to the power delivery. As above you will probably want to keep more over the back wheel. This is actually very good practice as it’s pointing out weakness in your technique. When you can turn on the really slippery stuff you are properly centered. All the little tricks that allow you to get away with bad tecnique when there’s traction won’t work on ice so view this as an opportunity to fine tune your skills. Don’t move your bars once you have a natural comfortable position. It’ll just screw up your muscle memory.

As long as you got it to the correct torque it’s all good. I was thinking about it and I would imagine you want it to move and shear the key under unusual loads rather than twist the crank.

Sorry late to the party on this but here is the flywheel holder I cobbled together for use on Betas. Actually I've made a few since they keep getting borrowed then disappear. Works like a charm. Piece of bar stock. One cut, three holes. Can even make a handle on the far end. Vitally important to not screw in the bolts on the flywheel deeper than the flywheel or you destroy the stator. Short bolts or washers/nuts as shims is a good idea.

I’d be happy to have it weight the same as my Beta with a larger battery too. I just had a thought. Would be interesting if someone like Honda bought Jordi out and started cranking these out. They are surprisingly quiet on the electric bike front. I guess there’s that e-assist thing. Ewwww. The Beta decides where I’m going on its own enough already.

I suspect they will not be able to keep up with demand once the bike is finalized.

10 time US champion Geoff Aaron is 6’4” and he has no problem hoping around. Then again Geoff is all muscle so....

No that requires a twin scroll turbo.?

Carbon reeds can help that.

Welcome back.

A few squeezes of the hose going to the head works just as well. Judging by how hard it is to access anything inboard of the CDI unit on the new bike it seems pointless.

Sure doesn’t feel like it. For years I’ve had people tell me Betas had carbon fiber reeds. The ones I put under the microscope were obviously fiberglass painted black. You can tell because the exposed fibers are clear. I’ll put in carbon reeds and have a look when I pull the stock ones out.

The Ossa owners around here loved their bikes but fear of parts availability is the reason for the depression of price. If you buy it and they go back into production you should head out to a casino as you’re a lucky guy. Otherwise you may find yourself scratching for parts if you break something Ossa specific. I suppose the upside is most things we break are third party non-brand specific items but it’s a risk.

The model was V351C and they stopped selling them but I’m hoping they will start again because it really makes a huge difference in the power delivery off the bottom. Soooo good! It was the whole cage plus reeds.

Why add a “bleed screw” to the top of the head? There has to be a better explanation than bleed screw. There’s already one on the pump at the bottom of the system.

It’s almost impossible to determine if a coil is good from a dc ohm meter reading. Ignition coils rarely go bad unless they open up. What is common with older Betas is failure of the trigger coil on the ignition stator. There are places that can test and rewind defective stators but they’re in England.

Woohoo good job finding it.

Paioli

In the, “Are Beta getting ready for fuel injection?” category, I notice there’s now a bolt on top of the head that doesn’t do anything. Head temperature? Knock sensor? Hmmmm.

My wife walked out of the garage today and said, “Did you buy a new bike?” She’s been walking between the new and old bike for a week. The cat’s out of the bag.