dan williams

I just snug them. I figure the spring tension holds 'em

NETA has checkers. I rode a D3 event a few years ago. Great fun. No Twinkie though.

Excellent news Andy. Good work. Will be surpassed by the news it's all back together and running proper.

Yup drive away the casual rider so the clubs lose money on events because of too few riders. That'll work like a charm.

Hmmm Typically the squeak is the pads grabbing and releasing the rotor a tiny bit at a time causing a high speed oscillation. If that's happening usually stepping on the brake lightly stops the pads from vibrating. If you have to step hard to make the squeak go away it is probably something else. Do the brakes work well? Sometimes pads get contaminated with oil and that makes them behave odd. An old trials trick is to ride a bit dragging the brake to heat up the rotor and then pouring water on them. Another thing you might want to check is grab the rear wheel and give it a tug to make sure your wheel bearings are good. A bad bearing can squeal under load. Aluminum frames also have a tendancy to squeak and it's possible you have a moving skid plate or other frame component. Sometimes a targeted squirt of WD40 will eliminate a squeak long enough to identify the offending component. Springs on Betas also tend to squeak. Again a squirt of WD40 can identify. If you can give us a more through description maybe we can narrow it down a bit more. The jamming on the pedal thing makes me think you're torquing something to kill the squeak so it could be almost anything. I think squeaks are just one of those Beta things we accept as part of the brand.

Does the squeak go away when you touch the brake pedal?

​you've not met my mates laugh point call me fat and give me a five Heh heh, at a national a few years ago a rider was complaining to the NATC rep that my buddy and I were biased and gave a local rider more time. He picked the wrong guys to accuse as everyone the NATC guy talked to had the same reaction. "Them? Give a local rider a break? Are you serious? They're vicious to the local riders."

That's great that you want to move up. But if you had to move back or only wanted to stay a clubman that's fine too. One of the guys I used to love riding with here was a guy named Pete. A late middle aged guy who was profoundly deaf, missing a few finger tips, kinda scruffy looking, rat of a bike. It was obvious the man had a hard life. We hit it off immediately. Nicest guy in the world. We'd meet on the trail and he'd animatedly tell me how things were going with a lot of pointing and laughing as I tried to communicate with pidgeon sign language and he'd do his best to talk. It occurred to me once that to an outsider it probably looked like a lot of hand flapping and grunting but we understood each other in a way that's hard to explain. Pete rode beginner class the whole time he was in NETA and loved it. He'd ride into a section and smile so wide the woods lit up. One day when I was checking an event I saw Pete in the pits and rode my new Beta to his car, parked it and asked if he'd like to take it for a putt. He very carefully got on the bike and took it for about ten minutes of beginner type stuff. Came back with an ear to ear grin so I mouthed "Yours for the day." His eyes went wide and he got off and backed away shaking his head. I explained I was working and he couldn't crash it anyway I hadn't and he was welcome to ride it. The hardest thing to explain was what I tell anybody who rides my bikes. If you get in trouble throw the bike. I can fix it. If you get injured I can't fix you. At the end of the day I came out of the woods and there he was with the bike by my truck practically vibrating he was so excited and happy. I've had a lot of great trials moments, Jordi Tarres trick riding for me in Luxembourg, Losing a massive hand of acey-ducey playing cards in Belgium with the US TdN team and hearing Ryan Young laugh so hard I thought he was gonna blow a gasket. Drinking truly terrifying whiskey with Wick Wicker and getting hugs from Marilyn. Being treated as family by the Commo clan. Watching Amos Bilbao ping broccoli of Dale Malasek's head at the after event dinner banquet in Ontario Canada. Being served Champaign at the same banquet by Jordi Tarres. But for the sheer joy of trials nothing beat the look on Pete's face after that trials. That's what I think of when I hear of "mandatory promotion" and why it feels wrong. I've never heard someone in the beginner class complain they didn't trophy because there were better riders. If you ride for a beginner trophy seems like you're in it for kinda the wrong reason anyway.

There is the dichotomy of age. What scares novices does not scare older riders who are moving back down the ranks and that is a problem as they are not moving down for technique but for endurance. That can lead to novice sections that suffer from "creeping elegance" where the old guys who set up the sections set them up for themselves. Fear is important to consider in the lower classes. We had one event here where the novices had to ride down a 30' rock face. Technically easy but scary as ****. When I questioned the trialsmaster he said it was easy and don't worry about it. As I expected one of the younger riders got to the top, panicked and grabbed a handful of front brake and took a 30' tumble. She never rode again. Her brother and father have since quit also. The same trialsmaster had a 3' novice dropoff onto a slippery root. Again another young rider crashed and I found her in tears on the side of the trail. She never came back nor did her brothers and father. Both of these obstacles were so unnecessary for the bottom class. You can not make the bottom class too easy. Remember a rider in a higher class can move up if it is too easy but the only way to go if it's too hard is out of the sport and we all know it takes a while just to learn how to turn a trials bike.

I worked on an engine once that had a bent choke rod. It would start hard and run very rich. Possible your choke plunger is being held open slightly?

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing these.

This is a subject that has long been debated with the argument that better riders should move up to give new riders a chance to win a lower class. On the surface this sounds reasonable but here's where the argument fails. The majority of riders ride for fun. That majority is what makes it possible to have events. Force them to move where they don't have fun and they quit. New riders also are in it for fun with the exception of a talented few that will move up the ranks. What I find amusing is people (usually not in the lower classes I might add) will complain that a lower class is too crowded so they will "fix" the "problem". This usually takes the form of mandatory promotion which is followed by a slow decline in riders which is followed by the need to "fix" the "problem" of declining ridership. A too crowded lower class is the best problem to have. There are essentially two types of classes in trials, feeder classes full of duffers like myself who provide the majority of the financial and worker support that make events possible and the upper classes where the talented and improving riders live. By the very nature of the competition there is only a small percentage of the total ridership that has the ability to get into these higher levels and this points out another of those misguided "fixes" that are applied from time to time. You don't grow a sport by changes to the top classes. World round no-stop, time-limits, changing the name (mototrials, what a completely asinine idea) or roman candles attached to handlebars shooting rainbow fireballs out at every dab will have very little effect on the health and future of the sport. What does have a very real effect on the health and future of the sport is making sure the feeder classes are full of duffers and newbies and their friends who were told to come try this sport and neighbors who were loaned an old bike and allowed to ride and children and wives/girlfriends who just want to be with dad/hubby. From this crowd will emerge the talented and the driven. Make the bottom classes fun and accessible and you will grow the sport. The top classes will take care of themselves. One of the things that we used to do in New England that was great was have a beginner class that was mixed adult and child with split lines for small wheels. Beginners would have their own loop to keep them separated from the main loop for safety and so they wouldn't be intimidated by the loop and traffic. The group would be brought around by an experienced rider who would instruct and encourage each rider while getting a work credit for the event. Fun was had, learning took place and lifelong friendships were made regardless of the difference in ages. Often the beginner instructor was a top nationally ranked rider. Imagine being an 8 year old riding his first trials and your guide/instructor for the day is the current national champion Geoff Aaron or national number 5 Ron Commo. That is how you make lifelong trials riders. Keeping the feeder classes full and happy is how you grow the sport. Riders will leave as they get older and life intrudes. That is inevitable. It is why the pipeline must be fed from the bottom and why forced promotion is the most dangerous suggestion that can rear its ugly head. Sadly we don't do the instructed beginner class anymore in New England. That practice was "fixed" by someone with a "better" idea which has reduced the beginner/novice class over the past few years to two or three riders from a typical 20+ with the old beginner class. Now we send them out on the loop with the big boys and the typical beginner rides one or two events, decides it's too hard and quits. Funny anecdote is the people responsible for pushing the measures that destroyed the beginner class refuse to see the connection with falling membership and choose to blame the economy, politics and anyone who opposed the changes. After saying the above in a local forum I became a pariah here and have nothing to do with organizing trials anymore. Learn from our mistakes. If your lower classes are full don't do anything that screws them up. They are a success! Find out what makes them popular and do more. It is the best way you can grow the sport.

A Beta kill switch? What good will that do? :-) I'm not usually an alarmist but the price of doing this is just too high because when it goes wrong it usually goes wrong very quickly and in spectacular fashion.

Yeah me too, 'till it went FOON! and I was holding a flaming Bultaco.

STOP!!! If your bike is flowing fuel do NOT kick it over with the plug out. Take it from someone who's watched flames shoot out either side from doing the same. I got lucky as it only cost me the hair on both arms. Could have cost a house if my nephew wasn't quick with the extinguisher. Better to waste a few plugs. Even better to tear the carb apart an fix the fuel issue.

Expensive lessons.

'84 or '85 I think. '86 was the Tr33 which was basically the same bike with a front disk. '87 was the TR34 with smaller frame and disk brakes at both ends and tubless rear tire. Back when your TR32 was imported the importer was Cosmopolitan Motors in Pennsylvania. Later bikes were imported by Ron Commo in Vermont and the new bikes are brought in by American Beta in California. What I've been told is if 200 were sold in a year it was considered a good year. Beta won many world championships with Jordi Tarres and Dougie Lampkin and many US championships. The TR32 is a far cry from the current crop of trials bikes but you can still have a lot of fun on it. As for sourcing parts that's a big question for a bike that old and I don't have a good answer for you.

Holy crap that's brutal.

First I've heard of it Slick.

Could be but 150 on top is a bit rich. I think stock was a 145 but I'm not sure. If you're new to trials bikes any sustained high speed work tends to purge the residual oil that puddles in the bottom of the crank. That's why you'll see the big boys rev out their bikes before a big up. Also why you'll find a lot of smokey bikes at a section after a long fast trail. Try dropping a size on the main jet and see if it helps.

Maybe it's time to forget what we know and start over. I'm not trying to be thick as I know you noted some of this already but troubleshooting sometimes requires a ground up approach. What is your current jetting? Does the bike sound like it is pinging under load? Are you using the stock heat range of plug? How does the bike run at steady throttle at different throttle settings? Has the ignition timing been changed from stock? What are the condition of your reeds? Good solid grounds? Kill switch not sticking?

Kinda what I figured Billy. Since I spend so little time up in that range.

Placebo switch.

Best idea is probably pull the front end apart and reassemble with new tape on steering stem if you can feel it moving. Nice trophy. For once not MX bike.

I wouldn't just set out to ride a whole event with new jetting without trying it out with at least warming up the engine to full temp and testing for a bit. Then again I have done that.