dan williams

If you'd like me to take a look at it I'd love to take it into work and throw the carb body under the microscope. The curiosity is killing me.

At least he didn't say he thought he was walking up behind Christy.

Took me quite a while to figure out the only way to get the damn float bowl back on was to hold the carb upside down so the floats were out of the way.

OK this is a longshot but it all sounds vaguely familiar. Last year I worked on a bike that was a whole pack of woe. Never really got it completely sorted as I think the stator packed it in but before it finally quit the bike ran sporadically and in much the same way you describe. I swapped carbs and did the multiple rebuild thing. What I finally found was the rod on the choke plunger was bent (don't ask me how). In any case the bike would start hard and run poorly at low throttle settings and bog but clear up at higher throttle settings even though it still wasn't quite right. The bent rod was causing the choke to stay partially on. So I guess the practical upshot is make sure your choke is closing all the way. Next time you are in debug mode stick your finger on top of the choke and push down to see if it helps.

Ahhhhh so now the other shoe is what does Pat do now that there's an opening at GasGas?

It'll be interesting to see how this works if they continue the "local dealer only" support at the nationals model.

I just got an EMAIL to the effect that Cody will be on Beta for 2011. Anybody got confirmation?

Sooooo has changing the name in Europe dramtically increased the number of riders? Can it be credited with increasing the number at all? Silly waste of time. If you want to increase the size of the sport make it fun, make it accessable. Cater to the bottom classes on a local level as that's the growth engine. More novice riders now equates to more top classes later. For every Tiger Woods there are millions of duffers that actually make golf work. If they didn't have courses cater to the duffers then golf would dry up. All this silliness about "growing the sport" by trying to make it fashionable to a mass audience at the higher levels of the sport is a poor use of resources. You may draw a few more people in but they won't stay if they're not having fun and they won't bring in their friends which is the only model of sustainable growth.

Pinned to the top of the forum. Yeah it's a pain but what can you do?

That is basically what I heard. The '09 had tremendous failure rates for frame and some early swingarm. I have not heard of problems with the '10. The '10 frame has additional gussets and I believe the heat treating for the swing arm was improved. On the early Rev3s there was an issue where the swing arms were snapping at the junction of the cast piece at the front of the swingarm and the extrusions that make up the arms. Something to do with improper heat treating to relieve the stress caused by welding two dissimilar pieces together. What I also heard is that the Evo frame is not made by Verlicci as the Rev3 frame was so it seems Beta ran into the usual teething problems with the '09 Evo. Just in general keep an eye on any area where different pieces are welded together. One thing to note with an aluminum frame is cracks may appear in the anodized oxide on the surface. Though these can look disturbing they will not propagate through to the underlying metal. Of course that leads to the question of how can you tell a real crack early in its development and it's difficult without some very expensive equipment.

Sorry to tell you this Sparky but yes, you have to do the mod again. Exact same clutch plates as your old Rev3.

Usually when the stator is crap it's the trigger coils that have gone out so it's unlikely to run better as the fuel is running out. This may be a stupid question (I'm full of them) but have you checked the jet sizes? The more screwy the problem often the more basic the answer. Maybe somebody at the factory grabbed a carb for an enduro bike by accident. Monday bike? Even if it says it's the correct size it is possible to have misdrilled jets. Worth replacing as an experiment. If you got an oddball pilot or needle jet or even incorrect needle you could be chasing your tail for months. It certainly sounds like a fuel issue and I'm impressed with your diagnostic work so far. See if American Beta will front you a set of jets. Just as an afterthought, was the little O-ring gasket thingy that isolates the jet cicuits in place at the base of the jet tower?

Beta seems to be able to deal with internal issues quite well as illustrated by the frame breakage issues of the '09 EVOs which haven't shown up on the 2010s as far as I know. The external manufactured parts are a different story as is shown by the ignition and the clutch plates. My guess is Beta has little choice in situations where they have a bunch of components on the shelf and not enough pull with the manufacturer to force them to take material back and fix it so if 5% fail in the field they're willing to eat the cost in replacement for new bikes and reputation. In the long run I fear that is a flawed strategy with the trials world being so small and well connected.

Heh heh it always seems to be a GasGas rider whining about how Beta fails on quality. There's a name for that particular psychological dynamic..... Oh I remember, "projection" Shouldn't you be off rebuilding your gearbox or something?

OK a couple of thoughts, sometimes an intermittant electrical fault like a bad kill switch or leaky high voltage lead can seem like a carb issue. I've seen it several times and it's always a surprise. The Keihin has a tiny exit hole for the pilot circuit bleed air. This causes the carb to be very sensitive to getting water stuck in the circuit and unless you make a concerted effort to blow it out with high pressure air it won't come out. The specific hole that gets blocked is the TINY drill hole on the bottom of the venturi chamber just behind where the flat slide touches down in the groove at the bottom of the chamber. To really blow out the pilot circuit you need "security" torx driver to remove the central tower from the underside of the carb and have at the orifaces with a high pressure air line.

Ah the "Smoking hottie" exemption.

I think that would be an 300AT. 278CC if I remember correctly. Aluminum backbone frame, drum brakes. Good motor though slow and heavy. Roughly the same engine as the Aprilia TX312 and SWM 280. I think the only other monoshock trials Armstrong was a limited prototype of the 350 but I don't believe they ever got out of England. I had a few Can-Am trials bikes, A CMT310, a 350 and a 300AT. For $1500-$2000 you can probably find a much newer bike for which you can easily get parts and is significantly better performing.

If you do the clutch mod pinned to the top of the forum you won't need it.

Don't let the door hit you in the *** on the way out. Just kidding, seriously I hope you have better luck with the GasGas and whatever bikes you end up with in the future.

Might be useful to have an on-line observers poll as well. It would be good to hear what works and what doesn't from an observer's point of view.

How 'bout a "Luv Bug" http://newenglandtrials.org/Coppermine/displayimage.php?pid=184&fullsize=1

Sounds lean, pull the carb and clean the jets. Fresh fuel may help if you're using pump gas because the current fuels have a somewhat limited shelf life. One other thing to consider is if you're where it gets cold the temperature can make the mixture leaner too but this usually is a minor loss of power rather then the hunting of a lean engine.

I find wet gloves really tear up my hands so I always have a few pair ready. One trick if your hands sweat a lot is to put anti-perspirant on them at the start of the day.

Beta's are no slouch when it comes to cooking meat on the pipe either. The titanium pipe is even worse.

Forks; The 10mm allen head socket is the spring preload. I usually set mine so that the bike will compress the front and rear suspensions equally when pressure is applied to the foot pegs. The turn screw is the rebound damping which has a range of 21 clicks if I remember correctly. Turn this in (clockwise) until it stops and back out 15 clicks start from there. Shock; Preload is the large nuts that directly contact the spring. The little knob (or screw on some shocks) is also rebound damping. It also has a limited adjustment range and if turned out too far will damage the shock so be careful. Turn it all the way in (clockwise) and then turn it out 10 clicks to start. Go ride and adjust accordingly. Don't go past 20 clicks on the shock adjuster. Others with more knowledge will chime in I'm sure but heed the warning on not cranking out the shock adjustment screw. Dan