Owens

Hi All, thought I'd get a fun conversation going about which bikes we love and why. Here's my list: 1996 Beta Techno. Representing something quite different from it's competitors with suprisingly modern handling. 1997 through '99 Montesa Cota 315. The best bike of it's time in many ways 2000 Bultaco Sherco. These early bikes were a bold statement of intent from Sherco. They meant bussiness. 2005 Sherco 320 4T. An absolute weapon. 2005 Montesa Cota 4RT. A bike that has since become the most winning bike in the history of Trials. 2009 GasGas Raga Replica. Possibly the best colour scheme of any bike to this day. 2009 Beta Evo. A beautiful bike and a massive performance improvement over the outgoing rev3. 2010 Sherco 3.0 Cabestany Replica. A great looking bike with a new chassis, a bigger engine capacity and a cool colour scheme. Seeing someone else on this bike convinced me to buy a sherco (a mistake). 2012 Ossa tr280i. A short lived but technically groundbreaking bike. 2015 Vertigo prototype. A attended the 2015 SSDT in which one of these bikes riden by Dougie Lampkin won the event. 2017 Beta Evo 4T. My own bike and by this stage a very well sorted and fun to ride machine from Beta. What are your favourites and why?

This was the guide the AMA used here in Aus. I think it is a good summary. T1 Green The most difficult division, suited to top level riders T2 Red High Difficulty T3 Yellow Moderate-High Difficulty T4 Blue Moderate difficulty; suited to the majority of riders and experienced riders on twinshock (pre-86) machines T5 White Lesser difficulty; suited to younger riders, returning riders, sidecars and classic (Pre-65) machines T6 Orange The least difficult division suited to new riders, mini bikes, young kids and older riders. Regards Tim

Long term owner of a 2017 Beta 4T standard model. Lots and lots of hours on it and the engine is not far off new in terms of performance. I will say that they do take a while to run in (stalls more easily when new than when run in) and the carb arrangement is poor with the rubber boots being both poor quality and tricky to correctly install. Outside of those issues everything else is the same as a 2 stroke beta. The beta 4Ts (standard or factory) are also supplied with a better clutch than the standard beta 2 strokes. I always run penrite 10-60 oil and nothing else matches the clutch performance I get with that oil. I have had to do zero carb maintenance on the bike and I have owned it from new. Have ridden in deep water, rain etc. It's as good as a carb gets in terms of reliability. With any of the 4 stroke bikes I'd recommend a better bash plate such as the costa special parts offer. If you are a big fella the standard beta suspension may be too soft and I'd go with the factory model. It's perfect for me usually in the 75 to 80kg range (~170lbs). Cheers Owens