neonsurge

I had a 200 for a while and while I'm a big bloke (6'1", 17st) it pulled me around the sections just fine. And the Beta 200 is sooooo smooth, almost turbine-like. I've no doubt that if I'd kept it I'd be a far better rider than I am now due to the fact that smaller capacity bike force the use of proper technique in "bigger" sections instead of relying on power to grunt you through which doesn't always work In the end I got rid of it and bought a 250 simply because I spend more time riding recreationally than riding trials and for me, the 250 is just more fun in that regard (and the 270 scared the crap out of me).

Just a nerd code monkey. C++, C# and Java. Oh, and achieving total and absolute control of the planet through the global broadcasting of subliminal brainwashing messages subtly embedded into looped episodes of "Eldorado". But that's just a weekend thing.

SDMC trials are usually a tenner.

Are you serious?!? If so, I'm just speechless and frankly, it goes a long way to explaining why the world's in such a miserable state. Well gee, I know us Brits is just a bunch of poor old-worlders still living in the dark ages and it's just not our place to question the motives and actions of the Greatest Country On Earth but last time I checked, I had over 100 TV channels including BBC (******* liberals, eh?) ITV News, Sky News (more pinko liberals... ), CNN, Fox, CNBC, CCTV etc. from which to gather news of current events. Which of those do you consider to be authoritative? And before you say Fox, may I refer you here (WARNING: not suitable for anyone with an IQ greater than that of a glass of water). Oh, and unless I'm mistaken, I do hear we have this new fangled thing called the intarweb.

Is that a statement or a response? How do you know I/we don't?

Unlikely. ICBMs are a relic of the cold war. They're big, expensive and relatively easily dealt with by modern anti-missile technologies. If you're a rogue dictator with a hard-on for smiting the capitalist pigs, MIRV is no longer your friend. It's much easier and cheaper to simply sail a boat with a couple of small nukes on board into a enemy harbour. Or wander into a city with a dirty bomb in a suitcase. That's where modern nuclear warfare is at. All this "my missle's bigger than your missile" stuff is just bull**** posturing really. Back on the subject of the game, if you call your AI opponent "joshua", they become almost impossible to beat. Wonder where that came from?

Religion is just an excuse for people to behave like tw*ts.

You'll have to remove the hoses I'm afraid but it's pretty easy: 1. Remove skid plate, kickstart and gear lever. 2. Drain coolant. 3. Remove water pump cover. 4. Remove impeller assembly. 5. Remove case bolts and off she comes! When reassembling, it's probably a good idea to use one of the paper-type gaskets instead of the rubber ones (which tend to allow the case to move during big hits to the skid plate which then causes oil leaks). Hope this helps!

ANY pegs are better than those squishy bits of old bean tin that rust at the first sign of moisture that Beta put on there at the factory. As rev3 says, the standard switchgear sucks too. The kill button on my 06 worked ONCE from new (no joke). Bin it and stick a 2-wire YZ-type one on there. I clean the airfilter and carb after every ride as well as removing the flywheel cover and mopping out any moisture. Probably unnecessary but it makes me feel better (and the pilot jet seems to clog much quicker on this bike than any other Beta I've owned - no idea why).

How about a nice game of Global Thermonuclear War? I'm not much of a PC gamer but this is brilliant, exciting and totally horrific at the same time (the soundtrack is particuarly disturbing). The demo is fully featured but restricts the number of players (and it's only a tenner for the full version anyway). Tic-Tac-Toe anyone?

See here. Not as creative as the Nigerian 419 guys

It's all just propaganda you know. There ARE Mac viruses and trojans out there, it's just that (as Felix suggests), they don't get as much publicity due to the relative popularity of the platform and Apple's extremely effective PR people who smother new vulnerability reports with counter-FUD and spin and no software in the world can protect people from themselves (412 scams etc.) or many types of spyware (see here for example). If there's no such thing as a Mac virus, why do most anti-virus companies produce Mac versions of their security suites? I'm not anti-Mac by any means. Nor am I anti-Windows or anti-anything else for that matter. I just find the whole "platform war" thing incredibly pointless and boring. In the real world, people use whatever operating system and software applications it takes in order to get the job done. I get paid to write .NET applications so I spend most of my time using Windows XP and Visual Studio but there are occasions when I need to glue non-MS systems to my apps using low-level code widgets and for that I usually fire up gcc (via Eclipse) on my Fedora machine. If I have to do web UI design work (which I hate), I frequently use Adobe Illustrator on a Mac, simply because I like the way that it integrates with some of the other image processing utilities on OSX. For home users it's slightly different of course but in that context it's even more wrong to say that any system is "better" than another. While I'd agree that it's probably true that OSX and Linux are more secure than Windows "out of the box", it's really not that difficult to lock down your XP machine. OS holy wars are the reason I stopped reading Slashdot

That's what the internet's for isn't it? Slandering others anonymously? And email. And porn. And, ummmm...... no, that's it

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the unfolding story and all the pics but you guys really need to discover email and MSN Messenger or something! P.S. Let us all know how y'all get on

Why? I replaced the caliper bolts on my old Beta with cap head stainless ones and never had a problem. Not being snarky, I'd like to know for future reference...

That's what YOU say...

Not sure if it needs saving - see the other thread!

It's an awesome idea and one which doesn't give anyone any excuses. Even if someone doesn't personally own a computer with an internet connection, even if they're the most luddite technophobe in the world, they MUST know at least one person who could provide access to the necessary equipment and technical support for at least a couple of hours during a two-week period. There are potential technical issues to overcome of course but this could work. In fact, a "secure forum" is a good idea for a development project...

I love my Betas but I've got to agree with Rick1: Some of the bolts ARE on the soft side and it's easy to round the heads or snap them unless you're very careful (axle pinch, mudguard stay and brake disc bolts particuarly). I've replaced them all with new stainless ones on my bike and although any problems I've had in the past may well be purely a consequence of my own ham-fistedness, it makes me feel better to know that it's no longer a danger. I'm one of those eedjits who's snapped a pinch bolt in the past.

York Survey .

At club level it doesn't really matter what rules the event is "officially" being run under, if an observer is relatively inexperienced they tend to apply a simplified subset of the rules where a clean is a clean, dabs are dabs (whether the bike is stationary or not), a paddle through is a 3 and "technicalities" such as stops, hops and slight roll-backs are ignored unless blatant. This despite the fact that a copy of the relevant ACU observing rules are attached to each observer's board. Which is perfectly OK in my book since observers are always at a premium and as long as the observing is consistent in that section, everyone is happy. When I'm observing I try to apply the letter of the law but in the context of what I just mentioned, that shouldn't cause any rider a problem since if they got away with something at another section that I gave them a mark (or even a 5) for, they've no cause for complaint since they were just lucky in that previous section. Centre, national and international events are a different matter of course.

I know a guy who ordered his ages ago and has been told 2nd week in October for delivery.

I've just had a "near miss" with the disc bolts... Last time out I noticed the front brake was making a funny noise. Didn't worry about it at the time but when I got home and investigated, I discovered that all of the bolts on the front AND rear discs were backing out. So after a quick locitite and spanner twirling session I checked all other visible bolts on the bike and found at least 30% of them were loose (including a couple of the chassis bolts!) Lesson learned I guess and a FULL bolt check is now part of my post-wash checklist. Should always have been of couse, but...

Got 'em. Many thanks!

Anyone have the full youth class results? I know East Yorkshire won (yay!) but don't have any more details. It'd be nice if the inter-centre event doesn't clash with a world round next year (a Yorkshire team with Lampkin and Dabill, East Yorks with Browny... )