Was watching the clip TooFastTim posted on the Ventoux Trial Classic 2011,(very good it was to) all the SWM's appeared to have Betor forks, are they so much better ?

Edited October 31, 201114 yr by B40RT

No - Marzocchi is a much better fork.

Later SWM were fitted with Betors, maybe they were a better financial deal than the Marzocchis?

I never owned an SWM but spent enough time on both the Zoke and Betor equipped bikes to pick up a diffs. In my experience the zokes could tuck in under you. Not a serious problem but enough to cost marks. But this could be down to different geometry used for the Betors.

Most of the works bikes from 80 - 82 ran Betor legs in Marzocchi yokes. The Marzocchi yokes worked a lot better, as the handlebar mounts were a lot further forward. The Betor legs dont flex as much as Marzocchis...other than that can think of no other advantage.

Thanks for the reply's.

Will stick with the Marzocchi's, only thought about changing as Betor is much easier to spell !

Ross

Edited November 1, 201114 yr by B40RT

I'm owning some 320's. All with Marzocchi's. One of my friends owns 4 320's, all with the Betors. I do prefer not to try one of his bikes, because it's to hard to come back on one of mines.

Since nearly 30 years, I've allways been told that the Betors was better than the Marzocchis.

Sorry for the bad english.

Nicolas

I'm owning some 320's. All with Marzocchi's. One of my friends owns 4 320's, all with the Betors. I do prefer not to try one of his bikes, because it's to hard to come back on one of mines.

Since nearly 30 years, I've allways been told that the Betors was better than the Marzocchis.

Sorry for the bad english.

Nicolas

I went from a 350 Bultaco with Betor's to the SWM with Marzocchi's, thought at the time the SWM steered etc better, but to many other factors to really compare. It certainly was the fashion at the time to swap the forks for Betor's, does your friend have the Marzocchi yokes as MartinM suggested for the best set up ?

Ross

The problem is: I don't know what the word "yokes" means. Why do I prefer the Betor? A great feeling of softness. Just what I'm waiting for dampers. You can always set up the handlebar position with some trick.

Nicolas

By the way: the friend of mine I told attemted to the Ventoux, his name is Michel Gossiaux. A pic of his bikes is on my website: http://www.trialclassic.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108:la-scuderia-gossiaux&catid=42:swm&Itemid=74

And see the results: The Belgian Cordonnier/Goset/Scheen all with Betor, two places before Burgat/Coutard/Schreiber, all with Betor too!

Goset drove one of the Michel Gossiaux'bike and Michel had made the set up of the Bernard Cordonnier's one, with the help of my clutch springs.

Nicolas

The problem is: I don't know what the word "yokes" means. Why do I prefer the Betor? A great feeling of softness. Just what I'm waiting for dampers. You can always set up the handlebar position with some trick.

Nicolas

These are Bultaco "Yokes"

Edited November 1, 201114 yr by B40RT

Aahh .. Yokes are triple clamps, this explaines much for me.

Yes these clamps can have a big effect to the steering as on trials bikes the distance between lower fork clamp (yoke) and upper fork clamp (yoke) are mostly differnt to the steering head axis. The upper clamp is a little bit further away to the center of the steering had then the lower one. This will result in a steeper fork angle and improve the understeer. This is a little bit visible in the parts book of the Montesa 200.

To the forks itself, I had two Italjet Piuma's back in the eighties, the first bike had Betor forks which worked very well, (coming from Bultaco). The second bike came with Marzocchi's mounted, there where no big differences as I remember only that it took much longer until they where breaked in, (The fork had a some stop - loss or breakaway torque when new).

In french, a fork is a "fourche" and the yokes are called "t

Heres my super progressive dual triple quadruple rate betor fork springs....wonder what the red and white paint dots mean? Betor progressive ? springs

Curiously when I swapped my springs from my second SWM these ones had spacers and were flush with the tops of the tubes. When fitted to the forks with the busted oops I mean super progressive multiple stage springs they were 20mm proud and dont seem to need the spacers. No colour dots on this pair.

Edited November 5, 201114 yr by Reginald