October 19, 201510 yr Wanting to upgrade my current machine and two options have come up, 2015 Beta 300 and a 2015 Sherco 300. Both are the same money, age and condition give or take. Which would you choose? I'm leaning towards the Beta as I've read they are a bit better made and I will get longer out of it but can't decide. Any other thoughts either way?
October 19, 201510 yr Well, last year I made that same decision and went with the Sherco. I'm probably going back to a Beta this year (still slightly up in the air) but I'm not buying another Sherco/Scorpa. I like a lot about the bike, but a couple things bug me. One is the oil drain bolt, which has an 8mm head on it. That, and it not on the bottom of the motor, but rather horizontal. I looked at it the first time I changed the oil and thought "this could be trouble". Sure enough, somewhere around the third change some swarth from the transmission ended up on the threads, and while I was putting the bolt back in it got hung up. A tap from the other side cleaned it up, but that was annoying, and never would have happened if the stupid thing was where it should be. That and the fact that the bolt is tiny bug me... something that goes in and out of the motor that often should be beefy (the Beta drain plug is like something you'd see on a cars oil pan). The other thing that worried me, but that I haven't actually seen break, is the footpeg mounts. On the Scorpa/Sherco, they're a welded, integral part of the frame. On the beta, the footpegs are hung off a separate mounting bracket that's bolted to the frame (the TRS is the same). This makes infinitely more sense to me. Not sure if anyone has ripped a footpeg mount off a Sherco before or not, but it looked too vulnerable to me. Another bummer was the rear mounted gas tank, which I figured was neither here nor there. But the thing seemed to swell in the heat and made the gas cap impossible to remove without pliers when it was hot out. The first time I discovered this at a trial was a little annoying. Something really simple I liked about the Beta: quick connector for fitting the factory wrist strap lanyard. No removing bodywork and wiring, etc. Just unplug the old and plug in the new. Another one on the "simple" front: adjusting the rear shock damping on the Sherco is impossible without removing the rear bodywork and gas tank. Beta can adjust on the bike. Same goes for other simple maintenance stuff, like the rear brake fluid resevoir... can't get to it on the sherco without removing things. On the Beta it's easily accessible. The Beta also turned a whole ton better, so if you're not a hopper I'd go with the Beta. In Sherco's defense, I've forgotten most of the things that bugged me about the Beta at this point... oh wait, I remember: sticky clutch (fixed with the Beta clutch fix) and a slight clunk from the headstock (fixed with a bit of tape). Other than that, I miss it. In short, the Beta felt much better engineered to me... things are where you can get to them, less likely to break, and generally more friendly to use. Edited October 19, 201510 yr by heffergm
October 19, 201510 yr I've narrowed my short list to the same 2 bikes. Would still really like a gasser but the company is too up in the air at the moment. This may sound stupid but I worry about the left sided kick start on the betas, I have never tried actually starting one but it is something that plays on my mind
October 19, 201510 yr Don't buy either until you've tried them both, these two have quite different characters & some people simply just don't gel with a particular bike. You have tried them haven't you? Then get the one you like best.
October 19, 201510 yr The left side kicker never bothered me but I do see guys starting them off the bike with their right foot so apparently it is weird for some people.
October 19, 201510 yr I've got a serious engineer type buddy (head of eng. @ hendrick motorsports....) that swears beta's are the bomb ... Glenn
October 19, 201510 yr I should imagine the Beta will hold it's money a bit better as the Sherco has changed frame for 2016 so the 15 will look more out of date quickly. I prefer the ride of the Sherco as it's less front heavy than the Beta. The Beta is built better, The Sherco's still have issues that they have had enough time to fix but the factory can't get some simple things right yet!
October 19, 201510 yr Love my Betas. Though the TRS looks mighty tasty. The TRS has some really nice looking custom machining. My only complaint is the silencer, which looks like a giant sausage.
October 20, 201510 yr The best advice: Best thing you can do is to try them both and see which one puts the biggest smile on your face. and look for after sales support.
October 20, 201510 yr Oh, and the radiator shroud easily pops in and out on the beta. On the sherco it doesn't. This is example of very small but sensible things on the beta that are missing on the sherco. On the downside with the beta, all the hardware (nuts/bolts) feel like they're made from soft cheese. I didn't find this to be an issue on the sherco.
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