In my experience (reading about what seems to wear out or break on other makes) I think you would be hard put to get a bike that requires fewer marque-specific parts than a Beta.

I have run a Rev 3 since 2003 and leaving aside chains, sprockets, wheel bearings and brake pads, which can all be obtained as proprietary parts and can be viewed as consumables, the only things it has needed are two chain tensioners, one bottom bearing in the rear suspension unit (this year when slight play developed) and new swingarm bearings (again only this year). Both these items were available outwith the Beta parts book.

Oh yes, I did fit a piston and get the barrel recoated after about a year because the previous owner had clearly allowed the bike to swallow water or somesuch but the cost of that seemed to be on a par with any other.

If even a 4RT does that well I would be impressed and I doubt you would spend less on a Gas Gas or Sherco no matter what the relative parts prices are.

Edited December 27, 201510 yr by 2stroke4stroke

Said it before. Why are there no comparitive reviews of the machines being distributed by the importers?

There is no incentive for the manufacturers to improve the machine as the public only have the new graphics and there own translated press release in order to make an educated decision with a costly investment.

Red is faster!

I suspect that a meaningful comparison test is something that would be, effectively, impossible.

The bikes are designed to cope with the sort of section found in the world rounds. Anyone who has the ability to discover that one is better than another at getting up a twenty foot vertical rock face is already tied to one brand one way or another so won't be able to give an open and honest opinion, no matter how much they might like to.

And how valuable would such an assessment be to a prospective purchaser anyway given the use to which he would be putting it? Testing at the level of the bulk of potential purchasers would (given that all the bikes are capable of performing well above that level) come down to the tester's personal opinion on how the bike did one thing or another and that would be influenced by his riding style which might not be that of the potential purchaser.

Any "problems" of the sort we are all familiar with would not come to light on a short test anyway so could not be highlighted.

All in all the opinion of your best mate is probably more relevant because you know how he rides and how accurately he can describe a bike's behaviour in your context.

Which perhaps means that test days where riders can try several bikes should be more common but there's probably not enough money in it for this to be affordable.

It's possible to try several mountain bikes before purchase but it usually costs fifty quid a time, refundable on purchase. How many trials riders would spend three hundred quid to make their mind up?

Edited December 27, 201510 yr by 2stroke4stroke

Well I found a great condition Gasgas txt 280 pro for a good price. One question, in the owners manual from gasgas website it says run a 2% (50:1) fuel oil mix. does this sound right ?

 

Also does anyone have experience with this bike? any pointers etc?

 

Picking it up next week so want to get everything ready. Cheers

I run 80:1 in my wife's Gas Gas with full synthetic oil no issues. Not sure I would ever consider higher oil content...

nice one cheers guys!