If I was too take my bash plate off...is it VERY difficult to put back on??...I wonder since it seems to be a significant part of the structure. ALSO>....the nuts at back of bash plate (near rear wheel)..keep getting their heads rouded off on the rocks...I notice the Montesa has a countersunk alan key bolt thingy...which looks MUCH better to me. Mine keeping working loose too...I will locktite them soon...

any tips..gratefully received since I'll probably take off the plate soon..and try to sort it all out.

Not specifically familiar with the Beta, but bashplates can be tricky.

They get bent, so when you take them off, they become a shape that no longer lines up with the mount holes.

Sometimes it takes an assistant and a floor jack to get it back on.

I had mine off my 03 at the end of the season and had no problems putting it back together. You have to really take some nasty hits to make it a bad job going back together. With the Beta and Montesa the frame does not tend to grow with heavy use like some of the others, so short of a slightly tweaked bash plate things line up well.

If all you intend to do is thread lock the bolts just do one at a time. You will have no problem.

We do not have very rocky ridding around here but I have never had a problem with rounding off the back bolts.

Aaron

Thanks alll for your help. I suspected it might be tricky. It is also complicated by the fact that one of my rear threads...has been damadged by a bolt that was working its way loose and getting banged at the same time...(if that makes sense?)...I will try however to move one bolt at a time and loctite them. Aaron..its probably my poor technique that means I'm bashing the rear nuts....would sure like some of those countersunk ones though like on the Montesa.

STU

My Techno has countersunk head bash plate screws at the rear.

When i took the plate off ,I had a bit of a time getting it all back together.

The screws at the back seemed to cross thread themslves on the way out .So,I had to put slightly longer screws back in and put a nut on the end

To get the plate back on I just bent the it a little so I could put all the screws in very loosely ,then tightened them up a bit at a time one by one....seemed to work for me ,and my bash plate has took some knocking about.

A jack comes in handy aswell

Regards

N

Thanks Dr.Nick...Shame Beta coulnd't have stuck with that design...on the Rev 3 the thread is in the frame...and you can't put a nut on the end...so Its also pretty bad news if a thread gets damadged which I think one of mine is...will try to do it all this weekend...so thanks for the advice!

The bolt on the front right side will hit the exhaust pipe. If you plan on taking it off you will need to remove the pipe. Otherwise just back off the bolt as much as you can and swing it out of the way. You can tighten the bolt back down to hold the bash plate out of the way. When I had mine off I polished it on the buffer and made it like chrome. I also sent the pipe out to have the carbon deposits removed at a machine shop. They put it in a vat that removes the carbon. It will make the pipe a little lighter in color but will polish up nicely. By having that stuff cleaned out your exhaust will be like new. Not that my exhaust had a lot of deposits in it, but I had taken it off already and did not want to remove it later.