penalty and their need to better understand
what they were doing (very honest of them
to say so) they left the balance shaft out.
Now having invested in better tech they’ve
been able to measure better the vibrations
and so optimise the balance shaft to suit.
And to boot, say Beta, the balance shaft has
increased crank inertia a little, so, much-like a
flywheel weight, this has improved rideability.
The RR250 also gains a new cylinder head
which creates more torque at less revs.
There’s loads more tech besides but we’ll
deal with that as we work our way through
the models.
A QUICK WORD ON SUSPENSION
We have to start with the suspension, after
all it’s the beginning and end of dirt bike
set-up. And this year’s is very different to
the 2019 kit, being much plusher, smoother
– only to the point of being maybe a mite
soft. It felt great from the off, you get good
easy movement and at slower speeds (let’s
call it clubman speed) it’s a smooth feel, it’s
not beating you up the way the 2019 kit was.
Go faster – and this happens as you start to
familiarise yourself with the bike and terrain
– and you start noticing that it’s soft as much
as it is plush. For faster riders, arguably too
soft. Good news is that there are preload
adjusters on the forks and all the damping
adjusters on the forks are no-tool (you’ll need
flat screwdriver and spanners for the shock),
so you can wind in more preload and firm up
the damping.
Working on both the RR200 two-stroke,
34 KIWI RIDER
firming up both ends helped find a better
setting for faster riding with the front feeling
less like it was dropping into the hollows,
while still retaining that important plushness
and good turn characteristics. On the rutted-
out grass test, the front end felt much better
placing itself nicely into those corner ruts.
That’s good for a clubman like me, essential
for experts who’ll be pushing that front hard.
Firming up the suspension on the two-
strokes also made a big difference to their
attitude and feel. They stood taller and
handled more like KTMs (no bad thing) and
also more like their four-stroke siblings,
whereas on softer settings they rode like old-
school two-strokes, feeling low and long.
In all, the suspension felt like a big
improvement. We had one fast kid in our
group who complained long and loud that
the suspension was too damn soft (yeah,
he was an Australian – but he was indeed
fast, and a nice guy I should add). But from a
clubman perspective (which is probably 95%
of sales) softer and plusher is a better start
point. Experts will always be re-valving their
suspension anyway; they want personalised
settings as a matter of course. But for us slow
pokes, these stock settings will suit us better
and once we’ve dialled in the preload and
damping to suit our heft and local terrain,
chances are this suspension will do us just
fine. Still not quite Kayaba great – and the
KYB on the latest Yamahas and Gas Gas have
been excellent – but there’s no need to get
sniffy.
So, on to the bikes....