ANYTHING ELSE THE VERDICT
I love the new look. Not because it looks
sharp, snappy and bang up to date. Although
that’s a win. But because the new look comes
with a great set of ergos. That seat-tank is so
flat you can move forward and back to your
heart’s content. The handlebars, the controls,
the levers – everything is the right shape for
2020, no throwbacks, no oddities. I’m handing it to Beta, they’re gold standard
(for bronze money…). They stand to pick up
lots of two-stroke sales (which are already
65% of their enduro output). Not everyone
likes KTM’s TPi it seems – you get a real split
of opinions on that, love-hate – and the Betas
look set to run carburettors for years to come
so for the fuel injection haters this is an easy
homecoming. Yet the Betas have their own
sophistication. The oil injection works, you
barely saw a puff of blue smoke from them.
The counter-balancers now smooth both
the vibes and the power. The adjustment on
the exhaust valves is so simple and effective
– dial in the response you want, slow rev or
fast rev. And each two-stroke has an easily
identifiable – and attractive – character, 125,
200, 250, 300, the time-honoured capacities.
It’s all good.
The brakes are good too. Nissins, front and
rear, with good feel and plenty of strength.
Those gearboxes – proper six-speed units,
evenly spread and with a decent near-
overdrive top gear for road work. Exactly
right for enduro and trail. Michelin tyres as
standard – superior to the Maxxis you’ll get
with an orange machine. Thank you Beta.
And the big fuel tanks? Props to Beta for
managing to get the 9.5 litres into a slim
unobtrusive tank that still leaves plenty of
space around the engine – so on the two-
strokes you can get to the spark plug without
removing the tank. I love Beta’s real-world
thinking, too: when they designed those
tanks, when they removed the radiator
hoses, they were looking at cooling efficiency
of the radiators, bearing in mind the average
speed for an enduro bike is 28km/h – these
things have to work in the woods.
44 KIWI RIDER
Indeed Beta is going from strength to
strength. Never the giant that is KTM, not
the struggling minnow that is Gas Gas (great
bikes, terrible financials). Beta is quiet,
confident, assured, safe and solvent. And this
time next year – yeah, they’ll be tracking that
growth curve ever higher.