Six Days that is a few years old , but still a great bike . Yes , I do love a big capacity four-stroke dirt bike ... which brings me to today ’ s bike in question , the Beta RR480 Racing .
LOOKS AND ERGOS First up , I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder , but to this beholder the Beta looks fantastic . The red and blue with a little white and black detail is stunning . Sitting on it , the feel is flat and narrow through the middle with a hard seat , straight bars and a generally business-like riding position . The tank flares out towards the front which feels a little wide compared to some other race bikes . But that feeling is adjusted to quickly and not noticed in a very short time . The 480 has a serious seat height of 940mm which will be a decent stretch for those short of inside leg measurement . But , in fairness , this is normal for a decent dirtbike . I liked the fact that it has a generous ground clearance of 320mm that will let the Beta glide through deep ruts snag free , particularly as the pegs are 414mm high and well out of the way . There ’ s nothing worse than coming to an abrupt halt in a rut with both tyres well clear of the ground – trust me , I have been there and lifted my bike free only to see a taller machine with greater ground clearance whistle through , no problem .
+ Looks awesome ; goes great ; a versatile big grunter with a quality build
– Loud ; firm suspension initially ; slight throttle response lull if opened too quickly
RIDING Riding off on the Beta 480 ( actually 477.5cc ) a few things were quite apparent . It ’ s loud , punchy from idle and first gear seems quite tall . Also , it feels very firm in the initial suspension stroke . The loudness is easily explained by the open MX style FMF muffler . And the punchy from idle nature of the power delivery was because the 480 was in ‘ go hard ’ power mode with the traction control off . I ’ ll come back to the suspension later . There are two electronically controlled power modes from the Kokusan ignition . Both have mode specific TC that can be either on or off . The first mode delivers MX style grunt ( read responsive , aggressive roosting , get the fark out of my way power ), while mode two offers traditional Enduro power that is smoother and mellower , better for long days in the saddle and
58 KIWI RIDER