made a huge difference to the 350.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF IT The adjustable map switch is great, it works, and both maps are very different The Sun( hard) map is brilliant and a heap of fun in the open, while the Cloud( soft) map is a real change in character, gives broad tractable power and tames the beast. Now, this is a little contentious for me, but I would love to be man enough to ride it in the hard map all the time as it’ s a neck snapper, however … I’ m not, I flick between the two for entertainment purposes and I love it. The RX350 has huge radiators with a 2.2psi cap, which seems to provide a great cooling set up, not getting hot in any of my riding. If you’ re riding in super-slow, gnarly terrain, you can throw a Beta fan kit at it, there’ s plenty of room. Weight-wise, the 350 feels super light, coming in at 100kg dry. Pushing it around unpowered is a breeze, and when riding it has that mountain bike feel – one that will scare the pants off you if you let it have its head.
JETTING & TWEAKING I picked up the bike in crate form from the distributor, took it home( in a very excited state) and pieced it together. A very straight forward task and a bit of added anticipation. First things first, there were a few things needed doing to dial it in. Number one on my hitlist was jetting. I went up a groove on the needle clip and two sizes down on the pilot jet … and it was crissssspppy! Next up, the bars got a shave as they felt a bit too wide for me. Then the rear brake and gear levers both got lifted. Next, I fitted the XGrip Track Master rear tyre, alone with a Tubliss, then some factory Beta hand guards. Now we were cooking!
36 KIWI RIDER