Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/294885
April 2014 13 BETA 450 rr 2014 Another Fine Motorcycle From Beta I n case you've been sleeping under a rock the last few years, there is this company out of Florence, Italy making some of the nicest off-road motorcycles on the planet. Beta (the name is derived from the inials of Enzo Bianchi and Arrigo Tosi) has been making motorcycles since 1948 with producon of off- road motorcycles beginning back in the 70's. In 2004 Beta de- cided to seriously throw its hat into the ring of compeve off road motorcycling and enlisted the help of the KTM to handle its engine work. In 2010 Beta unleashed its own 4 stroke design motor and never looked back. As you've seen, we've recently spent a lot of me tesng the new Beta 2 stroke with nothing but great things to report. To round out the Beta tesng, Mo- toAdventure in Loveland Colorado kindly loaned us a new 2014 Beta 450 RR to run through the ringer. The 2014 Beta 450 RR isn't remarkably different from the past couple years, and most readers don't know a lot about the prior models so we won't spend a ton of me talking about the changes, rather we'll talk about what this bike has to offer. The Beta is a stunning bike to look at. It's has clean lines and that unmistakable Italian flare. A quick walk around the bike shows impressive aenon to detail with such things as the built in grab handles in the rear sub-frame, push buon seat removal and tool-less air filter access. The Beta comes stock with lights, hand guards, a Trail Tech Computer, aluminum bash plate and a US Forest Service Approved spark arrestor muffler. This is great news to many consumers as these are usually items you have to purchase aer spending a small fortune on your new bike. Per- sonally, these are all items that I will remove for racing, but I'd rather have them and not need them. Think of what the retail add on cost of these items are and it makes the Beta's $9199 price tag a real bargain. Upon mounng this Italian beauty I found everything remark- ably familiar in feel. Everything just feels "right", and the only thing that is overly noceable is how slim this bike feels. Of the 4 test pilots that rode this bike, the slimness of this bike was uni- versally talked about and praised. Even the stock handlebars felt great. Bars are usually the second item to end up in the dump- ster, behind res. The bar angles feel very similar to the Renthal Fay bars that came stock on Suzuki and KTM for years, which I happened to like. Aer breaking in the Beta we decided to scrap Story by Keith novello photos by Dennis lane