Trail Rider Magazine

the stock Michelin stock res for something that we actually like to ride. We enlisted a set of Kenda Washougal as they offer con- sistent grip in a variety of terrain and wear like iron. Starng of the bike is instantaneous with the electric starter. Out of the crate the Beta was a bit hard to kick over with the kick starter, but became significantly easier aer about 4 hours on the motor. The inial feel of the motor is extremely smooth. The motor has no excessive vibraon and remains this way throughout the RPM range. As you begin to accelerate, the power band feels very linear with plenty of grunt off the boom and through the mid-range. The top end however, falls a bit flat, and we are assuming that is because of the muffler is somewhat restricve. Aer about ten hours of tesng we in- stalled a FMF Powercore muffler and it really opened things up. This bike went from feeling like the mellow KTM 450XC-W to something closer to a a KTM 450 XC-F. If you ride mainly ght gnarly trails the stock muffler will be great, however if you ride more open terrain or like to hit the MX track you will be craving a bit more power, and the FMF Powercore will sasfy that crav- ing. In stock form most of the test riders felt like the Beta's motor and gear box felt nearly idencal to the KTM 450 XC-W. This is not surprising as both have a similar 95x63.4 bore and stroke with equal gear raos. What surprised all of the Beta test riders was the fact that the Beta is sll carbureted. We tested the Beta between 2000-6500 feet of elevaon and were super im- pressed with the stock jeng. Out of the box we set the idle, and haven't touched anything since (we did order up a JD Jet- ng kit just to see what it will do). Our test bike was from the BYOB (Build Your Own Beta) program and came with the closed chamber Marzocchi Shiver 48mm fork. The soer open chamber Sachs fork work well on the east coast, but leave a lot to be desired for the faster and whooped out terrain this bike will spend the majority of its life in. The stock suspension felt extremely firm with the stock sengs and I assumed it would soen a bunch during break in, as this has proven to be the case in the past. Not so. The Marzocchi forks on the Beta are quite a bit different (and beer) than the Mar- zocchi fork that came stock on the GasGas lineup. The Betas' Marzocchi has red anodized stanchion tubes, DLC (diamond like coang) ultra-slick lower fork tubes, SKF low fricon fork seals, .48 fork springs and compeon style fork valving. With the stock sengs, the bike felt nearly perfect on the moto track and at one of the sandy, whooped out test tracks we ride frequently in the winter. When we finally got the Beta in the woods, even with the clickers backed way off, the fork and shock valving were both waaaay too sff for our 200lb AA rider. Aer an 85 mile enduro , a zip e put on one of the lower fork legs showed that we had 2.5 inches of unused travel. We quickly got the suspension off and sent over to Enduro Spec for some massag- ing. On the forks, Warren Healy (Owner and head suspension masseuse) decided to install the famous Huck Valve which is a speed sensive booming system and used a slightly lighter shim stack. The .48 fork springs were kept. In the back Warren said the shim stack on this parcular shock was quite a bit dif- ferent than other Sachs shocks he's seen on the Betas. This par- cular shock basically had a full moto shim stack. We think maybe this was changed out for something more aggressive in the BYOB program. None the less, Warren altered the shim stack, installed low fricon seals and upped the 5.4 spring to a 5.7. The suspension changes really allowed the bike to ride and track the way it was designed to. Here's what War- ren at Enduro Spec had to say: "We worked closely with MX-Tech last year on the 48mm Marzocchi forks on the Gas Gas to develop sengs. We took what we learned last year and ap- plied it to the Beta plaorm. Out of the box the forks are very harsh throughout the stroke. We tuned all the circuits to eliminate the harshness without mak- ing them too so for faster riders. We dropped the oil volume a bit, installed InnTeck Bushings and SKF Low Fricon Seals. For the shock we had similar goals, eliminate the harshness and lower the fricon coefficient. Less fricon = less heat which translates to less shock fade and thermal expansion. We used a MX-Tech Low Fricon Piston Ring on the Sachs piston and revalved it to match the forks." With the new plush, yet firm suspension that never violently booms, I could now really get tuned into how this bike really handles and turns. The Beta 450 www.TrailRider.com 14 Trail Rider The Beta is sharp in the corners.

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