dgshannon

They may be easy to adjust, once you get to them! I have been eyeing mine, and don't think that it will be possible to do without dropping the engine down, in the frame. The way the radiator, and front down tubes are made, it appears that you could rotate the engine down, while still connected at the swingarm pivot, and then make your adjustments. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually done the job. As far as living with the bike, I love mine. Prior to the Beta, as far as 4-strokes go, I had a Scorpa SY175F, followed by an SY250F. Overall, I much prefer the Beta. The oil changes are slightly more time consuming, in that you have to remove and clean the two filter tubes, in addition to changing the main oil filter. But, it is only a matter of a few extra minutes, which seems worthwhile for the extra protection it brings. Build quality is excellent. Mine starts, and runs great, with no problems at all, much less "big ones".

B & J Racing have developed a nice set of mods, for the bike, and now sell many of the parts used. Check theie website: http://www.bjracing.com/tlr200.html

No trials bike trophy, but they do have a speedway bike! Probably the only motorcycle sport that is more obscure than trials, and they have a trophy for that.

Modified variation on the concept, that allows the use of a standard scorecard, and doesn't require a clipboard, and an atomic calculator, to figure out the score. Link: http://www.texastrials.com/subwebs/txtrial...TrialsRules.pdf Plus, you can continue to try gates, even after dabbing, or a five, as an incentive for a rider to try harder stuff, and gain back points. With either set of rules, the old date trial problem of "one dab loses all" is done away with. Our local club (South Texas Trials Association) has taken the fun factor even further, by not having a trials master setup the event ahead of time. Instead, we bill our events as "Roll Your Own Trial". One hour prior to the event, we split the riders up into teams. (One team, for each section). Each team is then responsible to layout a section, as they see fit. Since it is a gate trial, nobody is forced to ride anything they don't want to, in case a given team gets a little insane with their section. This added feature of team layout take some stress off the trials master, and teaches club members the fine art of laying out section. In so many clubs, it is only a few guys that have developed that talent, and typically end up doing all the work. The "Roll Your Own" approach spreads the load, and educates new riders as well. We have really been having fun with the format.

It is actually 20cc (123cc vs 143cc) and it makes a HUGE difference. Not sure I would pay the bucks without going all the way for the 163 though. My 143 was factory, so I can't speak to the kits.

You think your unlucky, I have to ride with that guy, every weekend. Dodging his bike gets to be a regular challenge. You soon learn to be very cautious as to where you stand, or park your bike.

The fact that they are 1970's Akront rims! Guess you had to be there.

4T to 2T. He has already developed the 4T skills, and was stepping backwards to awaken 2T skills, rather than apply well honed 4T skills, to the development of the Beta.

His history, and record, speaks for itself, so no question there. But, I was puzzeled by the switch back to the 2-stroke, after years of developing 4-stroke skills, on the Montesa. Switching in either direction is tough, but to go backward seemed strange. Then, it became obvious that what was really being said was that the Beta 4-stroke just isn't good enough for WTC yet. From a marketing standpoint, that is a tough message to send. Seemed like all the more reason you would want a seasoned Montesa veteran to ride, and further develop, the Beta 4-stroke. So now, we are to believe that with some more development, Dougie will once again switch back to 4-stroke? Just as Montesa had to endure the public eye, as they developed and refined their 4-stroke, I was expecting Beta to do the exactly the same, with Dougie's move. Have to say I was disappointed by the failure to do so. It just seems as if that would have been a much more intellegent marketing decision. Even more so now, as hindsight reveals performance to date, on the 2-stroke, has not been jaw dropping.

So, bravery + skill = modern. Which part is missing from "old school"? The bravery? Regardless of modern, or old school, bravery is always required, depending upon your skill level. For a novice rider, to drop off that 2 foot ledge, the first time, takes great bravery. From the day you started riding, your ability to try more stuff, and advance your skills, required great bravery. The question is how far you push it. My only contention is that stop & hop rules have resulted in pushing it into the ridiculous. You said it yourself... Why has the sport turned into hop, hop, hop then zip up some "HUGE obstacle", followed by more hop, hop, hop then down some "HUGE obstacle"? It is a great sport to watch, as are the X-Games, and back-flips, etc. which are also an extreme, on the sport. Where I am coming from, I guess, is extreme vs. mainstream. What is done at the indoor & outdoor WTC is the extreme, and does not look ANYTHING like what the majority of local clubs do on any given weekend. So, why even bother to try an play by the same rules? Thanks for the help, because you are making my point for me. Look at the "top 30 riders" and tell me how many would be in the top 30 at a WTC outdoor? Would they be less competitive because they don't have good stop & hop skills, or because the sections would be more ridiculous? The SSDT proves that it does not take "HUGE obstacles" to take points from riders, and does level the playing field more. In shear numbers, look at how many more people showed up to participate in the SSDT, than at a WTC round. Again, it is not to much modern vs. old school as it is extreme vs. mainstream. I think the guys that want to hold onto the old rules simply want the sport to grow in the mainstream, instead of continuing to evolve into the X-Games.

Tough discussion because the skill sets are apples vs. oranges. Overall, stopping and hoping is probably the tougher skillset. I say that because the adoption of those rules has taken the sport into the realm of stupidity. As stated in an earlier posting, there are only a sm ll handfull of folks that can compete at the world level, with those rules. The danger level has just kept rising in order to offer a challenge to a few super humans. Down at the local club level, there are a few that want to pretend they do what the top guys do, but for the most part it is a completely different sport, trying to follow the same rules. As such, you see club level riders split along the two lines of those that can hop, and those that can't. At the highest level of those who can't hop, you see a skillset that is equally as remakable as that of the "club level" rider who can hop. One is the ability to RIDE a motorcycle and the other is the ability to HOP a motorcycle. In our local clubs, the highest level of riders, who can't hop, are a formidable bunch. In general, our stop & hop riders, considered to be "more skilled", can't compete against the non-hop guys, on their own turf any more than the non-hop guys could complete with the hoppers, on their turf. The non-hop guys tend to be perfectionists, studying their line before a ride, finding every inch of grace that they can, in a section. They learn to "ride the ribbon", or boundary tape, using all the section for everything it's worth. Like chess, the current move sets up for a key move much later in the section. The hoppers, on the other hand, don't approach a section in the same way. The same corner, that a guy just "rode" around, with considerable skill, they will instead cut short, and go to hopping. One hop, two hops, three hops, dab. On their turf, with MUCH tougher obstacles, that dab is not as critical, and may be made up for elsewhere. But on the home turf of the non-hop rider, you can't afford that dab. At the end of the day, the supposedly higher skilled, hop capable, rider ends up with more points. Again, it is apples and oranges. Two totally different skill sets. The older riders tend to learn to stop, but not hop. The younger guys jump right in to stop & hop, and never learn to "ride". Because stop & hop has created much more dramatic, and dangerous sections, the skill level is percieved to be higher. But, in a properly laid out non-stop, non-hop, trial you can take a lot of points from those very same guys, without the level of danger that has come into today's sections. Someone said earlier that no-stop / no-stop would "level the playing field". I think that is does allow a lot more folks to play, but maybe not because it requires less skills, but instead different skills that don't take you so far into the realm of danger. Sort of the difference in playing Poker versus Russian Roulette.

Very curious as to which of the vintage bikes have been found to have "suitable clutches for stop type riding"? I have always been pleased with my '74 Cota 247's clutch, as it has a fairly progressive engagement, compared to the lightswitch (on-off) clutch on some other bikes I have tried from the same era.

Difficult to know for sure. Sending the Swedish description through a translator doesn't produce very good results. But, from what can be made out, it appears that they are representing it as a pretty generic part, for any 06 or 07 Mikuni carbs, with a fine thread. Their only warning about possible problems appears to be in the last paragraph, where they point out that certain carbs, such as the VM26, may have a course thread, and not be compatable. One would assume that the VM22 would be a match, for the part.

In hindsight, I should have started with a Rev-4T image, and I would not have had to doctor in the countershaft sprocket.

Only by eye, in relation to wheel size, etc. Wondered if someone was going to pickup on that! Spent a while "sneaking" that in. Probably so! But even then, somebody on here would be wanting the 500cc kit, I'm sure!

Except it's fuel injected, and you could probably adjust the valves on this one, without dropping the engine!

Ever since I first saw the Husaberg Horizontal 4-stroke engine <LINK>, I wondered what it would look like in a trials bike chassis. So, I finally sat down with Photoshop, and made it happen. All in all, I think it could make for an interesting bike!

To some degree, yes. Given the extra components, there is more mass to get up to speed. Why?

Maybe that is the sidecar!

My SY250F felt big even for my large frame! The tall, top heavy motor, gives it that look, and feel. But, I liked mine a lot. Moving to the Beta, it really looks and feels much smaller. Overall, I am much more impressed with the Beta, but the rear suspension doesn't even come close to that of the Scorpa. I got real spoiled to that with all my 2-stroke and 4-stroke Scorpa, and miss it on the Beta.

Just changed mine (GM factory Denso Platinum) at 109,000 miles, and they still looked great, with the gap still spot on to the factory settings. Couldn't believe it.

My thoughts exactly. Your friend should be getting paid to haul it off, instead of the other way round.

You just broke Mark's heart, leaving Sherco for a Scorpa. (Good choice, by the way! )

All this time I thought you have been saying "pubic tweaker".