totty79

For bikes that have a rear suspension linkage in the usual place I don't think there's much difference in the time required to strip, clean/replace, lube and assemble. Each one tends to get easier after a few goes. Amount of play and the frequency of maintenance are much harder questions. With new seals, bushes, bearings and marine grease on my Beta Evo it was still full of clean grease with no play 18 months later after riding roughly every other weekend. It goes downhill after that though when you just clean and repack with old parts to extend the life a bit it and it needs doing more frequently as everything starts to wear, once there's enough play to feel a tap/clunk when riding or any notchiness when disassembled it's time for new parts again.

Some 300s are vastly different to a 250 but in my opinion the Beta isn't, I'm not a great rider and I can easily ride them back to back without having to over think it. As standard they're fairly tame, nice smooth and torquey low down, a bit livelier than a 250 if you're heavy handed but they aren't aggressive. If you're a chug along on low down torque kind of rider the 300 may be preferable, if you're a bit rev happy then you might actually get on better with a 125. Unless you're happy to change it you may need to ask more about the head. It's the head insert that matters not the cover, you can see it around the spark plug, they may do a blue insert but I only recall seeing silver, red and gold. I think the standard insert or the low comp would be best.

4t noise trends to travel further even if the bike seems quieter to the rider. 300 GG can be a bit of a beast, but they can be tamed with a low comp head and retarded timing and in this state of tune they are very user friendly.

It could be a seal problem at either end, or contaminated pads, but I'd suggest ridding it before doing anything else. They tend to be weak after any work on them and they improve with a little use, the heat it up and chuck water trick on it can also make a big improvement. Pads need to be nearly new, the minimum thickness is less than half worn on many pads. If it doesn't improve you'll need to pop the pistons out a strip the master cylinder and rebuild/replace as required.

The threads don't need to engage equally, you can put it a half turn onto the tank then add the tap (or the other way around), it just makes it less fiddly and reduces the chance of cross threading.

You've most likely got tension on the throttle cable, one end not seated right or cable not routed right. Easily done. Best to check that the slide taps on the Idle screw before you start a bike. Just apply a small amount of throttle and let go, and listen for the familiar tap sound.

80:1 trials specific oil is the easy choice. You can run other oils and other ratios without problems but if you do that you'd have to experiment to avoid spooge.

Until the what bike question is answered along with what oil then the answer is in the 25:1 to 200:1 range, or what it says in the manual, and that's before you add each riders perspective including those that insist on putting as much or as little in as they can get away with.

I use a portable jet wash (pressure is more like a hose) at the practice ground where they're ok with it and use a barrier mat (like you get in shop/office doorways) on the van floor. Elsewhere I try to have a quick blast near the van to clear the tyres then scrape the mud off the underside of the rear mudguard and both sides of the bash plate, that gets rid of the majority of it.

The float is the only thing that should be affected by angle, but you started with it. Any other cause will be something odd and unexpected, but it still has to be something that can raise the revs so; throttle, enrichment/choke, ignition advance, or an air leak.

My money is on the throttle cable, zero play with adjusters wound right in is not normal, I can't think of any way in which being on an incline would pull the throttle though. I was part thinking of this when I asked about lifting the front as it rules out the rider pressing on the cable but it sounds like that isn't the cause anyway. 80:1 is the norm, 1.5% is the figure from the Beta manual for synthetic oils, 4% for mineral.

What happens if you start it up in neutral and lift the front wheel? Just to confirm that the bike being inclined is the cause, because to be honest it's baffling. The oil choice and ratio isn't ideal, but it also isn't part of the problem, I just think you'll get spooge using a high ratio of oil that's meant for sustained high rev usage.

You will probably be able to get other sizes of sprocket that aren't listed for the bike, I can't see the bolt spacing being unique, try somewhere like tallon. Before committing to gearing up though I'd suggest removing the radiator cover to aid cooling and then briefly screming it to get to 50mph+ on the road to experience just how bad the brakes and handling are, it might put you off.

I think you'd be better off with a different type of bike. For sustained speed you'll need to look at engine cooling, you can get an uprated pump and remove the radiator cover when on the road. Brakes are also likely to overheat and at least fade. Tyres won't last very long at all. Suspension damping is all wrong and geometry is iffy. I used to ride on the road to a practice ground on an EVO and came across most of these problems when I tried to ride at normal road speeds. As it was on quiet roads I could avoid any problems by simply riding slower.

You can't always just ride around, you'd need to check with the organisers. Just my opinion but if you can control the bike and it's the easy route on a beginner trial then it's worth considering just going for it. If it's the easy route on a normal trial (in which case "easy" shouldn't necessarily be taken literally) or you have any doubts about your bike control then go and spectate.

Very nice, and I can see why you'd want to keep it that way. Mine is just a Chinese copy and it's showing its age a bit, I'll strip it and rebuild it at some point but as it stands I'm not overly concerned about dropping it. I've changed a few bits since this pic and I'd need to change tyres and exhaust to do a LDT.

I hadn't considered doing an LDT until I saw a monkey bike on that list, quite tempted now.

Yes they're a bit pricey, but very light and well vented.

I used one for a couple of years, does the job fine, I only upgraded to an Airoh for better ventilation

Firmly clamp the one that moves, pump it some more and see if the other one starts to work, if it does pump each one in turn 1/2 way out and push it back a few times to see if it settles down to working properly. If it's all the way in then it should be in square, if there was air in the system it'd be spongy, seal damage or dirt in the seal grove is a possible cause (assuming the piston is undamaged)

Wheelie technique depends on what you're trying to achieve and what terrain you ride. As you're talking about loading the suspension I'd assume you're trying to place the front wheel in the right place on an obstacle e.g. as part of learning to do a double blip, on mud of other low grip surfaces. If this is what you're practising then the thing to practice is to use as little throttle as possible and to get part of the lift from the suspension using just a tiny blip of throttle to assist it, it takes quite a lot of physical effort. This skill is useful where it's so slippy that you cannot rely on rear traction alone to lift the front, you may have to weight the rear to get any traction at all and have to be gentle on the throttle. There should be no chance of the bike getting away from you and therefore no need to cover the rear brake, you shouldn't be going anywhere near the balance point never mind over it. For just getting used to having the front off the ground a small step/log/rock on an uphill slope with plenty of grip is an easy way to practice, being uphill makes the front easier to lift so it's easier to be smooth and just use the throttle, and if you wheelie the front over the step the rear hitting it will help bring it down if/when you overdo it. Rolling on more throttle is a different problem, you need your right wrist motion to be as independent from your body movement and momentum as possible, and as this is never perfect so you need to use the clutch to compensate. if you're effectively hanging off the bars then any surge forward will apply more throttle, your weight needs to be on the pegs. Rear brake position is adjustable on most bikes, but don't expect to be able to adjust it into the ideal position for riding around on the back wheel, they don't tend to have that much range of adjustment.

In what way is it scrap? If the pistons aren't too pitted and the seals haven't perished or torn you might get away with a clean polish and rebuild without a repair kit. Sourcing seals and pistons by size is a pain but can be done, you can also have pistons machined.

I see from your other thread that you've had a bad experience with a Gas Gas 300, I've ridden several of these and despite riding trials for a few years including other makes of 300 I've had one catch me out when I failed to think about how different a bike I was getting on compared to my 250 Evo. They aren't all the same though, by the time previous owners have messed with them most bikes can be anything from tame to arm ripping, the nicest engine character I've ridden also happened to be a detuned Gas Gas 300. Generally a 250 Beta Evo or Rev is not in the same ball park as a Gas Gas 300, they're calmer than a 250 Gas Gas. They have a very low compression ratio as standard and in most (all?) years also have a flywheel weight as standard.

You need a range of methods to deal with different terrain, getting adequate lift from mostly body action with the absolute minimal throttle is worth practising if you ride in slippery conditions.

There aren't that many options to be fair. A low compression head is the best way to lower the compression, but an extra base gasket is used by some. Newer Betas apparently have a grove in the cylinder to make starting easier you could probably have your cylinder machined to match. I don't know if the TRS electric start can be retrofitted or if you'd need to buy a new bike to get it.