dan williams

Yup. Cap to stop the lights from flickering. Would also provide starting current for the fan if the lights are all on. The fan needs an instantaneous startup current of about 10 Amps but only for a very brief time. It drops to about an amp when it is in constant operation.

Thank Konrad. Better presentation than what I had.😃

The spark plug operates off of a pulse generated when a triac trigger dumps the stored charge from a capacitor through the primary side of the ignition coil. Hence the term Capacitor Discharge Ignition. The voltage used to charge that cap is rectified by high voltage diodes in the CDI unit. The timing curve is programmed into a microcontroller in the CDI.module. These are typically run on 5V which will be derived from the 14.9V signal out of the rectifier. So the high voltage side of the CDI that fires the spark plug is isolated from the low voltage side of the CDI.that controls the trigger sense and the firing of the triac. This can be done in several ways but the cheapest and easiest is a transformer. The secondary side of the ignition coil is its own circuit which has to have a complete path back to the common of the ignition coil. As I said in older engines the engine case usually had a hard ground connection. The EVO doesn't and relies on the ground wire at the back of the frame through the engine cases to the cylinder. In my bike with titanium screws and magnesium cases that connection may not be as "hard" as necessary for the spark current. High rise time signals don't always behave the same as dc As for the diagram it's straight from the Beta manual with things not on my bike removed and annotated with my measurements. If your buddy crushed a capacitor on his bike he must be a European spec bike as the cap is used to smooth out the voltage for the lighting system. The US spec bikes don't have that cap. From a purely mechanical perspective what the diagram shows as three stator coils is actually 10 coils for lighting which are probably connected in parallel to supply low voltage high current and two coils for the CDI charge voltage which are likely wired in series to provide the high voltage needed to charge the capacitor in the CDI. The third coil shown on the schematic is the reluctance sensor that triggers the CDI. The face of the trigger sensor looks like it has had contact but I think this is just how it was adjusted at the ignition manufacturer since there are no witness marks on the flywheel to indicate contact. I suspect the construction of the sensor isn't just a magnet and coil but includes a pole piece that allows some flexibility in manufacturing as the pole piece can be ground down to proper clearance after the sensor is encapsulated. If you tried to do that with a rare earth magnet it would shatter. They are notoriously brittle. I plan to get a much better look at all the signals once I have a breakout board and can sniff them while the bike is running. I have several oscilloscopes here but I'll not risk the benchtop equipment playing with unknown voltages. That's why I bought some "sacrificial" cheapo portable scopes. But for now the bike is running as it did without sending the stator for a rewind. Or a $300 replacement. And I learned some stuff. So win-win. I'm just trying to share my learning with my EVO peeps who might not have the experience in electronics I have. I'd love to tear into the CDI module but that would be an expensive exploration. So for now it remains the classic electrical engineering "Black Box Problem" where you can see the goesintas and goesoutas but what happens in the box can only be guessed at.

Hmmm looking at closeups of the other connector and I noticed the water seal on the back of the high voltage wire (Red/White) to the coil looks less than perfect.

Back with learndings about the electrical system on my EVO after it glitched and cracked some ribs. Thought it was carb but seems it was electric. One interesting insight was how the electrical system finds ground for the spark plug. The other was the revelation that the 300 Ohms called out in the owners manual for the trigger coil might be a wrong value so if you're diagnosing your Stator and the trigger reads 185 Ohms you're probably OK. EDIT, fixed some typos Beta debug.pdf

Yeah but if negligence can be proved a liability waiver isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. But that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. Landowners might be somewhat shielded by “hold harmless” laws but organizers are very exposed. The word from the insurance company is they had to pay out a large claim for a drowning so now all water is verboten.🫤

So this showed up on our event insurance (along with the wrong additional insureds). Trialsmaster clarified with Birdsong insurance if someone falls in a puddle we are not covered without additional insurance. 🫤 So if it rains and you don’t get the additional coverage you are not insured.

Sad news from California. Lane Leavitt passed away on May 16th. Lane was a multi-time U.S. national champion who went on to a career in films and television as a professional stunt man and coordinator improving and inventing systems in common use in the film industry. A larger than life presence. He will be missed.

The S3 website shows the 250 and 280 head inserts have the short plug neck and the 300 head insert has the longer neck. If that is different than the stock head insert than I guess try a longer plug of the same type/heat range and go from there.

Interesting the plate is still 3mm thick but the friction material is semi-metallic and the plate width is thinner. Something I didn’t notice about the kevlar plates is they are slightly wider than the stock plates.🤔

I noticed some of the bikes that use the 3mm Barnet plates also call out 1 plate with a different number. I ordered one just to see if it’s the same form factor with a different thickness. I’ll let you all know what I find.

Not sure what difference this may make but just adding to the general knowledge I notice the Beta fiber plates are now noted as being Ferodo rather than Adige. I personally haven't seen any but I do see Beta wants a lot more money per plate.

Anybody try the TL01s yet? Opinions?

The stock brake lines are 1/8” J. Juan lines but I haven’t found any specs for the hose. There are ultra-low expansion hydraulic hoses but finding specs is proving difficult.

Yeah I remember that. There were always custom goodies on Ron’s bikes. Including a few Ron specific mods. Always amazed me the stuff Ron Jr. could do especially since he could barely flex his throttle wrist. He’d turn the throttle on by rolling it under his fingers and control power with clutch technique.

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy In my never ending quest to improve my Beta (and ignore the fact that I’m the weak link) I’ve been thinking about the generally accepted weakness or at least variable feel of the Beta rear brake. It uses the same master cylinder as the other bikes. The caliper is not particularly different. I can only come up with one big difference between Beta and the other brands. Beta’s brake is on the other side of the swingarm. In itself not significant but the brake hose is roughly twice the length of the other bikes. This makes the Beta twice as sensitive to the effect of hose expansion under pressure. Could something this simple be why Beta rear brakes are not on par with other manufacturers? I feel some research coming.🤔

Looks like they've upped their game. Much nicer looking bike.

I need to update it. So much good information added through this thread.

The waiting begins. Really looking forward to seeing how this develops. EM paved the way but they are really going to be hurting once a few more electrics get released and this latest prototype looks very interesting.

Could be air leak in manifold between carb and cylinder. Pretty much only thing I can think of if slide is retuning properly to rest position in carb. If the bike revs up again stick something over the exhaust to drop the revs then the kill switch should work. When an engine is screaming the ignition of the mixture can become self sustaining. The other thing that can happen is there is so much primary ignition current being generated the few ohms resistance in the kill switch can leave enough current in the primary to keep firing the plug. I’ve pulled the plug wire too. I’ll never do it again. Pretty sure I felt my heart stop. 😳 Didn’t like it. You might want to check the ground connection of your kill switch. Beta did a stupid wiring setup on some of the rev3s where they grounded to a lug behind the number plate to the triple clamp. Caused dodgy kill switch and lighting behavior. I always ran a larger ground wire back through the harness to a hard ground point on the frame. Specifically one of the mounting screws of the coil.

There’s endless debate about copper core/iridium/projected tip variants. They all work and I have yet to see any advantage one over the other with only one suspected fouled plug in the last 20 years. The main variable is heat range and that is something that only your engine can tell you if it’s correct because it’s going to be affected by oil mixture, air density, fuel/air mixture, style of riding…. So if your BR5ES looks good when you eyeball it then it’s all good. If it looks hot then drop to the BR7ES. Despite few changes to the fundamentals of their engines Beta have recommended different variations of plugs usually in the NGK 7 heat range with the latest being the ridiculously priced NGK IR GR7CI-8 which is basically a BR7EIX for twice the price. Just like oils the recommended plug has as much to do with sponsorship as performance. I think the newest iridium plug recommendation is emissions based though as it’s not uncommon now for “off road” bikes to come with sealed carburetors and security screws on manifolds and such. Even the EVOs have different jetting now for “homologation”.

The early Leonelli had the reverse magnet polarity to the Jitsie so they didn’t work if you mixed the cap and switch assembly. The problem is the way these switches work. A normally open magnetic switch doesn’t care about the magnet polarity but the normally closed switch does because it has a magnet in the switch housing that closes the reed switch. When a second magnet of opposite polarity is placed in proximity to the reed it cancels the field of the first magnet and the reed switch opens. As for the magnets falling out of the cap I’ve had a few do that. I drilled a small hole in the top of the caps and injected superglue in on top of the magnets. They’re not going anywhere now.😁

Maybe we should find a dealer in the UK for your lanyards/magnets and my clutch washers. Then we could just send over one box.😃

My evil nemesis Dave makes these. The lanyards are really good. Bright colors so you can find them and non-elastic so they don’t launch or hit you in various sensitive body parts when they come off the bike. Dave makes a lot of custom bits like number plates, choke lever extenders and kickstand feet. NOTE: Dave isn’t really evil it’s just that I can’t beat the guy. Even though I’m on a ‘20 EVO Factory and he’s on an ancient TY175. 😃

Wow! That looks like you messed up and double oiled your fuel.