sir dabs alot

Same problem here. The right leg has a keeper nut that can be unscrewed but the left leg does not. The left leg has a set screw in the threads of the top cap which I removed but still no luck removing the left top cap with the set screw completely removed. Also, the oil level seems to be 160 mm of air space compressed with the springs removed. Anyone know how many cc that is?

Is the handling of the bike odd or does the front end feel overly steep because of this? Also do the high pegs make balance or handling funny?

Anyone out there coming from a GasGas (or Beta for that matter) curious what differences are noticeable. Stability, grip, turning, power, typically reliability issues. These bikes remind me most of a GasGas. I'm wondering if they have the same light feel and neutral ergonomics, is the head angle overly steep (tendency to tuck) Read a lot on here where they grip well, one rider said pegs felt high compared to other bikes. Let's hear it!

Nice summary. I'm interested in Ossa too

Any other opinions?

Both accurate replies I think

Who has made the switch and what differences have you noticed?

I had the same problem on my '08 and tried to explain this to no avail. I couldn't detect play by grabbing the fork legs and even wondered if it was a loose front disc pads or caliper. Anyway, good to know I wasn't imagining things. It was very distracting annoying clunk!

What are the key differences ride wise between the Beta and the Sherco?

Hi all! After riding a Gas Gas for my last two bikes and an older model Sherco as my first, I'm considering a different rig for my next bike. Here's my opinion of current model bikes after taking short rides on each; I love the way the GG handles and turns. I never really had any mech. problems with mine. It doesn't seem as stable going over things as my Sherco did. My clutch adjustment was pretty finicky. The rear shocks seem to get sacked out feeling easily. The Montesas felt wide and the power delivery was a little more sudden and abrupt than I expected (not necessarily a bad thing). The price is really out my range though. Coming off of logs, etc. felt very much different than the GG as well. Some adapting would be necessary here. The Sherco Power and suspension felt great to me the turning is really the only down side to me. I think the time required to adapt to this bike would be minimal. The Beta has a reputation for reliability like the Monty. The one I rode felt wide and heavy like the Monty. Going over medium sized rocks, it was easy to regain my balance. Going over tall obstacles with my front wheel high it was a little harder to re-direct the bike intuitively by leaning. I guess it takes a different technique maneuver this bike? The head angle felt steeper almost like it might tuck under if not careful. I really want to like this bike but am afraid I might have a hard time adapting. Any advise would be welcomed. I basically want something that will ride great and has equally great suspension and brakes. Thanks for any comments in advance!!

I rode a 2.5 recently and really liked it. It's softer power felt more controlable. Felt very light and seemed to have plenty of power, just a different delivery. I was wondering. I have recently moved my bars farther forward. Could this attribute to the wrist pain?

I changed the oil back to 5w. I'll see how it goes. I've noticed the front fender banging as well. This might be adding to the possible illusion of harshness. I have raised the fender up a little (5mm) with some make shift spacers. I lifted the wiper and cleaned it fairly well. I went with 300cc this time. I'm sure I went 330cc the first time. It feels more supple in the garage. I'll find out this weekend. Thanks for your help! By the way, what are you riding? Thanks!!

I got my 10w from Ryan. It is Maxima. I'll probably give the 5w or even 7.5 a try. I can't remeber if it did this before changing the weight or not. I have a leaky seal right now so I guess it's as good a time as any. I thought maybe my headset was loose and I was feeling it moving but I can't get it to move with the bike still. It feels like my initial inch of travel is harsh and then it smooths out. It doesn't feel over sprung at all. If anything the opposite is so.

Hi, sirdabsalot. I don't mind changing my user name. I e-mailed Andy after a request that he had sent me about this. I asked him if any one of 4 names that I requested were available. He never wrote back, but this was right before he had to shut the site down. I tried to change it myself but didn't see any way to do it on my settings options. I'll write him again and ask again. You do the same if you think it would help.

Yeah, I changed the wieght to 10w oil per someones recommendation. I weigh 215 lbs. I have ridden an '04 Sherco and didn't notice it doing this. The '06 Sherco suspension is in another league!!

I have noticed that my forks aren't quiet as plush as I think they could be. Today while riding, I noticed that any time I lift the front wheel off of the ground, the front end lands with a clank! Even if it's only a foot off the ground it seems to have the harshest landing possible. I have injured my wrist and figured it came from a big landing but now I'm wondering if it was from several or one small landing/s. The suspension seems pretty normal while going over things and tracking the ground, it only seems harsh, as far as I have noticed, when the front end is lifted off the ground about a foot or more and comes down with a clank! Anyone else have this problem? If so, what did you do to remedy it? Thanks!!! By the way, my bike is an '02 Sherco 2.9 with the stock Paoli fork.

Great write up 327 MAG! I forgot one thing. Not being able to sleep the night before an event from excitment and anticipation! When is the last time anything did that for you as an adult? It's been a while for me....

I have met more than a few people who started riding trials after watching an indoor trial. These people seem to get more frustrated than others from what they tell me after they realise that they can't do nearly some of the things they saw at the indoor trial. One man almost quit after his first ride on his new trials bike, but luckily his friend who purchased a bike at the same time talked him into getting back on it a week later. He ended up being 60 year old age group national champion twice if I remember correctly. He started riding at age 52. His story is inspiring to me not to mention his ability at 70+ years old. He still regularly spanks the competiton 1/2 his age in local events.

Why did you start I remember as a kid I had an XR-75. Me and my friend, who had a Suzuki DS-100, would ride for hours. One day he announced to me that his friend Jimmy, who was also his sisters former fiance', was coming to ride with us. He went on and on about his motorcycle being a trials bike. I asked what a trials bike was and his reply was that it was an ultra thin and light weight motorcycle designed for going over things, especially up hills which we both loved to do at the time. Well Jimmy shows up one day with some of his buddys who were on some sort of scrapped together dirt bikes. Most of the bikes were painted flat black and a few of them had flames painted on the gas tanks. Looked like something out of Mad Max. I don't think any of these guys had helmets on so for about the next 2-3 years we didn't wear helmets. See how your elders can be of influence? My buddy and I were about 12-13 years old at the time and Jimmy and friends were probably in their mid 20s. This was probably around 1977 or so. All day long Jimmy climbed the hills that no one else could climb on his RL-250, some of them with a lip on them at the top that came past vertical for the last 4-5 feet. I remember thinking that his bike was great with that polished aluminum gas tank. His buddies remarked on how that damn trials bike could climb anything. These guys were true stereotypical 1970s biker types that had crossed over to dirt bikes some how. Well that did it! We had to get a couple of those trials bikes some day. So a few bikes and a few years later, we both had 1976 TL-250s. We were between 14 and 15 years old at this point and thought we were the rats ass because we were on 250s. I can't remember where my friend Sam picked his Tl up from but I had traded my DT-125 for mine. The guy that I got mine from didn't like the little seat on it. Later I traded the TL for a Montesa 247. I always thought the Monty was beautiful with that fiberglass tank that went under the seat and formed side panels. Later Sam's brother-in-law Dennis picked up an RL and we also found out that a friend of ours Tony had owned a TL for years. Pretty decent for a sport that no one knew about. We would set up our own "sections" and ride the creek beds for hours. We never went to an actual event though. Well the years passed and like all of the other youngsters we got into MX and later XC. I liked MX and really, really liked XC. Along the way the MX and XC bikes got lighter and thinner and later came disc brakes and water cooling. At some point I remember us laughing about how we used to think that the trials bikes were so slim and that now the MXers were even slimmer. I thought in the back of my head that if they can do this with an MX bike, imagine what they would be able to do with a trials bike if they really tried. Later that year I found out that Yamaha was producing a TY-350 and it stirred up the same passion as that RL-250 back in the 70s, but I didn't have the money to get one back then. After about a 2 or 3 year layoff from motorcycles while attending an institution of higher learning I picked up the Tl that used to be Tonys. I picked it up in boxes and put it back together. An XC friend had bought it from Tony and had disassembled and painted every piece. I traded a Mt. bike for this one. But, it never really felt the way that I had remembered my old TL feeling. This time it felt heavy and bulky and clumbsy. MAybe that was just me though. After several attempts (4 or 5) at trying to get back into XC riding I finally realised that the feeling just wasn't there any more. This was probably 10 years ago. Around the year 2000 my buddy picked up a Gas Gas 280 or 270 TXT (whatever they were making at the time). The day that I went over to look at it I commented on how I knew someone could make a trials bike thinner if they wanted to but I had no idea they'd take it this far. He basiaclly begged me to get one and even though I was very impressed with the bike I knew we would probably never get together to ride on a regualr basis the same way we hadn't over the last 10 years on XC bikes. Besides he now had 4 kids and 4 rental houses to keep up and I was so deep into Mt. biking and woman chasing that I had no time for motos. Anyway, flash forward to 2005. I had been riding and competing on Mt. bikes for around 8 years with very meager results. The results didn't matter so much, I loved doing it. But somewhere down the line I had lost my fire for that sport and it just wan't as much fun as it used to be. So I'm farting around on the internet one day and run across a Gas Gas or Sherco or what ever it was trials bike on e-bay. I don't remember which, but my first reaction was, My god! It was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen! So I Googled around for a bit and find a local trials series. I go and watch their first event if the season and really contemplate getting a bike but don't do it for some reason. Maybe it's the new mortgage and new child to boot. Well, the season comes and goes with no bike. December 2005 comes and I remember that it's been 30 years exactly since getting my first motorcycle (the XR-75) for Chrismas. Early 2006 I'm looking around on the net and discover that a bike that I had looked at back in October was still available. After several attempts at trying to get photos e-mailed to me I finally call the guy and find out that he has been sending them to my old e-mal address. Anyway, I end up getting the bike and 3 weeks later ride my first event ever. What a blast! I can't remember having this much fun or being around a better crowd of people in several years. I'm not sure if all trials types are as pleasent as they are around here but it sure seems to be the case so far. I think a certain type of person is drawn to a sport such as trials whether it's the fact that it is really a lot about personal challenge and improvement or the fact that it's realitivily unknown and small for some reason. A niche sport if you will. For me it's more about precision and skill rather than ego and chance. Why do you continue to ride? As far as whether I'll continue to ride or not is really a matter of time will tell. With only 2 months back on the bike, it sure is fun and I can see improvement if only slightly every time I ride. This gives me great motivation to continue. Right now my reasons for doing it are personal challenge, fun, beauty of the machine, great company and friendly competition. what would get more people riding trials? From a newby again point of view, I think the way to get people involved is exposure whether it be by demos or events at moto events or local events. Something as simple as inviting someone to go along for the day. I have a Mt. bike buddy who would be great at trails but is somewhat intimidated by motos simply because he has never been around them. I know when I was considering getting back into the sport I picked up a few videos to give myself an idea of what I was getting into. After watching Fujigas and Raga going off I wasn't so sure I belonged. After visiting a local event I realised local trials is a lot more down to earth than the big boys! I felt safe enough to give it a go, just don't let your wife see Raga going big until you've purchased your machine! Sorry for the life history. I just got carried away!

I'm no Beta expert or any other type of expert for that matter, but it sounds like 50:1 is too rich. My Sherco is run at 80:1 and I've heard of some going 100:1 (though that sounds a little risky to me). Also, I think most new bike typically require a jetting change when new depending on where you live. Like I said, I'm no expert so it might be wise to seek someone who is.

Go Brent!!!

What do you mean by pogo stick? My Sherco is an '02. The suspension is lacking. It's not terrible just not great. I'm not sure what it needs but it could be better. There's nothing wrong with it just newer shocks/forks have a better feel to them. Obviously I don't really want to dump a load of money into an '02 model. Maybe I'll pick up a used '06 at the end of the year. I understand what you mean about the 4RTs price. Basically, a bone stock 4RT will cost an extra $1K over most any 2T. Obviously money is an issue for me or I'd be on a newer rig!

I'm not sure if it's any lighter or not. The extra weight was a non-issue for me after riding it! All of the things it does right more than makes up for the extra weight.

I took a class at TTC and Alex Bedley and Louise Forsley both had 2.5s. Alex let me ride his around for a bit. The suspension was light years ahead of mine, both front and rear. The power seemed somewhat muted compared to a 2.9 but very easy to ride and controllable. The 2.5 and the 300 both seem easier to ride than the 2.9 to me. Less dramatic when caught off gaurd. Brent Le Riche tought the class that I took and let me ride his 4RT. The only upgrades that he had was a larger diameter header pipe, fat bars and the baffles were removed. The bike rides a lot better than some of the chat you hear. It might be heavier but it isn't apparent while riding. Balanced is the characteristic that stood out immediatley. The power was very smooth but it would also come on when you wanted it to. I'm probably not going to get anything new for quiet a while, just sorting out the differences of all of the options right now.

I rode an '06 Sherco 2.5 and liked the way it turned a lot better than my '02. I also like the power delivery better. By stops, I'm assuming you mean the point at which the forks stop turning? I know a guy who has been on Shercos for years and swears the '05 and earlier turn better than the '06. This confused me a little after hearing that the head angle is steeper on the '06. I assume this guy uses a full lock steer a lot and the "worse" turning is a result of the stops??? I found out today that the '02 Shercos had long swingarms which doesn't do any favors for the steering. The '04 Sherco that I rode didn't feel dramatically different from what I have as the '04 Gas Gas did. I also had the opportunity to take a spin on the '06 4RT. I loved the power and handling. It was a very balanced chasis and very easy to ride. The torque of the 300 was nice but I might like the tamer feel of the 2.5??? Tish?