jbrandt

I guess that depends on what's available in your budget. Are you looking for new or used? I don't know about the market in your area, but in my area (northern California), there's not much of a used trials market. Even with a pretty extensive club in the area, I had trouble finding much, if any used bikes that were under $5-6k I lucked out, and found a Beta Rev3 270. Practically fell in my lap. Coming from an air cooled 250 4-stroke trail bike, is a 270 2-stroke for my first trials bike ideal? Probably not, but it's what there was for sale within 100 miles of me, and the price was right.

Yeah, I'll probably do something like that. The problem is that the right side mount is integrated into the exhaust mount, and the air box cover also bolts to the fender. My plan so far is just not to crash. (lol) I'd like to see if I could adapt a new fender style to this bike. Seems like the new(er) fenders are made of a WAY more flexible plastic. I've seen the bend in half and not break.

As someone who JUST went through this, I honestly wouldn't worry about "issues" a particular bike might have. Depending on your budget, you're not likely to have a whole showroom full of bikes to choose from. I certainly didn't. Myself, I ended up with a 20 year old Beta 270 with leaking fork seals, a broken rear fender, and the dreaded cold stick clutch, and I still haven't been able to track down a manual for the bike or the inverted forks. However, the price was right and it was more or less local. Any other option was more than double the price, and easily just as far, if not farther away. I was even able to roll in picking the bike up on the way home from doing some field work. I also just got lucky. I happened to be looking for a bike in the right place at the right time. I've been toying with the idea of a trials bike for probably a couple of years now... And this one practically fell in my lap. A couple hundred bucks (mostly for the fender) later, and a little time, and my bike is ready to ride. Not bad for $2000, if I say so myself. As a beginner, having the most modern gear, or the "perfect" bike isn't going to amount to a hill of beans worth of a difference. Most "issues" are fixable, and it usually doesn't take that long to research them when you find a bike that might fit the bill. If you know about a particular issue, like bad bearings, use that to your advantage when negotiating. Talk with the seller for 5 minutes and you'll get an idea if they've dealt with the issue or the motor is ready to explode.

Just responding to the OP: so is the only allowed topic competitions, then? Are you not a "trials rider" unless you live and breath competitions and discuss them 24/7? I'm not sure why people discussing fixing (trials) bikes seems taboo. I mean, they're trials bikes. You can't ride trials without a functioning trials bike. I'm a new member here, but I've been a long time member of numerous other interest forums, and the topics of discussion are always cyclical. This is probably the least active forum I'm a part of, but that's not surprising, trials has always been a much small community. It's a subculture within a subculture, within another subculture. So to answer your question, yes, this forum is about trials. Everything trials. Trials bikes, trails comps, trials gear, trials techniques, and trials riders, even if some of us don't compete.

I'll go, but this is more of a story about why *I* am here, than just about why I have the bike I do. I used to race downhill and cross country in college, but my main squeeze was always (bicycle) trials. I managed to work my way up to expert level in college on an Echo Team Trials 20". Considered going pro (very) briefly, but I knew that I had too many other interests to be able to focus enough on the one discipline, and at best I was a descent expert level rider. Soon after college, I found I wasn't riding as consistently, and eventually my trials bike collected quite a lot of dust and cobwebs in the garage. About 15 years ago I got a DRZ250 trail bike, and I've ridden the hell out of that thing ever since. It's a great little bike. Obviously under powered and under performing, but I hold my own, and of the group I normally ride with, I spend more time waiting for them, than the other way around. Probably due to my bicycle racing background, I ride the thing fairly aggressive, and I'm not afraid of the power (because it barely has any!). A friend of mine had a YZ400 as his first bike, and he barely ever got the thing out of 2nd gear. But even with my bicycle trials and racing background, I always felt that my slow/technical moto skills were lacking. My clutch work is laughably inadequate, I think at least partly due to the hard pull of the mechanical clutch on the DRZ making it hard to have a light touch in technical sections. Some of it was the bike for sure, but the other 99% of it was me. I had been tossing around the idea of getting a 2nd bike. Would it be a modern dirt bike powered by more than gerbils and wet noodle suspension? Or would it be a trials bike to help hone those bike handling skills? I kept flip flopping. One week I'm on a street legal EXC-350 kick, the next I'm binging X-trial championships on youtube. Me and Toni Bou; we're buds (lol). Then, a couple weeks ago, I was trolling crasigslist and saw this 2000 Beta Rev3 270 that was more than half my age. It had a few minor issues, but the price was right so I jumped on it (literally). Less than half the cost of any of the other trials bikes I had seen for sale, and this one was (more or less) in my back yard. In fact, it was 5 minutes off the road I was going to be driving for a work thing anyway. A couple hundred bucks (most of it for a ridiculously expensive rear fender on ebay), I've now got a ride-able bike with functioning brakes and forks that don't bleed oil. The tires are shot (but still holding air...for now), the side-stand is broken (I needed a new welding project anyway), and I want to go in and fix the cold stick on the clutch, but It's my new baby (don't tell my kids). I call it Frankenbike because of the 3 different color schemes on it.

Another fun tidbit: I think I realized why the forks were leaking. It appears who ever worked on these forks before, assembled them wrong. Pic shows how the fork legs came apart. They had it so the washer was on the underside of the oil seal (okay, the "top side" since these are inverted forks) rather than between the oil and dust seal. Luckily the forks themselves look undamaged.

It's an interesting idea, and since I come from a bicycle trials/mountain bike back ground, I'd love to have dual hand brakes since that's what I'm most used to. Pretty sure those street freestyle peeps have a variation of this. It's a 2nd lever placed under the clutch lever, or something along those lines. They still need access to the rear brake when they're sitting on their tank doing wheelies. I've also seen (more like heard of) people who run a Recluse clutch replace the clutch lever with a rear brake lever. So for trail riding I think it's totally doable. I RARELY use my clutch on trails (except to shift) and I don't even have a Recluse. I've actually never replaced my rear brake pads (and only done my clutch once) as a result, lol...

Yep, look forward, and definitely relax.

Not sure where you got those numbers from, but according to the Knox County website, there were 246 cases on 5/4, not 38. There weren't that few cases in the County since early March. https://covid.knoxcountytn.gov/case-count.html But it's not really about you, anyway. It's about being a vector and transmitting it to others who are potentially higher risk, or taking up hospital beds that could/should be reserved for those high risk patients. Rural hospitals are especially at risk because they don't typically have the infrastructure to deal with an outbreak. 10 infectious patients could very well be all the hospital can handle at any one time. We all want to go out and enjoy the outdoors and brap around and have a good time. It's a personal choice if the risk of being a potential vector or taking up hospital resources if you're injured outweighs the personal benefits. I'm certainly not locking myself up in my house 24/7. Things like camping, hiking, or motorcycle riding are, by themselves, perfectly fine things to do when maintaining physical distancing. There is little chance of transmission, but I know that if I'm out riding and hurt myself, I'm getting sent to one of those rural hospitals that probably has 5 beds.

My wife (GF at the time) almost left me because I broke my foot trials (bicycle) riding. She came around, lol... Now that I'm older and dumber, she told me I'm going to hurt myself with a moto trials. Yeah, the upside down forks are a bit odd, and finding parts/manuals is a little harder, but the price was right. For a first moto trials, it should suit me just fine. Since this is a clutch thread, I plan to keep it as is for now, and at least put some time on it (waiting for fork seals and a few other odds and ends), then I'll look at doing the mod once I get a little more seat time on it. It's killing me seeing it in pieces in the shop, and not being ridden.

Great perspective, thanks! In the 15+ years I've had my 2003 DRZ trail bike, I replaced the clutch once, and that was 10+ years ago and it didn't even really need it, I just felt "like I should" since I was doing other maintenance, too. I just wish it had a hydraulic clutch. The whole reason I got a trials bike was to get better clutch control (and because I used to compete in bicycle trials), so I figure at a minimum I'm going to be slipping the clutch a lot more than on my DRZ (which is almost never, lol)

Granted, I'm new to moto trials bikes, but I've been around trail bikes for many years, and I was a professional bicycle mechanic in college, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I think it still applies. As others said, it could be as simple as wheel spacers on the wrong side. It could be your wheel dish, too. To check the dish (alignment of the rim relative to the hub) of your wheel, take the tire off and get a straight edge/ruler and place it across the rim, then measure to the wheel spacer. Do that on both sides. They should be the same (I think). They're usually different on bicycles because of the gear cluster in the back, but I think most motos should be at least close to the same. If it looks like your wheel dish is off, start at the valve, and loosen all the spoke nipples on the side that's too close to the swing arm, each by a 1/4 turn. Then tighten the other side by 1/4 turn. Repeat until the rim is centered. Then check if the rim is still straight, and tighten/loosen individual spokes accordingly to straighten it if needed. It doesn't sound like you suspect frame damage, but a bent swing arm can cause this same symptom, too. Also, how did you measure the distance from the swing arm pivot to the axle? Often times the swing arms are shaped differently on each side. Not sure you can just measure straight from one to the other because of that angle relative to the center line of the bike. Maybe use a carpenter's speed square and use the right angle on it to measure off the pivot, so your tape measure is parallel to the center line of the bike. Might not make a huge difference, but you never know... The other thing to consider is, does the tire rub he swing arm? If not, I'd leave it as is.

Thanks so much!

Ok, so I'm tearing into my newly purchased 2000 Rev 3 forks (Paioli inverted) to replace the seals, and I find this part. I actually didn't even see it until later, so I didn't see it when it fell out of where ever it came from. Luckily I was taking a few pics of the process so I'm pretty sure it came from the right (non-brake) side, but not 100% sure. I'm thinking a piece that goes in the top cap? I found some instructions for replacing the seals on the Paioli USD forks, but it doesn't mention anything about any small pieces falling out so I wasn't even paying that close attention, so I'm a bit perplexed... Any ideas?

Please forgive me, as I haven't had time to read all 27 pages of this thread, I just picked up a 2000 Rev3 270 last week (first trials bike), and about made a fool out of myself experiencing the cold stick while test riding the bike. The seller was like, "oh yeah, they do that." I about bought a BMW too, lol... I'm relieved to find out he wasn't blowing 2-stroke smoke up my rear-end, and it's an actual thing and he wasn't just trying to cover up some internal damage. I'm curious if in the ~10 years since this was first posted if there is available an (aftermarket?) clutch pack that takes care of the problem with excess glue. Having just bought the bike, I've already torn it down and am going through it, replacing broken/worn parts etc. If I can spend another $10 on a "nicer" clutch pack that's already had these issues fixed, I'd be all over that. Or do I just need to relegate myself to spending 5+ hours every time I replace the clutch? That being said, I'm not even sure how long I should expect trials clutches to last. The clutch on my trail bike has lasted many many years since I'm pretty easy on clutches. I have to assume trials riding is a bit more abusive to clutches.

The problem with part number searches is that I know that at least the 2000 and 2001 fenders are different colors, so I'm sure the part numbers would be different.

glad I checked. Thanks! I did some more searching and it looks like 70:1 is more for euro fuel, 80:1 seems to be a better spot for the US gas. I saw some running much leaning oil mixes, like 100 or more.

Yeah, I saw *one* for a 2001, and was wondering if it would work for the 2000

Thanks

haha, I'm in California, USA, maybe a little far. Appreciate the offer! The tires (tyres?) are serviceable for now, first priority is the fork seals and maybe a fender that I'll probably immediately break again.

Hey folks, I just brought home a new (old) 2000 Beta Rev3 270. This is my first trials bike, but I've been riding trails for 15 or so years. I can already tell it's a handful! But I'm not scared (much, lol) I've been doing a fair amount of googling trying to find various sources for parts/accessories for this fine steed, but I'd like to get some advice from the well seasoned Beta gurus. One things is I'm trying to figure out parts compatibility. It's a 2000 model year, but what other model years have interchangeable parts? The 2001 seems pretty similar, just different color plastics? It needs a new rear fender, and the fork seals (inverted forks) are leaking a bit. Also wondering about silencers, hand controls and foot levers and all that typical stuff. Are those pretty specific to Beta trials bikes? Tires are pretty beat up too, but I'll limp those along for a little while longer. Also, and I KNOW I'm going to sound like a total goober, but this is also my first 2-stroke, so I'm wondering if there is a standard pre-mix ratio that's different from trail bikes. Are they all pretty much 40:1? Also, does the type/brand of pre-mix matter? Again, I'm a complete noob to 2-strokes. Here's the new steed, because I know the internet likes pictures:

Hello! Name's Justin, I'm from Sacramento, CA. USA. Got a bit of the quarantine blues, and I saw a 2000 Beta 270 on-line, and figured "well that's not the dumbest thing I've ever done" It's an older bike, but it was a great deal and she runs great! Just needs a rear fender and looks like the fork seals (inverted forks) are leaking a bit, which I'm pretty sure is leaking on the front brakes (they aren't as grabby as I imagined). I've been riding trails for about 15 years on a 2003 DRZ250, but that doesn't hold be back from keeping up (or passing) the big bikes. I used to compete in bike trials, downhill, and XC way back in college. Looking mostly to just goof around on the Beta, increase my technical trail skills, and as my wife says: hurt myself. The 270 is *definitely* more of a beast than my DRZ, so she's going to take some getting used to. As you can tell, I'm not one to jump on the latest and greatest technology with dirtbikes. I seem to do okay with my oldies but goodies.Also, I'm cheap, so spending 8-10 grand on a bike is a tough pill to swallow! Anyhoo, there's a local trials club in Sacramento I'll probably be hitting up, but I always love the on-line forum community. This is how I brought her home (just today in fact)