Beta Xtrainer review: beginners dirt bike or hard enduro weapon? ︱Cross Training Enduro

http://www.crosstrainingenduro.com http://tractionerag.com Our long term Beta Xtrainer review! I have spent the last four years on a Beta Xtrainer, so I feel semi-qualified to offer a long term Beta Xtrainer review. Some say it's the perfect beginners dirt bike. Others say it's the lightest 300 two stroke you can buy, and perfect for slow gnarly terrain. Lets find out. Many place the Xtrainer in the hybrid category, somewhere between a proper enduro bike and a trials bike. It's close to being a proper enduro bike. But it's a bit lower, shorter wheelbase, and slightly less suspension travel. It also has a cheaper trials oriented suspension package and a detuned engine. How detuned? Lower compression 11.3:1, Smaller frame, Tighter full lock turn. Lets look at the main known issues. Since 2018 there has been a small but significant number of main bearing failures in Beta's 250 and 300 two stroke engines, some as low as in the first 10 hours. The failure rate appeared to reduce in 2020 models, and we are hoping it's fixed for 2021 models. This dyno chart shows you have all the same grunt at low and midrange revs, but they have knocked that crazy top end power off to make it much more linear, as reported in our Beta Xtrainer review. Here are the main changes that put the Beta Xtrainer into this hybrid category. It's a known issue and will be fixed under warranty, don't keep trying to start the bike! Finally there are plenty of fast sections in hard enduros. While the Xtrainer can be amazing in the slow stuff, once you hit third gear the bike becomes very skittish at speed and doesn't have that inline stability of full sized enduro bikes. Just keep this in mind if buying an older model. And check other Beta Xtrainer reviews. Beta Xtrainer electrics are not brilliant, especially the speedos. Dealers usually have a stockpile of these to hand out for warranty claims. My speedo stopped working just out of warranty, doh. The moment you have electrical issues, see your dealer if within warranty. Sometimes they have to replace the entire wiring loom, as happened with one of my riding buddies. If you are buying a new model Beta Xtrainer, there are some electric start issues on brand new bikes due to lack of proper heat treatment on the ring gear for the starter. I have fitted a Goldentyre fatty front tyre and the high profile helps, but the Xtrainer simply isn't set up for faster riding. A skilled rider can do it of course, as Trevor Campbell demonstrates here. But the Xtrainer simply ain't a serious race bike. And trying to turn it into one will simply make it weigh as much as standard enduro bike. We tried to sum it up in this graph when comparing the Beta Xtrainer with a standard enduro two stroke, in this case the Beta RR300. You can see there's a lot of cross over between the two. There are other small issues as with any model, see our Beta Xtrainer known issues vids. Is the Beta Xtrainer a perfect beginners bike? It depends on your skill level. If you are brand new to riding, it's still quite powerful even with that detuned engine. However, if you are a road rider getting into dirt riding, it could suit you. One thing to keep in mind, there's also a 250 Xtrainer. And you can put the power valve and mapping settings into the softest position to make the bike quite tame. Is the Beta Xtrainer lightest 300 two stroke you can buy? Only just. Beta claim a dry weight of 99kg or 218 pounds. But ready to ride with an empty tank it's around 102.5 kg, only a fraction lighter than say a KTM TPI. The good news is it means you are unlikely to make a mistake in buying a Xtrainer. And there are plenty of suspension and engine mods you can try as your skills improve. See our Xtrainer suspension mods for the main options. Engine mods? All the relevant Xtrainer and RR300 parts are interchangeable so can turn the engine into a beast if you want. Just get some life insurance though. As always, this is only one opinion. And the ideal solution is to get a test ride to see if a Beta Xtrainer will suit you. Have you considered it? Or ridden one? I'm keen to hear your thoughts, let us know in the comments. Is the Beta Xtrainer perfect for slow gnarly terrain? Yes, for most riders. That soft bouncy suspension is great for weighting and deweighting over obstacles if you aren't too heavy. . So why aren't we seeing the Xtrainer in hard enduros?

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