RUST magazine: Rust#2

Enduro
engines and a chassis that’s easy to get
to grips with: traditional enduro bike virtues,
then. Last year however the suspension was
criticized for being too harsh and poorly damped
(especially at the rear); but Beta appears to have
spent a good deal of time working with their
suspension engineers to address these issues.
And whilst the Sachs-shod machines (gold
anodized units for 2016) retain a generally softer
feel to the ride than something like a KTM EXC
for instance, they’re extremely compliant, fully
adjustable and well balanced front to rear, and
that’s ideal for a bike that - let’s face it - will spend
the majority of its time getting ridden in the slippery
winter months where softer suspension aids grip.
But is it another way of saying the suspension’s
soggy? No… but it is a way of saying that not
everyone takes the same approach to suspension
as the Austrians. For starters there’s a nice
progressive linkage at the rear and the Beta’s
set-up tends to allow the bikes to hug the ground
more readily where they can put down even more
of their tractable power. That makes them remarkably
quick point-to-point. They’re also very easy
to ride and there’s little in the way of kickback or
deflection gets through to the rider, unless - that is -
you blow all the way through the suspension’s
stroke, as I did on one occasion.
In fairness it was at full noise in fourth gear on a
long downhill straight, and the bike drove hard into
a compression hollow that bottomed both ends and
sent it into a major slapper. Those who witnessed
it commented on the effect, and if I’d been racing
WORLD
BETA