I rode a 2013 Beta 300RR yesterday...

Did a big group ride yesterday. Was a great ride with a bunch of semi fast guys with all sorts of bikes. Guy I had never met had a 2013 Beta 300RR and I asked him for a rip on it, no problem. Cool. God a nice long ride through tight woods on it. Here are my feelings.

Bike is has the 48mm sach forks and sachs shock both redone for 180 pound B class woods racer, bigger tank and some other stuff.

Ergonomics:

Very nice. Felt natural. Felt a little bigger / wider than my 09 WR144. Other than he had his clutch adjusted off for me the bike fit me real good. No issues there.

Motor:

Gobs of very linear power from bottom to top. Will lung forever, will not stall, pulls smooth and without dips or surges in the powerband. Very electric. Very fast if you want, docile if not. Reminds me of a GG motor some. Transmission seemed very nice, shifted EZ nice wide spread of gears. Was riding tight woods but did hit some transfer gravel roads and it was stinking fast on top as well. Oh, E-start worked flawlessly. Nice.

Suspension:

As I have said these were totally reworked so have no idea stock. Was super plush. Maybe to soft for me. Really soaked up trail trash and roots and rocks nice. Some of the most compliant suspension I have ridden. That said it did not feel to loose or excessively blow though the travel. Very comfortable ride.

Handling:

Handled really nice. Seems semi neutral. Turned quick but also felt pretty stable. Did have a little of the KTM floppy (back and forth) front end feel so prominent in bikes these days. I sell lots of KTM dampers to take care of this and this bike is not as bad as that but would still run a steering damper if it was mine. Overall I liked the handling and it worked good. No real complaints.

Thoughts:

I liked the bike a lot. The motor is amazing, gobs of power but EZ to control. Nothing jumped out at me that needed attention / fixed. Seems like a well sorted bike and exactly what i was expecting after reading about them and talking with friends and customers that have them. Nice smooth neutral EZ to ride trail bike. That said it is one of those bikes that can make you ride lazy. Is almost smooth and neutral to a fault for me. Mad me want to sit down and grunt it around. For a lot of people this will be fantastic. I liked it but my 125/144/165 bike make me want to get up off the seat and ride. The Beta owner was not wild over my 144. liked it but said it took to much effort to ride. They are for sure different creatures. You have to want it on the 144 where you don't have to do much at all on the Beta 300. The Beta felt wider and more heavy to me despite some saying it feels 125 light. It did not for me. Felt like a super well setup KTM300 to me. I am not knocking this bike at all, in fact I really like it but it is what it is. I am faster on my 144 int he tight words for sure. If I had spent more time on it that might change but the way you have to ride the 144 all standing up and hair on fire (much more active ride) urges me to get up and go. the super polished nature of the Beta makes me want to sit down and twist that thing on the right handlebar some. :>) I don't know the guy who owned it or his abilities but out of a faster group of 15 guys we started off he was 2nd in line behind our leader for the day. Big group rides always find their natural order with the faster guys ending up up front. He started out 2nd place as he knows this group of people. He quickly got tired me me on his ass and let me by. I could gap him pretty EZ. Not bragging at all just saying that he seemed like a real good rider on a really nice machine but I had no issues leaving him on my 09 WR144. That said this was all very tight 1-3 gear stuff where an active riding on a 125 based bike was a good setup.

Summery:

Loved the bike. Everything about it works very good. Pretty much what I expected. I used to ride 250-450 bikes and moved tot he 125 class bikes because I feel it makes me a better rider and keeps me in active zone. Bike like this make me lazy and loose some focus. Its just me, I love ringing the neck of the little bikes. That said if and when I am in the market for a 250/300 this one is at or near the top of my list of bikes. I really think it is a great bike. did it make me want to sell one of my 125's and get one? No not really. I feel for the type of riding I do the 165 is perfect.

For anyone looking for a great do it all and super accommodating bike the Beta is going to be very hard to beat. Great looking, fantastic working do it all bike. Wish they would build a 175. Thats a machine I would run over people to acquire.

You spelled "effort" wrong just to keep the spell check thing going

I get what you're saying about big bikes making you lazy. I noticed that a lot swapping between the 449 and 310.

How does the 300 compare to a WR300 (you've ridden those too, right?). Also how does the power compare to a 511? I've never ridden a 300 2 stroke, just trying to compare the power to something I know

Fixed it, "urges" was spelled wrong too. whatever

The Beta 300 IMHO is a lot better than the WR300. Much more refined feeling. Better spread of power, way better suspension, better handling. I like the WR300 just fine but cant think of one thing it does as good or better then the Beta. The power is somewhat 449/55 like in that it is a wide smooth linear spread of power. But it is a 2 stroke so different and unstallable. I feel the Beta would be a great bike for people who have only ridding 4 stroke. Similar type of power.

My 09 144 felt like you were further forward on the bike and the Beta you were further back like the feeling of a Yamaha only turns better. Front end did not stick quite a well as my bike ether but turned fine. Its hard to beat the feel of the 125 in the super tight woods.

I think I would prefer a 250, I usually do.

No idea. Got on the bike and rode it for several miles of tight single track and gave it back.

I sample a lot of bikes and own and have owned a lot of bikes of all kinds so adapt pretty quick to different bikes. That said I felt it was a very middle of the road neutral bike. No odd ergonomics, strange powerband, unbalanced suspension etc. I liked it, was very refined and complete felling. Nothing stood out as bad or odd. Get on and ride. Handling was slightly odd and KTM feeling to me. Front end seemed to flop from side to side different than what I am used to. Nothing big and again not an issue just different feeling than an Italian husky. I'm sure with a few more miles I would not have noticed it. My husky felt racer somehow to me where the Beta felt more 4 stroke like. The Beta feels like it has a good bit of flywheel but about perfect for the woods.

Its all about what works for the pilot. The Beta owner did not love my 144, he was confused by it. They are polar opposites.

Me too. In fact would love to ride a 175-200 they built.

Water racer, I want a 183.6/214.3