First Dirt Impression

cleonard

cleonard

PALMER84ONE:
Well yesterday I got to through some dirt under the tires of my 2012 RS520 Beta, did a 58-ish mile loop out my door in 1 hour and 47 minutes a combo of 80% Fire road, 15% Tarmac, 5% Single track. She performed absolutely sweet. I am going to do a back to back with my TE450 to see if the difference is big or small.
From what I know so far is this:
Need to raise the bars with some risers about 10mm to help with the out of saddle standing feel.
Lower the air pressure to fit the terrain conditions. I think they were a little high for the fast fire roads.

She corners sweet, climbs great, and tracks real good. Very stable machine for sure. Good gear ratios, I did change from the stock 14 to 13 in the front but 6th gear will still render over 65 without a revved out motor.

If you are in the market for a (new) DS bike I think this one is a great bike, not to many used ones however I did talk to a guy that picked up a 2011 RS450, for just under 7,000.00 and 700 miles from Z-sports (KTM Dealer had it on consignment.) I ordered a couple of goodies from the web and they arived in less than 3 days.
This Company could take off if the recognition gets out. Still carburated bikes, while almost all others are EFI. I always did have a thought in the back of my mind of being stranded. Thats why I never ventured real far alone. I would ride this bad boy across the states alone with no problems.
Sorry, I took no pictures of this event as it was non-stop so my little woman could have dinner ready when I returned. I told her 2 hours max and clipped it by 13 minutes for a piss break on top. Hot day and sucked my 100 camel back dry.
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The stock gearing is 14/45 on the RS and 14/48 on the RR. I went to 13/48 which is just doable on the stock chain. Made a huge difference on the gnarley single track. With the six speed trnasmission you can still go fast enough for the highway. I wouldn't like to cruise at 65 for a long time though.

The bars can be moved forward/aft a bit. The setup has four positions and I think that it was three back from the most forward from the factory. I moved mine all the way forward and it helped the standing feel tremendously. Best standing feel I've ever had on a bike. We will see if it causes a problem in the sand or other places where you need to get your weight aft.

This months Dirt Rider has the 450 off road shoot out with the CRFX, Beta, KTM and WR. They gave the honors to the KTM mostly due to the lower weight, but pretty much gave Beta second.
 
PALMER84ONE

PALMER84ONE

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Took some photos of my ride this evening. Was a grand ride to. I must add that doing the BYOB and having it re sprung to my fat ASS is AWESOME!!
 
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