Interested in a light weight
adventure bike that doubles as a dirt bike? Plenty of enduro bikes can be adapted, my all time favorite was the Husaberg FE570 but sadly it's no longer made. When I got the
Beta RR480 heaps of guys asked me whether it was a good candidate... here are the results.
WHY THE RS390 & RS500?All the Beta four strokes are proving to be very solid reliable bikes but the 390 and 500 tend to be the pick for dual sport or adventure conversions. See Traction eRag's excellent 2017 Beta review... here's a summary:Beta 350 short stroke engine, loves to rev, ultra responsive, not much low down grunt.Beta 390 longest stroke, super user-friendly, grunty, smooth, an all rounder.Beta 430 the enduro weapon winning the european championships.Beta 480/RS500 the gentle giant, monster talk, less revvy than the 430.
WHAT'S HOT
I was keen to see how the Beta 390 and 500 would shape up, with a few things making the Italian princess a sensible choice among a range of good contenders....
- lower seat height
- very user-friendly engine and handling characteristics
- very wide ratio gearbox
- double overhead cam engine for smoothness
- fuel injection for altitude or temperature variations
- dual engine and transmission oil providing a higher overall capacity
- long term reliability for the engine and gearbox.
WHAT'S NOT
What's not to like about the Betas for dual sport or adventure riding? Mostly the usual problems faced with any enduro bike:
- uncomfortable seat
- rear subframe too weak for heavy luggage
- weak headlight
- RS500 engine a bit too snappy off idle
- 100 hour plastic oil pump gear life (more below).
FUEL TANK OPTIONS
We ordered the
IMS 11.7L (3 gallon) tank for US$290 for around 300km or 190 miles of easy adventure riding.
Apparently
IMS now have a 4 gallon tank which is great for anyone wanting even more range.
An interesting idea is this
Behego 'plug & play' rally tank, which actually wraps around the lower half of the engine and could be good if like to keep a low centre of gravity when adventure riding, and just take it off for dirt riding. It comes with its own bashplate.
SEAT, PEGS & ERGONOMICS
Seat Concepts is the most popular choice for Beta riders, starting at US$174. Would love to have tried this but they never answered any of my emails.
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A fun budget option to try is buy a block of medium density foam and cut your own comfy seat and staple some vinyl over the top.
Enduro bikes have quite small footpegs, the Beta is no exception. It might be worth looking at the
Fastway pegs which provide a bigger platform, and can also be dropped down and back to give you more leg room on the bike.
We've done vids for short rider setup
here, and tall rider setup
here.
ENGINE
The RR390 has a long stroke engine that loves to lug and has an even more user-friendly nature than the RR480 - if you don't need ridiculous amounts of top end performance this bike is the one. To me, it's what the DRZ400 could be if
Suzuki gave the engine is serious makeover.
The RS500 is not a scary bike, and has actually been called the gentle giant by many... monster torque and only goes crazy once you really crank the throttle. However, like most big fuel injected thumpers the
throttle response is snappy from idle. I highly recommend the
G2 Throttle Tamer for only US$70, it transforms it into a kitten at small throttle openings. See our review here.
The benefits of fuel injection are clear - better fuel economy and automatic adjustment to elevation changes. The down side? It could be worth fitting a fuel filter sock in your tank for adventure riding in case you got dirty fuel in remote locations.
While many debate the usefulness of dual engine and transmission oil chambers, it does mean a higher capacity of 1.5 liters overall, and on a very long adventure ride you only need to carry 750ml to do the engine oil at 30 hours, as the lack of clutch slipping should mean the transmission oil will be fine for a lot longer. Logic would suggest you could extend that 30 hour oil change if you aren't pushing the engine hard, but by how much? I'll leave that up to you. Even 30 hours should get you 2000km of dual sport riding before an engine oil change.
The only real drawback with the Beta four stroke engine is the plastic oil pump gears. These should be replaced every 100 hours, most riders are putting the metal gears from
Boano in and then they can forget about them.
ADVENTURE KNOBBIES
A huge range of options here, starting with the cheap
Dunlop D606 and
Pirelli MT21 to all sorts of hybrid and adventure tyres. I was very keen to try
Goldentyre's new adventure GT723 but it's not in Australia yet. On his around the world tour Lyndon Poskitt has been reporting an incredible 7000km lifespan even with a lot of high speed road work. Instead I opted for a hybrid rear tyre, the
Shinko 505 Cheater. Great grip on the road with it's soft compound and close set knob pattern, and seems to be wearing well too. Most of our guys are using this now and loving it. See our
Shinko review here.
One thing I would highly recommend on the front is a high profile front tyre. I'm running the
Goldentyre GT216 'Fatty' 90/100-21 which adds to already excellent inline stability of the Beta at speed. A lot of guys fit steering dampers to enduro bikes for dual sport riding but I think this tyre is an excellent alternative. For any highway riding, always get your tyres balanced properly, or those rim locks will have you shaking your way down the road.
In the USA
TUbliss are not approved for road use but personally I hate punctures... the
TUbliss setup lets you continue riding if you want, or simply pull out your TUbliss repair kit and plug that hole - two minutes later you are on the road again. Lovely.
LUGGAGE
Luggage is always tricky on enduro bikes. That weak rear subframe means you can't hang a lot off the rear. And you don't want to anyway, these bikes are so light they handle very strangely if you don't keep the weight centred.
The budget option? I used to to just strap dry bags to the side of the FE570 which centred the weight nicely and kept it low. Next budget option is something like this
Third Gear luggage bag which is only AUD$75 here in Australia and works great on enduro bikes. Then you get into the good stuff,
Kriega, Wolfman,
Giant Loop, Nomad Rider.
You can spend a lot on soft panniers, tank bags, fender bags. The key is keeping that weight centred and ideally, down low. A
handy aspect of the Beta is those rear grab rails under the seat which make excellent mounting points for luggage.
ELECTRICS
Good news here, the stator is relatively strong for an enduro bike with 200W at 6000rpm so can run things like heated grips without draining the battery. That weak headlight? By enduro standards it is actually quite good, but if you plan on riding at night it will pay to upgrade.
The LED lights have finally come of age, and personally I think it's worth bypassing the HID lights and skip to something the like the
Cyclops LED headlight... only US$65 and a ridiculously bright 3600 lumens on high beam that only draws 40W. And you can almost double that for an extra $10. LED light bars have also dropped dramatically in price and could be worth looking at.
DO YOU NEED A CUSH DRIVE HUB?
Do you need a cush drive hub? There are cases of KTM enduro bikes eventually wearing the countershaft splines with extended road riding, and by extension the Husaberg FE570s... even with a cush drive hub my FE570 countershaft was looking quite worn by 12000km. I've checked around and there are no known issues with adventurised Betas in this respect... but if you plan on a lot of road miles I would still consider a cush drive hub. Here is my reasoning.
Dirt bikes don't have a cush drive hub in the rear
wheel. Road bikes typically do, to ensure smooth running and less stress on a gearbox, sprockets, chain and rear tire. My very tentative conclusion? There is probably less need to fit a cush drive hub if:
- your bike is under 600cc
- you don't plan on clocking too many miles on the road
- your bike has a solid gearbox and countershaft
- you don't lug the engine at low revs on the road.
PROTECTION
This RR480 has all the usual gear you would expect for dirt riding such as handguards. Mostly I use the heavy duty stuff from Aussie mob
Force Accessories -
radiator guards, bashplate, case saver. For light adventure work this may be overkill, but for long trips it pays to minimise your chances of damaged radiators and engine cases. I particularly like the case saver, just in case that chain snaps then holes your case in the middle of nowhere and the hand guards are great for not worrying about clutch and front brake levers if you drop the bike. Of course you can carry spare levers, but anything that prevents breakages in remote areas is a great idea.
OLD MAN SETUP
ANYONE GOT FURTHER TIPS?
Got more tips? Post them here and I'll include them in this post for easy reference.
That's it to date... so far the RR480 or RS500 is proving to be a pile of fun as a light weight adventure bike. As I said, other bikes can do this too. Adam Reimann successfully took a KTM 500EXC all over Europe and down to Egypt. And many guys here in Australia have adapted the
Yamaha WR450F with good results. But I do think the Beta has a lot of features that make could make it the ideal choice for many as a light weight adventure bike.
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