Beta Riders Club Discussion Forum

cant seem to get the bike to idle, need to constantly adjust the cable to get it to idle, what gives? dealer has reset the stepper, bike wont start cold without throttle input, even when warm the bike will just quit, if i adjust the cable it will idle ok but after riding a while it will either be way too high or too low

The dealer needs to verify that the stepper is working correctly. The stepper controls the idle. You are overriding that by raising the idle with the throttle cable. I bet it is really responsive, though!!

I found that in most similar cases the TPS is off.
Also WARNINGS!
-Don't mess with it if you don't know what you're doing!!!!
-Make sure the rest is OK like valves and decompression mechanism or you will make things worse!!!

Best is to get the dealer to reset the TPS.
I don't know the Beta diagnostic tool but on the KTM you can reset the 0 to 100% span and that fixes a lot of issues.(it picks the throttle closed TPS voltage and sets it at 0% and full open voltage at 100% as a calibration)
Make sure BEFORE you do it that there is a little play in the cable as per manual and the engine is warmed up properly.

If you know what you're doing you can have a stab yourself. Mark the position of the TPS properly with pencil or fine marker, so you can go back to it, and undo the screws to rotate it a bit. It takes a watch makers touch to get right.
Tips: If the engine surges it has too much, if not starting and no idle it needs a bit more. Less is in the direction of the rotation of the butterfly (like later) and more is opposite to the rotation of the butterfly (like earlier).
In the manuals it sometimes gives the voltage over the TPS, use a voltmeter to adjust if you know the values.

bike has 150 miles on it so i cant imagine it being valve related, i will take a look at it, im a life long mechanic so it doesnt bother me to look into it, getting pretty frustrated with the bike tho, seems like i work on it more than ride it

mtbxdrew wrote:bike has 150 miles on it so i cant imagine it being valve related, i will take a look at it, im a life long mechanic so it doesnt bother me to look into it, getting pretty frustrated with the bike tho, seems like i work on it more than ride it

Take it back to the dealer and get them to fix it leave it with them. The idle control is one of my favourite things about the Beta.

There was a post over on TT about this. Ended up that the stepper was bad and Beta replaced it on warranty.

I did have issue on my 500RS a couple of times, where it wouldn't idle, once right after tank fill. It seemed that it did happen at less than 500 miles, but after running it with throttle for a few minutes, was able to finish the ride. There were pretty big elevation changes for the times that it has done it. I contacted the dealer, and he suggested the system self recalibration procedure, where from cold, you start bike, let it warm up with out touching throttle, until electric fan comes on, plus a minute or 2. I have did this a couple of times, and it seemed to help. This is now something I do if it seems harder to start or funky idle. Now, at 60+ hours, not having any problems. If you are not able to get it to idle, ever, this is going to be tough procedure to complete.