New to Dirt Bikes

[TrailBeta#20]

Greetings!!! Hoping to hear some great feedback for a question from a new rider to the world or dirtbikes.. Been riding street for past five years. Have been single track one time on Honda 230.

Wondering if a Beta 350 RR Race Edition would be recommended? I intend to keep the bike for many years with no race intentions.

[Trail Rider]

Its almost impossible to answer your question in a useful way. What kind of trail/offroad are you intending to ride? Desert sand, rocky slow technical, loamy trail, a mix? Will you dual sport or ride it on the street at all? How old are you, weight, skill level?

My one generall comment is I would tend to not buy a race edition. You would probaly find the suspension fairly jarring & stiff if not racing. Go for a RR.

[TrailBeta#20]

Appreciate the response Trail Rider...Novice to dirt bikes. Will most likely be riding a combo of single track and fields. Planning to not race competitively. Current age is 55 and weight is around 172. Riding style best described as slower, so a bike needing to be pushed would probably not be the best...

[Trail Rider]

Others could definitely answer with direct knowledge better than me, but from what I recall the 350 is more of a mid to high reving bike. So maybe more higher speed race oriented. The 390 has better bottom end grunt & torque. Probably a better bike for slower single track & trail riding. If thats the case, I'd go 390 between the two. Of course, there is always a 300RR

[Deck1]

I have not rode the 350, but when people discount it because it is revvy,, I think may be a mistake. They say it is the revver out of the Beta line up, but has more torque than other 350's and likely a ton more than 250 4 strokes. It may not be a good beginner bike, but if it is softer on bottom end than the other Beta's that would probably be a good thing for a beginner. I'm sure it still has plenty of low end though, for kind of riding this guy is likely to face. I ride the 500, and it is pretty tame on bottom, but will tractor up pretty much anything. The fuel injection can make it pretty snappy, though. I added G2 throttle tamer to help with that. I hope you get a chance to ride the 350 and 390 to compare. At your weight, experience and goals, I would even consider the 125 4-stroke and buy the big bore kit for it. That seems like it would be a blast, small bores can be so much fun!

[fenderworks]

how bout a Xtrainer? low seat, easy riding, all the power you need. if mostly single track and no fast desert, then give it a try. suspension is good for the slower riding styles (most people on this forum say the xtrainer suspension sucks, but they bought the wrong bike or they are very fast and bought the wrong bike).

[StoneyWV]

Xtrainer all the way. If you want to spring for something more than do the BYOB and add the upgraded suspension package to it. If your in the Woods all day, and you take the time to tune the carb properly I can't imagine you would ever want for anything more. 1st 2nd, and 3rd gear running is where that bike really makes money. If all you've been in the woods on was a Honda crf230 and you haven't ridden any other MX style bikes I think that you will be little overwhelmed by a 300+ cc RR model, but I could be wrong.

[wwguy]

how bout a Xtrainer? low seat, easy riding, all the power you need. if mostly single track and no fast desert, then give it a try. suspension is good for the slower riding styles (most people on this forum say the xtrainer suspension sucks, but they bought the wrong bike or they are very fast and bought the wrong bike).

LMFAO! So all of us who didn't like the cheap single-spring single-valve non-adjustable soft factory Xtrainer suspension were wrong to buy this bike, and somehow you are incredibly enlightened for understanding this when we somehow didn't?

I'm another one of those riders who hated the stock Xtrainer suspension and has enjoyed several hundred hours of great riding after upgrading it. After 4 great years with mine I'm literally weary of reading variations of your myopic "you bought the wrong bike" opinion written by riders like you who don't have the experience or skills to understand the difference. You don't know anything about riders like me, how we ride, or what we expect from our bikes... including the suspensions. The fact that you're generalizing all of us complainers like this proves that.

Seriously... If we wanted to be on other bikes we would.

I do agree that the Xtrainer in stock form is a great entry-level enduro bike, especially for smaller and/or lighter weight riders. It's easy enough to upgrade it later if you don't like the stock suspension after gaining some experience on the bike.

[fenderworks]

"I do agree that the Xtrainer in stock form is a great entry-level enduro bike, especially for smaller and/or lighter weight riders. It's easy enough to upgrade it later if you don't like the stock suspension after gaining some experience on the bike."

that works.