Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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2019 BETA 200 RR FULL REVIEW P86 bike does get a little sideways on you, not to worry. Its light weight means you can easily muscle it back to where you want it—at least most of the time—without having to chop the throttle big time and disrupt your momentum. Beta does categorize the 200 RR as a trail bike, so the suspen- sion is a little on the soft side for real aggressive riding, or for anyone over about 170 pounds. But damping-wise, right out of the crate, both the shock and fork are tuned quite well, which means you have plenty of tuning options right from the get-go. The Beta handles well, too. It doesn't do anything "weird" or un-nerving at speed; instead it generally goes where it's pointed and does so without any hesita- tion. It's a quick-steering bike that absolutely loves to be on the switchback trails. Brakes are super strong—al- most too strong, at least in the back. Ours was touchy and grabby and had the tendency to lock up if you weren't careful. However, it got less so as we put more time on the bike. Even though it's a small-bore two-stroke, we loved the 200's electric starter. It's a conve- nience that we just can't live without on pretty much any bike these days. It worked flawlessly during our time with the bike and the battery never lost a charge, but we still like the peace of mind of having a back-up kick starter and would seriously look into the option of fitting one on it if we owned one. Just in case. Oil injection is another nice con- venience. Compared to most two- strokes, it's wonderful not having to worry about pre-mixing gas with oil, and not having to worry about accidently pouring in the wrong (straight) gas when you're spending the weekend riding with your bud- dies, who most likely are all aboard four-strokes. Instead, you just have to keep an eye on the oil tank level, which hardly budged during our time with the bike, which was about three tanks of gas of mostly single- track and technical trail riding. If you forget to check and you do let the oil level get low, though, a light on the meter will come on and re- mind you. But, like gas, the harder you ride the bike the more oil you will consume. Even though Beta markets the 200 RR primarily as a trail bike, we would not hesitate at all to enter an enduro, or even a hare scramble, on it—if we knew it was going to be tight and technical, that is. Heck, we would go out of our way to ride one in an extreme enduro because of its light weight, torquey (yet still powerful) engine and solid suspension. Just stiffen up the suspension a bit; slap on some hand guards and we'd be good to go. The bottom line is that we ride motorcycles for fun and the Beta 200 RR is nothing but pure fun, because it's light and plenty fast, has a torquey engine and excellent suspension. Wrap it all up with an electric starter and oil-injection, and you have a motorcycle we would absolutely love to have in our garage—permanently. CN 2019 BETA 200 RR ($8399) ENGINE: ..... Liquid-cooled, 2-stroke, single BORE & STROKE: ..................62 x 63mm DISPLACEMENT: ......................... 190.2cc COMPRESSION RATIO: ................... 13.5:1 EXHAUST VALVE: ......... Beta Progressive Valve (BPV) IGNITION: ..................... AC-CDI Kokusan LUBRICATION: .... Electronic Oil Injection OIL TANK CAPACITY: ..................... 650cc FUELING: ..Keihin PWK 36m carburetor CLUTCH: ........................... Wet multi-disc TRANSMISSION: ......................... 6-speed STARTING SYSTEM: .................... Electric FINAL DRIVE: ........................ O-ring chain FRAME: ........ Molybdenum steel/double cradle w/quick access air filter FRONT SUSPENSION: ......Sachs, 48mm, USD, fully adjustable REAR SUSPENSION: .... ZF Sachs, single shock, fully adjustable FRONT WHEEL TRAVEL: ................ 11.6 in. REAR WHEEL TRAVEL: .................. 11.4 in. FRONT BRAKE: ......... Nissin, Single disc, 260mm rotor REAR BRAKE: ........... Nissin, Single disc, 240mm rotor FRONT WHEEL: ................................ 21 in. REAR WHEEL: ................................... 18 in. WHEELBASE: .................................58.1 in. SEAT HEIGHT: ..............................36.6 in. GROUND CLEARANCE: ..................12.8 in. DRY WEIGHT (CLAIMED): ............215 lbs. FUEL CAPACITY: ........................2.25 gal. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: ........................Italy MSRP: ..........................6 month, limited S P E C I F I C A T I O N S