VOL. 51 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 21, 2014 P89
Basically, it's a program that
allows you to easily customize
any Beta model you choose
from Beta's three categories
of motorcycles: RR (off-road),
RS (dual sport) or Evo (trials).
Pick one and then the real fun
starts.
Beta offers many (and I
mean many) brand-name ac-
cessories for all of their mod-
els, such as wheels, tires,
footpegs, seats, handlebars,
shocks, forks, fuel tanks, and
just about any kind of guard
you can think of. And that's
just scraping the surface.
There are plenty more.
The whole BYOB process is
very simple. Once you've cho-
sen the model you want—in my
case, as mentioned, it was the
'14 520 RS dual sport) you sim-
ply chose via Beta's website
whichever accessory/acces-
sories you want Beta to install
on the bike before you take
delivery of it. You will see five
sections on the site: Wheels
and Tires, Gearing, Suspen-
sion, Chassis and Engine Add-
Ons. And within each section,
there are enough goodies that
you can fine-tune your bike to
the finest detail, depending on
how much you want to spend,
of course. And that's the tricky
part. It's kind of easy to get
carried away.
Since Beta wanted me to
experience the whole BYOB
process myself and have me
build my own personal "dream
bike," and since none of the
parts were to come out of my
bank account, I couldn't help
but go to town on my RS, which
I did, but not without first mak-
ing a few phone calls to Beta
along the way asking, "Are
you sure—anything I want?"
"Yes," they'd say. "Build your
dream bike!" Okay, and away
I clicked. "Hmm, a Fox shock
would be nice… A Rekluse
clutch, definitely… Stillwell
fork mods? Of course… FMF
exhaust system, heck yeah…
Large tank? That goes without
saying… Tall seat, absolute-
ly!... Graphics kit, why not?..."
This is way too much fun,
I thought, especially since I
was building my bike with Mo-
nopoly money. The website
does keep track on how much
you're spending, but I was too
scared to look, even if it wasn't
costing me anything.
Once you've built your
dream bike, you basically click
"send" and Beta will get back
to you within a day or two with
a final quote. If all is good and
you're happy, Beta will start
building your bike once they
have received a $500 deposit
from you. About 10 days later,
they will start working on your
bike. Up until that time, your
$500 deposit can be refunded
and the whole process halted
if you change your mind; once
work has started, however, it's
a done deal.
Also, after your Beta has
