VOL. 55 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 27, 2018 P89
The 500 RR-S makes a lot of power but it's all useable.
not without some fancy clutch
work. You'll find yourself run-
ning around in first gear a lot
more on the RR-S than you
normally would on a regular
dirt bike, but, to be honest,
I kind of liked that. The tall
gearing makes first gear actu-
ally usable while also smooth-
ing out power delivery. But
if you know you're going to
do a lot of tight and techni-
cal single-track riding and/
or plan on playing around
in the rocks and doing a lot
of slow-speed, leg-paddling
stuff, dropping a tooth or two
on the countershaft sprocket
wouldn't be a bad idea.
The Beta's six-speed trans-
mission has a gear for just
about any situation and as for
missed shifts…well, they just
never happened. At least not
while I was on board.
Suspension is capable of
handling whatever you ask of
it, too. For my 170 pounds,
the Beta's Sachs fork and
shock felt just about right,
maybe a tad on the soft side
overall, but nothing I couldn't
live with. After all, I wrote
off big doubles and triples a
long time ago and now prefer
settings a tick on the softer
side anyway. But even with
the cushy setup, the Beta still
feels a little rough around the
edges when cruising down
the road, paved or not. Small
bumps are easily felt through
the handlebars, footpegs and
chassis. The Beta's rock-hard
