Hey- Looking for advice on choosing a first trials bike: In addition to riding trials, I would also like to be able do some more general technical trail riding with my bike. It has been recommended to me that the Beta Rev3 would be a good choice for this due to the 6 speed gearbox and taller gearing. How do you find the other modern usual suspects do for trail riding? Is the gearing tall enough? How does it compare in the real world to the Beta? Where is a good resource for technical information (such as gear ratios) for trials bikes? Thanks, Matthew
Thanks Bubba. That's a good site that I have used before, but unfortunately it doesn't have trials bikes in the database. Anybody know where I can get gearing ratio info for trials bikes? I've found info on the Cota, but not the Rev 3 or other common machines. Which bike do you have, and does the gearing seem reasonable to you for some trail riding? Cheers, Matthew
Some things to keep in mind for any trail riding you want to do... The bikes are built for mostly 1st - 3rd gear TRIALS riding, meaning idling a lot and very little gear changing. I use 80:1 normally but mix in a bit of 50:1 from my other bike if I can't just leave it in 5th and use momentum and a bit of clutch when needed. 4th means much higher revs at more than a walking pace. An 11 tooth front sprocket is considered big in trials terms. They can even use 10 or 9 tooth. Even an 11 is pretty brutal for chain wear at speed, and they are generally small, light, non 0 ring chains to keep weight down. Suspension is very soft, meaning it sucks up small stuff great but any big hits at speed means bottoming and is hard on the frame and components. Having said that, theres no better bike for breaking trail or going places bikes shouldn't be in !
I get to ride my Bro-in-law's Montesa 4RT a fair amount. We do trail ride it around his farm. With the stock gearing I rarely use first. On any kind of more open trail - it's in 5th and you slip the clutch for the slower bits. First is crazy low, 2ond is good for the largest obstacles I tackle, 3rd is still quite low (good for tight trails), 4th is a big jump up (but somehow is rarely used), and 5th is another big jump up. You could gear it up (larger front or smaller rear) quite a bit and still have a low first gear. It isn't really fond of higher speeds though. 40mph is about as fast as the twichy handing, soft suspension and small brakes will allow. SRG
You might poke around Lewisport's manuals page and see if you can find gearing specs: http://www.lewisportusa.com/manuals.htm
So you just end up riding in the top 4 gears all the time and forget 1-2 unless you are riding trials. Take off in 2 or3. They have very wide ratio boxes in most cases. A Beta would work fine. You do realize you are standing all the time? You do realize you have like 1 hr worth of gas also?
I use my Gas Gas for trail riding more than I should, but it is a lot of fun going places that the rest of the group just look at and just sit there while you go up and down the obstacle. I just can't go very fast between the sections. And, yes you do have to stand the whole time, and yes it is hard on your arms, but is it a lot of fun...
Thanks all, for the responses. Lots of good info. Yes, I do understand that trials bikes are ridden standing, and don't have big tanks. I don't want to cross Mongolia, just want to be able to do some lazy trail-riding with friends on other types of bikes. (FWIW, I did an 800km ride yesterday, mostly standing. It's how I normally prefer to ride offroad, though I get that the ergonomics of a rally position are different from a trials position.) I got to ride a Sherco on an open trail for a bit today - I see what was meant by the soft suspension and short geometry limiting the speed. I didn't want to go any faster the the gearing allowed. Cheers, Matthew
