the power the 2018 350RR was
producing. I could no longer ride it like
the trail tractor I was used to. I had to
respect the throttle and be precise with
power application. That was until I
realised there was a map switch to
tame it back. I switched it to ‘rain’
mode and the power mellowed out. But
even in rain mode it was still more
aggressive than the 2017.
I wasn’t sure which engine I
preferred. The grasstrack racer in me
was all about the 2018 power, but my
trailriding heritage was telling me the
2017 engine was better. I needed to
clear my head so I lay in the back of
the ute and played with my phone. I
browsed my Insta feed, stalked someto this 2018 350 to make it feel stronger
than the 2017,” I said to Grabbo, having
jumped straight from the old to the
new model. Grabbo laughed and said,
“Nah, I haven’t done a thing. That’s
exactly what I thought when I first
hopped on it.”
The power is more akin to a KTM
350SX-F than the 2017 Beta 350RR, and
on the grasstrack it was an absolute
missile! My head was spinning. What
the hell is this white Kato I’m riding?! I
had to snap out of it and focus on the
task at hand, so I headed into our
singletrack loop armed with both
model years and switched between
bikes a dozen times.
At first, I had to get my head around
promo chicks on Facey, and gave Big
Red a pasting in a group chat on
iMessage, before sliding my sweaty lid
back on and heading out into the bush.
I decided to ride a gear tall, like I did
on my long term KTM 350EXC-F. So
rather than ringing its neck in second
and third I bounced between third and
fourth. It made all the difference.
While the Beta has always produced
great torque and will satisfy any
top-cog trail punter, it’s needed serious
gear work when the trail opens up and
you can really lay the wrist in. But
not anymore.
You can leave the 2018 model in
third and keep revving it. That
midrange is just so damn strong! AndWhat’s new
for 2018?
- New clutch
•Nokickstarter - New gear-shifting selector system
- New airbox
- EFI with dual injectors
- New chassis
- Slimmer rear-end
- Lithium battery
- Fork with new sleeves
- New settings for monoshock
- New muffler
- New muffler heatshield
- Takasago Excel black rims
- New colors and graphics
http://www.adbmag.com.au JANUARY 2018 | 79