Beta to launch bike at Dirt Bike Show!
By John Dickinson on 9th Nov 06
BETA is set to stun the trials world with the launch of a brand-new four-stroke trials bike at the Dirt Bike Show which starts its four-day run at Stoneleigh Park on Thursday next week, November 16!
This exciting news was revealed exclusively to Trials and Motocross News this week by British Beta importer John Lampkin. Details of the new model are deliberately being kept secret until the unveiling. It is understood that Italian factory bosses wanted to keep the whole thing under wraps until the show but Lampkin persuaded them that it would create much more of a sensation – not to mention encourage the public to actually go to the show in order to see the model themselves, with a shock release in the off-road world's number one weekly – T+MX!
It has been known for several years that Beta has had a development four-stroke on the go, as long as four years in fact, but it has not wanted to unveil until now it for several reasons. One is that it wanted to ensure that it was 100% developed before going into production, another was that the Florence-based factory has been more than happy with the continued development of the two-stroke REV3 which has enjoyed strong sales in recent years.
Lampkin was at pains to explain that the four-stroke is NOT a replacement for the REV3 but an additional model to run alongside. The engine is believed to be, as is the twostroke, Beta's own, not a proprietary unit and that it is carbureted, not fuel injected. That is the extent of details released to date. To find out more you will have to visit the Dirt Bike Show. T+MX will of course reveal the new model, with all its secrets, in our post-Dirt Bike Show issue – and if you can't make the show you must check-out our website (www.tmxnews.co.uk) on Thursday for exclusive pictures of the four-stroke!
Production of the new model is all set for the end of 2006 although a retail price has yet to be announced. It is also not known yet whether the four-stroke will appear in World Championship events.
The Beta four-stroke launch is a real coup for the Dirt Bike Show which received a boost earlier this year when BMW announced that it was to attend Stoneleigh for the first time. The German concern has several big, fast, flattwin trail bikes and has also announced a brand new generation of single-cylinder off-road orientated bikes in both trail and supermoto guise.