Saying goodbye to my Beta Xtrainer brought mixed emotions. On one hand, she’d been a great ride for the past 12 months.
On the other she’d cheated on me for three months with a motocross punk from Terry Hills. Obviously my talents weren’t enough.
Either way, I’ll look back on the Xtrainer as one of the most fun, engaging bikes I’ve had the privilege of riding, unfaithfulness aside. I meshed with the little Xtrainer well because it suited my riding style.
It felt like a 125cc to push around the garage, steered like a 200 but had the torque of a 300 to get you up and over any obstacle I dared tackle. It’s not a bike for every situation, but Beta doesn’t claim it is.
The Italian company markets it as a hard enduro weapon and that’s what caught my attention. My first impression of the Xtrainer was that it was small but very light and had an incredibly tight turning circle. You could U-turn on a 10-cent piece with ease.
Its small size took some getting use to and I found myself standing almost everywhere, even through tight, rutted turns, because it felt most comfortable. Because of the low height and small frame Beta recommends the Xtrainer for smaller riders and newbies but that in no way reflects its capabilities.
At the end of the day it still has a 300cc two-stroke engine at its heart. The small frame and low seat wasn’t ideal for me but that wasn’t Beta’s fault as I’m a 196cm thanks to the growth hormones they put in chicken nowadays.
To counter this, I installed a tall seat. It was only an extra 4cm but a lot firmer and the extra height made a world of difference. After that I could sit more comfortably and corner sitting down like I would on a full-size enduro bike.
The first major change though was to the coolant pump. Beta Australia’s Garry Grealy recommended I up the size of the pump impeller and cavity with a factory kit to increase its cooling capacity because, in rare cases, we’d heard of Xtrainers boiling.
I never had this problem but once the larger impeller and water pump cavity spacer were installed the thermo fan came on far less, so it worked.
I then beefed up protection with a pipeguard, frame guards and linkage guard, threw on a set of sticky hoops from GoldenTyre once the stockers were worn and decked it out with an ADB-branded graphics kit from iMX Graphics. I decided against radiator guards because I was trying to keep weight down and I didn’t experience any radiator damage. And, of course, handguards. Gotta protect those golden digits.
While I was looking after the Xtrainer it only had one issue that had the potential to be detrimental. For a short time, Beta positioned a few diodes and plugs on the 2017 Xtrainer in such a way that they retained water after washing.
My early-production bike was one of those. The trapped water corrodes the prongs on a diode and that can affect the flow of electricity through the bike’s wiring. This can then mess with the oil injection system. The problem is unique to a few 2017 models and dealers now fix the problem during pre-delivery.
I knew the Xtrainer was going to be a fun bike, as Romaniacs vets Rob Nowak and Con Thermos both agreed it could be competitive in Gold Class in Romania there but it far exceeded my expectations. Its mellow power, mountains of torque, low weight and soft suspension make it fun for flying along singletrack and scaling gnarly hills.
Living with it for 12 months couldn’t have been easier and the only issue was a rare one that has been fixed. Plus, no mixing fuel thanks to Beta’s oil injection was icing on the cake. Digital Editor Olly Malone
This update of ADB’s Beta Xtrainer 300 long-term test bike as published in ADB issue #459 – December 2017.
LAST CALL
Hours: 70
Mods:
• Taller seat
• Larger coolant pump impeller
• Coolant pump body spacer
• GoldenTyre GT216X “Gummy”
• iMX graphics kit
• Barkbuster VPS handguards
• ProPower International carbon-fibre pipe guard
• ProPower International carbon-fibre frame guards
• X Link monoshock linkage/shock absorber guard