A grand day out!
The day dawned sunny and bright………
A young man,s thoughts drifted off to a land of may blossom,
mud and ruts,
with the wandering by ways-beckoning forth.
A promise of newly discovered adventure and chummy escapades
-a land of Swallows and Amazons……
Well actually it was a very nice sunny day(for a change)
and me and Junior Cheetham
fancied leaving the ladies to their shopping
while we went mudplugging
-THATS ABOUT IT REALLY!
Suitably clobbered up and gassed up
-we sallied forth into the Limousin paysage in search of adventure.
This was the first trip for the new Beta 200.
I have to say I was impressed!
The suspension is adequate,if not special.
The motor is a peach!
Very smooth and torquey-no hint of a powerband
-just an utterley predictable build up of speed.
The substitution of the front sprocket
-a 12 tooth instead of a 15
-means that a 50mph top speed
is little inconvenience for the trials like bottom end gained.
It is possible to drop to a slow walking pace
and smoothly pull away with no wheelspin
-great in slippery ,muddy conditions,like those we found today.
The centre of gravity feels very low ie very stable.
The whole plot squirms but never feels out of control.
This brings me to the main criticism:
THE TYRES!
How anyone can justify trailriding on trial tyres is beyond me!
Its like ice skating!
Its like greenlaneing on racing slicks!
Exciting-you betcha!
Safe-NO!
I will HAVE to address the rubber issue TOUTE SUITE!
(Any suggestions regarding tyre choice
from Alp owners would be very welcome)
We did a circuit of about 90kms
-out for about 5 hours
-and discovered some very interesting new trails.
The recent weather has been very wet
and so even the simplest green lanes proved challenging,
to say the least.
I think we found what is probably the longest,wettest trail in this area
-about 5 miles of pedalling through enormous tank tracks;
strange when the going in this part of the neighbouring Charente
is normally very open farmland!
Altogether a very enjoyable mix of wide open tracks and leafy forest trails.
UPSETS-very few;
a minor problem within the first KM,
when the petrol cap decided to abandon ship,
covering me with a shower of petrol!
A near “squashing” incident with a kamikaze pine martin…
A lamb that had to be rescued from a frantic fence incident
(why is the grass always greener?)
Of course ,as ever,we saw nobody on the trail
-trairiding down here is such a pleasure.
I must admit I am a little sore tonight
,but then I take great solice from the admission
that my 26 year old son “may ache a bit tomorrow”
Its really great that I can still “DO IT”
(whether it takes me a week to recover is irrelevant……..)
I,M STILL DOING IT! 
I recommend a Michelin Ac10 on the rear, and soemthing like a Michelin Enduro Comp on the front.
Michelin - they’re French and the best by far.
Thanks Serge,Ill check out prices.
I usually go for Pirrelli Enduros,but am happy to change