At this year’s Dusty Lizard Ouray, our friends from Upshift Online brought their 2025 Beta 430 RR Race test bike to put it through its paces in the San Juan Mountains. We spent two days with them riding it, and decided to take a look at how this race trimmed cross country machine performs as a plated dual sport.

As we’ve mentioned before, the Mosko staff are fans of Beta’s off-road lineup. The bikes are well equipped from the factory, perform well, look great, and tend to land at a pretty competitive price too. This being our first ride on a 430 RR Race, we didn’t know what to expect, and we ended up pretty impressed with the bike.

Our test loop for this bike was a long day in the Cimmaron mountains north of Ouray. The test route really put the “dual sport” in dual sport: we started with a twelve mile, high-speed highway slab; followed by some gravel access road, leading into a fast and flowing single track approach. From there, we climbed a technical, steep, very exposed ridge line on tire-wide single track, descended down the other side on equally challenging trail, and looped the ride back to the highway with a fast double track section. It was an excellent route, and ended up being a diverse and challenging way to see the full breadth of the 430 RR capabilities.

For 2025, Beta has changed its Race Edition line designation to simply “Race”, while the bikes retain the premium equipment the Race Edition bikes have been known for. The 430 RR Race includes things like alloy foot pegs, anodized axle pulls, Nissin brakes, a map and traction control switch in the center of the bars, and—of course—the fantastic 48mm KYB AOS fork and C46 RCU shock. All of those reasons (and some others not mentioned here) are incentives to pick up a Beta Race model, but in our opinion, the KYB suspension might be the most enticing piece in the premium package.

Beta also notes the 2025 Race models come equipped with a newer frame design that’s stiffer and more responsive. While the 430 RR Race surely felt crisp and reactive, the frame seemed to have enough flex to provide a plush and planted ride, not at all jarring or skittering. We’d be keen to compare it side by side to a standard RR (non-Race) model to get a better understanding of the frame differences and ride quality effect.

On the highway, the Beta feels decent. It wouldn’t be our first choice for slabbing highway miles, but in the dual sport realm, logging highway miles on lightweight thumpers is a necessary evil, and the 430 RR Race handles it easily. It holds highway speeds comfortably, without too much of the small bike twitch and wobble that some dual sports often suffer from.

But of course, the bike shines once the dirt hits. We knocked out a handful of gravel miles on the way to the trailhead. The Beta was comfortable and planted, deftly trail braking into corners and power drifting out. Though it wouldn't win in a straight sprint, the 430 RR Race made pace with Moto Minded’s heavily modded KTM 500 EXCF, with no complaints.

Once in the single track, the 430 RR Race came to life. The motor makes crisp and controllable power, and the chassis and suspension provide great handling and feel in twisty and technical sections. Beta has become known for having a smaller cockpit and slimmer ergos than other bikes; we didn’t have any complaints about bar or foot peg positions, and the subframe fit neatly between our knees for comfortable control when attacking. It’s worth noting our test rider is 5’ 11”, and the common sentiments about Beta ergos being shorter or smaller tend to come from larger riders.

The DOHC power plant has a revvy feel reminiscent of the KTM 350, with a bit more winding up needed to find the power band. Once in the power, the motor doesn’t quit and just keeps revving. We're not sure of the redline, but we didn't seem to get close to it all day. 

A totally underrated feature of Beta’s lineup is the Brembo hydraulic clutch. Compared to other dirtbikes on the market like KTM, Husky, Honda, and Yamaha, Beta dirtbikes have perhaps the best factory clutch feel. The Brembo offers a smooth, low effort, often one-finger pull with great modulation and control. So while the more wound-up 430 RR Race motor didn’t provide as much grunty tractor-like power, the clutch made it very easy to apply the power on technical hill starts or steep pivot turns we encountered through out the day. There were only a few times we found ourselves using more than one finger on the clutch lever.

The gearing is good for trail riding, but if we were going to ride lots of single track with the 430 RR Race, we’d maybe experiment with dropping a tooth in the front or going up two in the rear. In faster twisting single track, the bike wants to be in 3rd gear, but requires frequent shifting between 2nd and 3rd to stay in the power. This is a small gripe; and we can’t be certain we’d make the gearing change, as the higher speed performance of the 430 RR Race isn’t worth giving up. This is the nature of dual sporting, after all: sacrifices must be made.

A good portion of our single track mission involved steep, exposed climbing on 180 degree corners that required pivot turning. The bike handled all of this technical riding deftly, with one flaw: it over heated on the sustained climb, and needed a short break to cool down. This is common in technical riding, and we were unsurprised; an electric fan or even a cheap coolant catch bottle would both probably solve this.

The KYB suspension felt fantastic in everything our single track route offered. We’ve heard from some riders that the KYB on the Beta Race bikes is more aggressive or seemingly valved for open, cross country-style racing. We found it plush enough for technical root steps and low speed rock navigation, with much of this terrain hitting on steep climbs on our route. The KYB handled it with ease, and provided sure-footed, planted control through everything we rode climbing and descending the Cimmaron ridge line.

Into the faster double track, the bike hit its stride. The 430 RR Race performs pretty well on both highway and single track, but it’s a shred-ready beast in the fast stuff. It was stable as a table across high speed rock, unexpected G-outs, and sendy airs. The motor provided plenty of power on tap to blast the bike out of corners. This fast, open, banked-corner double track was where the bike shined the most.

For this trip, we set up the 430 RR Race with a Reckless 10L and carried some extra rain layers and flat repairs. Given how well it performed in the range of conditions on this ride, we’d love to outfit one with a Reckless 40 or 80 and get out for a multi-day dual sport trip to see how it handles the challenge. We’re pretty confident it would crush the opportunity.

Thanks to our friends at Upshift Online for the test bike ride. Photos by Kris Regentin and Chad D'Alva / Upshift Online.