Kentucky…a state with tradition ranging from million-dollar racehorses to world class bourbon to some of the most challenging terrain East of the Mississippi River. It’s a place that’s known for its Appalachia folklore with interesting characters such as Daniel Boone and it’s kind of a place that time forgot. With rugged terrain, mystique, and a rural mountain feel to me it’s the best place to test out a high end Italian dual sport.
For this adventure, I jumped on a 2024 Beta 390 RS. This bike is branded by Beta as “the most offroad worthy dual sport on the market” and on paper it looks like it. Weighing in at 241 pounds and with a 390cc four stroke engine this bike has plenty of power and can put it to the ground with a six-speed gearbox mated to a hydraulic clutch. As for suspension, the 390 RS has 48mm fully adjustable Sach’s open cartridge forks in the front with a fully adjustable Sach’s shock in the rear. To slow this monster down you have a 260mm floating rotor in the front and a 240mm rotor in the back. On the electronics side the Beta 390 RS comes equipped with a Trailtech Voyager GPS navigation system and a unique dual mapping switch on the fly system. Ok, so what does all of this mean…well the Beta 390 RS is one of those bikes that can go from the show room right to a race. It’s built with high end components, so make no mistake this is a race bike that is set up for dual sport riding.
I decided that the best place that I personally could put the 2024 Beta 390 RS through its paces would be out in the Red River Gorge region of Eastern Kentucky. A few of my friends and I decided to meet up there for a weekend rally known as the Red River Scramble. This rally is held in the Red River Gorge region of Kentucky in October every year and is the brainchild of avid dual sport rider Drew Faulkner. Drew knows the area like the back of his hand and has mapped out hundreds of miles of routes ranging from technical single track to nice mixed on and off-road riding for adventure bikes.
The routes that I would ride the Beta on for the weekend varied in terrain but were mostly rocky with steep inclines and declines along with a few water crossings thrown in for a challenge. The Beta took on everything I threw at it very well. In some tight single-track sections, it was very nimble and on steep inclines it had plenty of power to get up to the top of them. The biggest challenge for me as a rider were water crossings, since I don’t really have to many in the Low Country of South Carolina. However, this gave me the opportunity to test the dual mapping system that the Beta RS’s come with. The dual mapping system gives the bike a dry mode and a wet mode and what it really does is it limits how much power and torque the bike puts out…in wet mode it’s kind of like a cross between traction control and rain mode on a newer motorcycle. Riding in wet mode, I found that I had plenty of control of the Beta going through water crossings and I even used it for one route that was up a steep rocky incline that was covered in slippery moss.
As a dual sport the Beta 390 RS did fantastic but the other question I had was, how would it handle on pavement? Some of the routes at Red River Scramble have short pavement portions that link trailheads together and also allow you to break off to towns for gas and places to grab something to eat. While a dual sport is more at home in the dirt having decent pavement performance is also key. Most of the paved sections I was on were fairly short however, I did do a 20-mile portion of some nice twisty curves that were a lot of fun. My only complaint while riding on pavement was that I had to push the Beta a little harder than I would have preferred and it really didn’t like going past 65 miles an hour, then again it is a 390. I did notice that while on pavement and being pushed hard it did burn fuel at a much higher rate than when it was on dirt. This is due to being ridden at higher RPM’s at a consistent pace. While being wound up and tearing through the Kentucky back country I drained the 2.4-gallon tank fairly quickly on those paved portions.
Overall, how did I feel about the 2024 Beta 390 RS? Well…it did everything that was advertised, the bike had plenty of power and the dual mapping system was great for switching on the fly when coming to water crossings and then jumping back into dirt. Suspension wise, it was solid, and I only made some minor tweaks to the rear shock once or twice. For a stock bike right out of the show room it was one of the better suspensions that I have ridden on. Performance overall was fantastic, and it took everything I threw at it. My only complaints with the Beta 390 RS are the fuel consumption when running on pavement to jump from trailhead to trailhead, this kind of took me by surprise but then again as a 390cc high performance dual sport I understand it and it can be alleviated by carrying fuel bottles or by adding a 3.5-gallon IMS fuel tank. The other complaint is how uncomfortable the stock seat is. For this trip I brought along a Seat Concepts seat to swap back and forth to try them out and after the first day the stock seat was ditched since it felt like I was sitting on a piece of plywood. Wrapping up, the 2024 Beta 390 RS is a great bike and while it is on the higher end of the pricing spectrum at $11,500 MSRP it’s one of those bikes that is well worth the price, and with Beta revamping the dual sport line up for 2025 they might start dropping some nice incentives on them so it might be the best time to grab one.
Stryker ADV 