Which Bike for my 8 year old - please share your advice

[24HourMerchMan]

Hi Guys,
I have been out of riding for 25 years. My era was the late 70s and early 80s. I raced motocross against Steven Gall, Anthony Gunter, Robert 'Beetle' Bailey and many more. My motocross riding days are some of my best memories.

I have an 8 year old son who is about to have his 9th birthday and I want to buy him a small dirt bike. The idea is to go on trail rides together and have some family fun. If he gets into racing, we could then look at a more serious bike.

In my day (god that sounds old!) the natural choice would be an XR or XL 75 or 80 Honda or similar. The quality of Hondas were excellent back then and I like the characteristics of a 4 stroke engine for a beginner.

My questions are:

I am not sure my son will take to bike riding like I did so for his first bike I want to keep the cost down.
Of the Chinese brands, which have the best handling characteristics and are the best to ride?
Which are the best quality?

The 70cc TDR PIT DIRT BIKE MOTOR TRAIL MINI THUMPSTAR eCX7 seems very cheap. What are they like? What is the right price to pay for one?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Defective]

Steer clear of that seller you mentioned. How much do you want to spend?

 

[I_THUMP]

Yeah dont bother with the TDR. Maybe a DHZ but need to know what u want to spend.

 

[TyD]

If I were you, I would be going on eBay and checking out crf70's and bikes like that second hand. If you buy a honda second hand and your boy doesn't like riding, then you will be able to sell it with close to no loss...

 

[24HourMerchMan]

Probably up to $1000. I would prefer to find a good option at around $500 though. Can you give me an idea of good, better and best in the current market?

 

[DHZ_XR8cing]

Look on the DHZ website. Their bikes are great.

 

[krazed0451]

Have a look at this... They are cheap and cheerful if treated right. You'll find all the necessary information on setting it up/running it in and maintaining it in the tech section.

They are similar quality to the DHZ bikes while being a lot cheaper. A few basic mods and a bit of care and time spent on it and it'll last your son for as long as he wants to ride it

Otherwise, spend some time trawling the older threads on the forum, there is a lot of information and comparison on bikes... Good luck!

 

[24HourMerchMan]

Thanks, I'll take a look

 

[sean01]

this is pretty good i recon going from the specs.. PitsterPro XJR SS, 50cc "Stocker" - DHZ Mini Moto
its a crf50 copy, but no really a trail riding bike, but good enough to learn on and mod to suit the rider..

price is pretty good too i recon..

failing that go for the DHZ or nitrous 125 bike

 

[jordancurrie]

I reckon go the dhz 110 perfect balance between power and reliability centrifugal clutch fun to do wheelies on =] great bike for a lil tacker
________
New jersey dispensaries

 

[em sea 19]

dhz all the way

 

[bradisfun]

lol noobs that post pointless stuff like that and probably dont even have a bike /\/\
but yea you say you raced do you still have the knowledge of all maintenance? have you considered running costs and basic up grades to get it going like protaper barrs, these are what most people run just so that if you lay the bike over then you wont bend the bars straight away and the day be over, these are only $79 from the site sponsor DHZ, you should also consider a unifilter air filter to replace the shitty china ones because they dont really wont and will just destroy your engine... (you will need to find one the right diameter for the carbie on your chosen bike) and then you should know the rest of the running costs right?
some of the following links may help:
Tricks of the trade
online china bike stores and parts
Achtung Noobs! : Your New Pitbike and You... set up tips
and now for choosing a bike
the Atomik's can be great bikes for there price after being set up right, i have a Pit-Pro which are meant to be of similar quality and mine runs great after i set it up right, there are also a huge amount of upgrades for these if he needs something a little more before racing but if he does catch on to your bug and starts jumping and riding too hard he might just do something and that could be it for the bike or even hurt him...
then theres DHZ bikes and there just that little bit of a step up with a bit better everything allround at a little bit more, also the after sale help is AMAZING ken from DHZ is awesome with helping you out and will give you all the help and if anythings wrong from when it comes from him, this is where atomik tend to fail as once you buy from then they'll never get back to you... if you search this you'll find that there have been some pretty disappointing acts by them...
DHZ are also improving all the time, they use to have a fork problem witch is said to be all fixed up now.
then theres revMX ttr155, these are the new kids on the block but are huge and have really made there make coming with heaps of up market parts and only costing $1999, these are some of the higher end ttr style bikes with the powerfull 155 motor and up market DNM suspension and it come with a great spares kit with both a D.I.D chain, unifilter air filter and more
heres some more info about these:
RevolutionMX TTR-style 155z... The wait is over..
The New TTR style 155Z by RevolutionMX

there are some more bike reviews here:
Minibike Reviews

hope this helps, brad