125 or 250f?

[rgaede]

Little biased since I ride a tiddler, but the 125 is definitely more fun to ride. It does make you work for it though. when I took my dads crf250 for a spin, that thing was so easy to ride it was nuts. But for sure you'll definitely build your skills more on the 125, and have lots of fun doing it. Just be prepared to come off the track totally spent.

[Wilson]

Just throwing this out there, but KTM is my initials.

Haha thats awesome, mine are BMW

[Voutare]

Brent Michael Wilson?

[kevin131mx]

Big Man Whore?

[adhkcrfhonda]

i think it is your personal preference. what do you want, a 4 stroke or 2 stroke?

[shane78]

hey dude i race motocross.. ur best bet would be the 250f... trust me wont have to wory about the power band all strait power.. also with the suspention u are small so obviasly u dont weigh much take it to a suspention shop preferably pro-action sus. and motors and for like 20 bucks they will set the suspention for your weight.. tell them to set it a little soft since you short and if u have any more questions about real moto just pm me or ask the person u take it to to help u out..

[Wilmx829]

2010 yami yz125, if they make it. If they dont make it the 2010 crf250's with the EFI

[adhkcrfhonda]

If they dont make it the 2010 crf250's with the EFI

genious idea. i forgot about that thing.

[JETZcorp]

I think you guys all know what my suggestion would be.

As far as reliability goes, the old bikes are actually quite nice, simply because they're not so complicated. Someone here mentioned a Powervalve getting chewed up and costing a lot of money. Get something from the early '80s or earlier, and you don't have that to deal with. A lot of the older bikes don't require any fussing around with water cooling either, which is just another thing that might cause trouble, and honestly doesn't provide very much advantage at all (unless you want to ride at 5mph with the engine at 14 grand all day.) The controls are just cables hooked to levers, so there's not much breakage going on there, and the brakes are not only out-of-the-way but about as tough as an Abrams tank. With all this, you're not looking at any more weight, and the suspension (if you don't screw it up) will work just as about as well after 1979 or so.

The big problem is, of course, older bikes are harder to find, especially 125s. The 1/8-liter machines were a lot less common back then, with 250 and 500 bikes taking most of the sales. I'll do a quick scan of eBay and see what there is.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Suzuki-R ... 746wt_1197
^^ This is a 1977 RM125, which looks to be in excellent condition. The suspension travel is a little short, but that can be a good thing for small riders.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Suzuki-R ... 500wt_1214
^^ Another RM125, this time a 1978. Not as flashy, but still good and the price appears to be nice and low.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda-CR ... 500wt_1214
^^ Not a very graceful bike, this 1977 Honda CR125 looks okay. The down-pipe isn't so great, though.

Those are the only "good" 125's I could find, with the others being too much like new bikes, or too inadequate in suspension. Anything older than 1976 will be pretty bad at modern MX because the travel is just not enough. The rest of the links here are just plain good bikes, in 250 or Open class. These are the bikes that no one's going to be able to touch.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Husqvarn ... 500wt_1214
^^ This is, simply put, the best Husqvarna ever made. Massive power that goes from bare idle (believe me on that!) and continuing right to the 80+ mph top. A bit hard to keep the front-end down when you're really giving it the beans.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Other-Ma ... 500wt_1164
^^ This is just about the fastest bike in history. In the mid-80s, they perfected the monoshock suspension, which allowed the world's best motocross engine to come into its own. Nothing will give you better power than this. Nothing. It looks big, but it settles down surprisingly far when on the ground. This basic engine is still being manufactured in modern Maicos today.


Good luck with your decision.

[Voutare]

Alright...



A sword is more reliable than a gun, but I'm definitely going to take the gun to battle.

[JETZcorp]

They're both guns, my friend. You seem to have the assumption that we've actually made bikes significantly faster since 1980. And sure, the Powervalve thing probably did add a bit to the mix, but I'm going to bet it takes a pretty good rider to tell the difference. Modern riders like to get this image of evolution-era bikes as clunky, heavy, primitive contraptions which handled like a Prius and had the power of a scooter. The truth is, once long-travel suspension came to be, development was limited to only small refinements which merely tune what was already there. I'm talking about the 2-stroke world, by the way, because we should all acknowledge that the early 4-strokes were pitifully heavy and underpowered, somewhat unlike today's thumpers. In the end, it comes down to personal preference. If you like the style and mystique of an older bike, then that's what you should get. If you want something that will keep you up with the latest style (in the same respect as shoes and hairstyles) then by all means, get the modern machine.

[Voutare]

I'll admit that analogy was a little extreme, but if I were to go out and run a moto at any national in the country, I would take my modern bike over a old one any day.

[Wilmx829]

K = Kall
T = the
M = mechanic


sorry, lol.

[rgaede]

Jetz, I've ridden old bikes, and new bikes. Sure the power could be there, but the metallurgy wasn't as good, the bikes break more often and loose more power over a moto. The modern suspension will allow you to take the modern obstacles that you would never attempt on an older bike. Further more, the new bikes will stop much faster, with little to no break fade over a moto. There nice to ride around on, but never race when competing against newer iron.
just my two cents

[Wilson]

K = Kill
T = The
M = Mexicans!
haha