Dirt Bike FAQ

Well there are a few variations on "pit bikes" but here goes with the basics. At off road races down here in the Dist 38 area, pitbikes are/were just that, little bikes for getting around in the pits between races or when getting ready for a race and your main machine was getting worked on to get ready for the race. They were anything from old Honda Z50's to little XR50's, to Yamaha PW50's etc. These days they are selling so-called "pit bikes" at Kragens and places like that that are made in China, with up to 110cc engines and questionable reliability. More little mini-bikes than anything you could use on a regular basis, they are copies of Japanese bikes in all respect except the reliabilty, not really suitable for long term use in the desert, and not really meant for the street, they are just parking lot toys for semi-grownups. The shocks arent really suitable for offroad, they just have big springs to look like they are, so if you are thinking of buying one for something like that save your money and buy a real offroad bike that you can learn on for reasonably cheap like an older XR200 or CR125. At least they have the underpinnings of a real machine on them.