Dirt Bike FAQ

Well, it's kind of hard to teach ya without showing you, but here are a few pointers.
First of all the basics..

Gas is on your right hand.

You have two brakes, the front brake is at your left hand and the back brake is at your right foot. I would advise to not use the front brake unless absolutlely necessary. The back brake is the most important one and really the only one you should worry about.

You shift pretty similar as you would on a car. The clutch is the bar in front of your right handle. The gear shift will be at your right foot (near the brake) You just click it up and down with your foot to switch each gear. On most bikes all the way down is first, one up is neutral, two up is second, and so on.

Other than that just trust the bike. If your going over rocky terrain or even loose gravel it's easy to get nervous and crash but don't, just hold the handles firm and the bike can take it. Also, don't go anywhere your not comfortable just to be macho…that is how you get hurt.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Jason gave you very good advice. He is a little mistaken concerning the wide ratio gearbox. It is designed FOR woods or enduro riding. Notice the headlight. It means that the gears cover a wider spectrum of speeds. His first gear is very tall or fast. A motocross bike is always at high rpm and maximum possible speed. He needs to slip his clutch to make that gear suitable for slow riding. First gear on the WR is low enough that you can leave the clutch out and still putt around. I feel that the WR250 would be OK for you. The YZ has the close ratio box, for the track. The 2007 KTM 200 is a 2-stroke. It is an XC, or XC-W for the wide ratio. The 200 EXC (US)was last seen in 2005 according to Cycleworld.(Also 2-stroke). These are good bikes, but expensive. The Yamahas are 4 strokes as you likely know. You can do a search on any model that you choose. You will get opinions from people who actually own these bikes as well as from magazines. You will learn things like recurring problems that certain models might have had. I know one for road bikes that is very helpful. It is bikez.com. Very cool site. It might cover dirt also. Anything that you choose will be fun. Something that will still satisfy you as your skills increase is the goal. Pros are still having fun on these 250 4 strokes. They can be modified to the hilt as well. Lots of money though. Good luck with your choice. Have fun.

I am the same height as you and was just learning a year ago. I bought a Honda CRF230F and with some help form my boyfriend, was riding in no time.
The 230F is very sturdy. I ran it into a few trees and it even ran off an embankment and flipped over backwards (i bailed beforehand) and it's still in one piece… minus a few scratches! It has a lot of top-end speed, so it's lacking in quickness… meaning its a fast bike when you get it up to 5th-6th gear, but it takes a while to build up that speed. This makes for a very unitimidating engine thats perfect for a beginner and great for just putting around the backyard or through the woods. Believe me, it's still a fun bike to learn on!
The seat height is just right. The only problem may be weight, it is a bit on the heavy side due to the indestructible steel frame. You may want to opt for the 150F if you don't have much upperbody strength, especially if you'll be out w/o anyone to help you get the bike back up if you do fall.
Either way, Honda is a great brand and keeps a good resale value if you change your mind about riding. Whatever brand you end up with, you will definitely want to get a 4-stroke off-road bike (not a motocross racer)

Http://www.harglo-performance.com/franco_morini_engine_diagrams.htm
Go to – S6-S Clutch + Transmission
Did you remove # 3&4?
It should just slide off.
A puller may be needed

http://www.harborfreight.com/

40966 – 4VGA

Try the new kawasaki 5 speed. lots of gears, great bike, made in four stroke, green, looks like a perfect match, (try fmf pipes i have heard alot about those) if you can ride it year round try a ktm they are really reliable, they won the ERZBERG RODEO google it if you don't know what it is. they can stand alot of abuse

Only if it is in gear otherwise it wont make any difference

Enter as many competitions as you can.

Www.motosport.com
Great prices, free shipping over 100.00
no tax outside oregon.

also ebay if you want used

Riding boots, you want to keep your feet looking good. I have seen feet crushed, gashed, burnt etc. Be safe first. They are making girls gear more girlie now. Great to see women ride.

With a bike like the CRF150F you need to use the clutch to get the front end off the ground. On a MX bike you can just use throttle, but the 150F doesn't hit hard like an MX bike. Start by just practicing getting the front wheel up, but don't worry about keeping it there. Just practice on how much throttle you need when you dump the clutch without flipping over backwards. Try going rather slow in 2nd gear, 1st will wind out too quickly, as you're going along just pull in the clutch, give some gas and dump the clutch. Take it easy at first and keep your foot over the rear brake just in case the front gets too high. Once you master getting the front end up just work on your balance. Try to keep the bike in the lower RPM range, if the rpm's get too high the front will drop as you run out of steam.