So, my almost 8 yr old has been doing the bmx racing thing forever it seems, and to my dismay he rejected mx, even though the entire family does it.

ANyway, last weekend he randomly says "Hey I want to ride"

ooookay, so I fire up an old 50 we had collecting dust, he jumps on and seriously goes ripping around the trails around the property.

He road til the flipping chain fell off lol

anyway, I just I dont know what to do now. I was not prepared for this. a ttr 90? a 65? When do they learn manual? He wants something different, and I am not sure what I should do. All i know is, he wants to ride and I am beside myself with gleeeeeeeeeeeee yipeeeeeeeee

That is great news Highmaintenance!

We migrated our daughter to a 65 at age 8. I think it is a perfect bike for that age. Either the KTM65 or KX65 seem to be the ticket these days.

Good luck on your decision and congrats on the little guy taking an interest.

Hope to see you in the Pee-wee forum more !

-Fryboy

okay a 65 it is!

BUT i am going to borrow a friends ttr 90 to get him on something bigger. he is a sketchy kid, when he gets frustrated with something he says f-it and walks off. I just know he will get pissed at a manual if i dont get him first way cozy on a bigger bike.

AAh. The seed has been planted. Now I get to watch it grow.

I was surprised how well he did. must be the bmx racing.

Definitely, they are ready BEFORE you think they are. They learn the bikes like nothing.

If you're going the riding route.. Go with the Kx 65. Great starter/entry level bike. If you will eventually get into Mx, go with the KTM 65, (stay away from the '09 KTM 65, though), or go with a Polini 65. These are race-ready bikes right out of the box that are ready to win on....

KX 65's are nice.. and run really well with a set of street tires and he can try his luck at mini roadracing!

Check out how well they do on the pavement in this video! (I'm on the red GP style bike, running a XR100 motor, sitting on pole at the start of the race).
http://s243.photobuc...ioVideoEdit.flv

hook em 22 said:

Why would you say that?? They are known around here to be be as fast as an 08 Mod bike but Stock! What's the scoop?

haha - ktm folk are so biased - no offense guys - but you really are!
HM - get a KX or RM 65 - that's all you need - learning the BASICS of clutching is all of half an hour and he'll be riding like he rode the 50, getting the finesse of cluthcing just comes with time and practice.

As for having to get a KTM when he's ready to race - don't drink the coolaid, my son just won the championship with a 2000 kx 65 (yeah - the old outdated KX) - his results out of 20 races was all 1st place finishes and one second - he outholeshots, outrides, outjumps and outturns ANY of the KTM riders around here - remember - it's 80% rider 20% bike at this level - a KTM won't make you a better faster rider, but practice will.

matt4x4 said:

Ohhhh pahlease !!! You drink green koolaid more than anyone I've ever met :smirk:

Correction - I drink the BLUE coolaid - my son drinks the green, but as of late he's been changing it to black.

matt4x4 said:

That's so true, at almost every level.
Take a crap rider, put him on the best bike and he'll still be a crap rider. Take a good rider, on a crap bike and he'll still be good.

if he is a rider that gets pissed off and sais f-it when he cant do ti, don not get him a 65, see hpow he handles ttr 90, that bike would be my choice

Just a thought... Thumpers are coming. Pitster 90 auto, that can be cheaply and quickly converted to manual? KLX with a manual/auto combo? You can take the primary clutch off later.

THE Fire Power:)

i borrowed a ttr 90 we shall see how he does! i still need boots

I second the the older KX65 (2001 has a shorter seat height than the newer bikes), my son is 8 and the conversion over to a manual clutch was much easier than anticipated. Started with a slight hill and alot of area to run around, no problem. I was so concerned originally that I ordered a Rekluse so the bike would behave like his KTM Senior and he was already fairly comfortable with the bike before I recieved the backordered clutch.
More importantly, keep the air filter clean and maybe a new piston each fall and you are good to go. No more fast 50 clutch issues.

Watch Craigslist for boots. They come up now and then, cheaper than showroom and usually see minimal use cause kids grow so fast.

I wrote something that emails you when it finds things in your local craigslist. Right now I'm having problems with emails being blocked by spam filters, so it won't work right this moment. I hope to have that resolved before the end of the week. Since it's not my job, it takes longer to fix this kind of stuff.
Sign up, by the time a pair of boots shows up, it should be emailing again.
http://brewyou.com/clNotify