Small Motorbike, any suggestions?

Sorry, kids are 4, 11 and 14...so anything aimed more for the 4 and 11 yr old that others could use would be good, even if the 4 yr old has to wait a bit longer

Glenn,
Are you going to put it on the front of the Trak Shak or where ?
Cheers ,
Willie .

I have a slightly off centre idea for you. The modern electric scooters are made for adults, have good power, kids will be able to go anywhere on them, you dont need to carry 2 stroke, just charge it from your inverter, no noise or pollution (good for caravan parks at night) they are very safe and easy to use, and best of all you can throw a helmet on and go down to the shops to get your supplies without a licence, i think you need to be over 12 or something. also they fold up really well and you can store them in the cabin with out the fume smell. i have a lot of time for these modern units and i have a model called the vego sx600 floating around my gararge at home which gets a bit of use in the summer.

Hi GAJM,

Normally I would have said to go for something like a Honda XR100. They will take an adult at a pinch but small and reliable for the kids. They are still selling at about $2500 for a mid nineties model.

But last weekend I saw advertised in our local paper some brand new imported motorbikes that seemed quite cheap so we went and tried them out.

We have 9000 acres bordering 50,000 acres of state forest so we do some pretty serious riding and my older son now has a Suzuki RM250 but for the smaller kids, we have had had things like Honda CR80's etc. but they cost a lot of money and the kids just grow out of them too quickly.

The bikes we looked at were about the size of a normal 80cc motorcross bike but they had a 4 stroke 125cc engine. They had monoshock suspension and disk brakes and all of the goodies. One model even had electric start. They ranged in price from about $800 through to $1149 for the top of the range one. I only looked at the 125cc range but he was also selling some 110cc bikes as well that looked pretty good.

I came home and did my sums on what it normally cost us to maintain our kids bikes and then when you sell them after a couple of years they have decreased in value by thousands. I figured I would be way ahead if we did no maintenance and threw it in the tip after 2 years I would still be ahead financially.

Even though they looked quite strong in their construction I wouldn't consider one of these bikes if they were used for serious jumping but it went really well with me on it at 110 kg's and it was just the right size for your 11yo and your 14yo.

I can't remember the brand name but there seems to be a few around. There are a lot on ebay and Thumpster seems to be the most popular. They were well supported with parts as the bloke who was importing them just buys a dozen extra bikes complete and strips parts off them as required.

We have an 8 yo coming up for a bike soon and this is the way I will go next time.

Good luck with your choice.

I will message again if I remeber the brand name.

Brett

G'day Gajm, there are a lot of smaller bikes around these days but with children the ages you have I'd go for a Yamaha TTR125 or the TTR230. Maybe the new Honda 230 would suit, they are all detuned in some way and if you find they aren't just see your dealer or make a restricting plate for the carby. Try and steer clear of anything to old it would have been thrashed by now. Hope this helps.
andy
ps don't buy a two stroke ....sure more power but the maintance could be a killer

I would avoid the cheapies that have come in from China of late. I read in a bike mag that they have all but banned the sale of these things in WA as every second mower shop was selling them with all but no backup. Dads were buying them for Christmas and by Boxing Day they were U/S.

If you can get your hands on a Honda Z50 minibike, those things are almost indestructible and nice and light. Not real good for jumping, but when I was a kid we had hours of fun on one. Going around the paddocks with a pair of 6" gangly teenagers riding 2up (looked like a spider coming down the road). They will do 60 but you need a long run up to get there.
Any of the Jap 80cc bikes will also do the job, just make sure you get a nice quiet pipe so they don't bleep off the neighbors. (Ahh the serenity..;-)

Honda XR100 would be good for the kid’s now but not much fun for you, Upgrading to a XR250 in a few years time would be a good move as the kid’s will outgrow the 100 and you will probably be looking for something with a bit more power too.

The whole XR range is as tuff as nails and require bugger all maintenance compared to the new 4 stroke bikes, where you are forever re-tuning and rebuilding.
A mate has a Husaberg 400 and sure it moves but he spends more time servicing it than riding it.

Forget 2 stroke, I know a guy that has one and he has to replace the piston like every 5Hrs, Bugger that!!

We have got all our kids xr hondas. Solid bikes and easy maintenance.
At present we have an xr50, xr70 and xr100. As a guide my 8 year old son rides the 70 (can still ride the 50 but a little big for it) and my 13 year old daughter rides the 100.
The age of your kids is a problem as the 2 older ones would be suited to the 100 but it would be 5-6years before the 4 year old could get a ride. The 70 and 80 would be too small for the older kids and too big for the younger one for 2-3 years. Looks like your going to have to get 2 bikes :-)
Our 2003 xr50 will be for sale soon if your interested. We are in Melb

Used to work for a guy who was a professional prospector. He had over AUD $150 million in the bank at the time and still and drove an early 70's petrol FJ45 Landcruiser - that settled the petrol vs diesel argument for me. His brother drove a petrol Hilux with a mid '70's kids Yamaha 80cc dirt bike on the back. Why??? Easy to lift off by yourself, 100% reliable and beats the heck out of walking. Didn't take long before I saw the reasoning behind it.

My first bike was a 1974 Honda XR75, great bike.

Defineatly steer clear of the chinese imports..cheap but very poor quality ..verging on dangerous with reports of steering heads cracking etc. I would reccommend something along the lines of the new Yamaha TTR230 electric start nice gentle power very good build quality and registerable so you could ride it on the road if you wished. My wife rides a Honda crf230 which is very similar to the yamaha but not registerable although I believe they will shortly release one. These will obviously be a bit big for your youngest. I would suggest that you need another bike to keep everyone happy pluse they will have a lot more fun chasing each other around. Perhaps a Yamaha ttr90 for the younger ones.
Cheers
saab

Another option could possibly be a postie bike. Cheap as chips and easy to find (used to be, until Postie Bike Racing took off), and easy to ride.

Andrew

Try No Limit in City rd South melbourne , The sell Bling Bling for cars and have some motor bikes there also cheap

gday gajm.
we just got our little ebay 50cc bike delivered today.
theres plenty of cheapies on ebay but most dont have any waranty even if its doa.
afterr looking throu motor bikes on ebay i typed in pee wee 50.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PEE-WEE-50-TRAIL-DIRT-BIKE_W0QQitemZ4585314368QQcategoryZ32074QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem.
theese are going for around $400 +$100 to bendigo about $70 to melb.
took 2 days to arrive.
3 month waranty.
suzuki engine.
i checked out all the steel work and looks to be very well built.
now to see if it runs .and fits in the back of the jack.
cheers and ill let you know how it runs

G'day Glenn,

Not a bike expert by any stretch of the imagination but here's my two cents worth.

We were looking for a couple of bikes for the kids and us to rat around on in the scrub. Were originally looking to get two postie bikes but they are too big for our younger children to sit on or lift, control, etc.

Ended up buying 1 postie bike at Pickles Auctions in Newcastle for $750 and registered it the following week. Cheap bike, tough as nails for just putting around in the bush, 3L/100kms or thereabouts. Centrifugal clutch means its a no brainer for the kids and their friends who come out for the day. Being registered means slightly less trouble if you are tempted to ride in places you should otherwise not be! Our 14 yr old can ride it no worries, even if it doesn't have the sex appeal of a motocross style bike. As he is just learning to ride I think it is fine for the time being.

Our kids are 14, 11 and 9 so the second bike had to be quite small in frame for the younger two to cope. We looked around for ages for a decent 50 or 80 but they were all close to $2000 or above and many had seen better days.

We had planned a trip to the snow with all the kids for one day. By the time we paid for clothing hire, snowboard or ski hire and lift tickets for just one day we would have spent the best part of $700, let alone food and accomodation. At the same time we were planning that trip we saw an add for a Jianshe 70cc bike and contacted the dealership in Newcastle. They were selling the 70's for $800 and we put it to the kids: do you want to go skiing for one day or buy a bike that we can use each weekend. They chose the bike.

We have used the bike frequently since its purchase and it has yet to skip a beat. Through a number of stacks the kids have broken a brake lever and bent the rear brake rod which we replaced, but otherwise it has been great. My wife and I can ride it, conservatively of course, and spare parts have been easy to get and very reasonably priced when compared to Honda parts, etc. Centrifugal clutch, 3 gears, top speed of about 40 - 50km/hr.

When buying the bike we too were concerned about the idea of it being an import, that others had questioned the build quality of the Chinese bikes, that chasing parts may be difficult and that its resale value might be very average. But we figured that even if we got 12 months out of it and sold it for $400 it was still better value than a day at the snow. Good luck.

Cheers, David

First of all find out where you can ride them legally.. not many places now without rego.. Cops did a bust locally last yr, $1200 on the spot fines for all unrego bikes.. Inc kids on PW's...