A PIt Bike For My Son
For someone who isn't very mechanically minded, I sort of cringed when my 9 year old son came up to me a few weeks ago and told me that he wanted a motorbike for his birthday. Don't get me wrong, I get the importance of engines in a boys life, I just skipped that phase and went straight to the girls phase. I'm happy to nurture my sons sudden interest in motors in order to stave off that next stage, so I've been doing a little research online to try and get a feel for which direction I should take.
At this stage, it looks like a pit bike is going to be the perfect thing for him. He's only ridden a friends bike once before, and that consisted of 15 minutes of wobbling around the backyard, but that was a full sized dirt bike, and he looked really awkward on it. Eventually I'm sure there will come a time when we will need to upgrade hime to the real thing, but for now a pit bike seems like the perfect solution.
A pit bike is basically a smaller version of a dirt bike, smaller in size and in power. They became popular about 50 years ago, apparently being invented by pit crews in car races as a way to get around the tracks and pits easily and witht he speed that is required of them in that environment. Since then they have increased in popularity, and now have a hug loyal following. Most local communities have some sort of dirt bike group that you can join that regularly meet at bike tracks to discuss their motors and compete in races.
During my research, I also found a few really helpful community groups and forums that I was able to join and get a lot of information from. They have been really helpful in helping me decide what type of bike I am going to end up purchasing. One thing I learned is to be careful with Chinese models of these bikes. There are a couple out there that are OK, but the majority of them are cheaply produced, and will end up causing more troubles than they are worth.
So my son is going to be getting a 50cc pit bike for his birthday next month. This is the smaller end of the pit bike motors, but should give him enough power to get started. It was actually nowhere near as expensive as I thought it would be. I bought second hand, and it ended up only costing me $450. It was really helpful doing all the research beforehand, as I felt a lot more confident that I was getting something that would last a little while. Eventually I will look at upgrading him to a slightly more powerful machine, but for now I can be confident that he will be safe, yet still be able to staisfy his curiosity.
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I wish I would had one of these things when I was a kid.
I purchased my kids four wheeler for Christmas a few years back. They still ride them all the time.
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