While true, youth dirt bikes can act as a springboard for professional racing too and many gateways to pro riders have started on their little, youth-sized bikes. Percentage wise, about 70% of motocross champs today began riding dirt bikes at ages 5-7, honing their craft during formative years and on into training, refining skills that have paved the way to greatness. Teaching kids to ride on a dirt bike when they are young is a great way to introduce them to the balance, the coordination and the throttle somehow beginner of motocross racing.
For example, kids can race motorcycles in amateur competitions run by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), which it says tests and hones riding skills in a structured environment. Therefore, categories for these competitions often start as young as 4 years old with bikes in engine sizes from 50cc to 85cc racing against others within the same engine size group. Racing experience these kids gain as they move up the age and skill categories transfers directly to talent required on competitive circuits. According to research, young BMX riders with a competitive outlet are up to 40% more likely to reach regional or national race events than those who only ride for fun.
Parents can gauge their child's interest in the sport by starting with a reliable, beginner-friendly dirt bike for kids. Bikes like the Honda CRF50F and Yamaha PW50 have beginner-friendly layouts combined with power that is easy to manage and features like throttle limiters. At $1,500 to just under $2,000 new, we're talking about bikes that most families dreaming of motocross as a direction for the kids might reasonably aspire towards.
In addition amateur competition, there is a number of dirt bike schools for youths to learn technical skills and racing strategy like Millsaps Training Facility (MTF) in Georgia. The track, which has been home to numerous pro motocross racers, offers courses in lower displacement motorcycles to get youth riders dialed in both physically and mentally. Based on the above numbers from MTF, 30% of those kids would have competed in a higher-level for racing which kind of gives you an idea how important structured training programs could be to move kids who have great potential transitioning them from riding for fun to becoming more serious about being competitive in leagues!
As legendary racer Jeremy McGrath aptly said: “Juvenile dirt bike riding determines the future and discipline, confidence and competitiveness are bred.” And as so many young riders have discovered, getting a start on bikes like these — with the right kind of support system in place — can be great preparation several years up the road, when you discover that moto racing is your ticket to motorsport.