Help on picking bike

[trickster19]

I am trying to make a decision on what pit bike i should get i am looking at a 2003 xr 50 with full BBR front end w/ raised BMX handle bars, BBR gas tank and cap, BBR rear mono shock, big boar kit, BBR skid plate, rev box, mettle mulisha body kits, adult foot pegs and gear shift linkage for $700 or a brand new SSR125-C3 Pit Bike for $900 what bike do you think is more relaible, fastest, most accessories, ect.

Thanks

 

[Patman]

What do you want out of the bike? A stock XR50 might get boring pretty quickly and if you try to exceed the boredome it will soon start having parts fail from abuse. Streach, crack or broken frame or suspension pieces will be the first indicator.

As far as the knockoffs.... there are A LOT of them! (I have looked at many many offerings from Asia over the past couple years) It really will come down to you get what yo pay for with them. The horizontal engine in them poweres all sorts of wheeled vehicles in Asia and some are made to a higher standard than others just as with all the other pieces. It is not at all uncommon to hear of some of the lower end bikes sold with engine failure after a very short period of time or broken frames, suspension pieces, etc... The flip side is that there is also a growning number of quality bikes being offered. These bikes will pretty much exclusivly have Jialing, Lifan, or Zongshen engines even thought there are varying degrees of quality within each manufacturer these are the better quality power plants. Suspension on the better quality bikes from Asia is up to some reasonable abuse with some very good pieces available as well as some outright trash that is little more than a spring.

So if you want something to putt around on you have lots of choices and the Honda would be very good at this, if you want to get in to a little more aggressive riding then the options narrow and if you want something that is "near Honda quality" the options are VERY few.

Obviously the whole movement was based on the XR/CR50 so there are a lot of upgrades available. Many but not all of these will also work on some but not all knockoff bikes. The upside is that most of the better knockoffs we based on upgraded designs with bigger engines, better suspension (sometimes just visually!), etc...

My opinion? Decide what you want out of the bike then narrow down your selection. Typically a bike marketed primarily on the auction site will not be supported well even though it's inexpensive it can easily cost you more in the long run. A used quality knockoff on the other hand might be just what you need to be happy if being happy means a good bike that can take some aggressive riding for a lower price. I'm a bit biased so Pit Vipers are my choice but Pitsters are very nice also, outside of those two there's not much offered in the knockoff relm that impresses me. Mostly because they are quality bikes with good parts support and dealership distribution, something you won't typically find.

 

[trickster19]

Thanks