need advice on move up from jr 50

If he's going to be racing and budget is not an issue, the KTM is the way to go. Otherwise you need to determine how much bike he can handle without hurting himself, so that you don't keep upgrading every six months. The crf50 is an easy step, and you can upgrade it as his ability improves. I would agree, you should consider having a race bike and a woods bike, as they serve two distinct purposes. The PW80 would make a great woods bike, and they can be found dirt cheap, but the suspension is lacking for racing, and it may be too big of a step at this point. Worst case scenario, he would grow into it in a year or 2.

The air cooled KTM would be fine, my son used his in a very similar way and it was quite reliable. I believe that Gomer's son also in on one and the only real thing that will crop up will be the auto clutch engagement adjustment.

The senior adventure would be a great bike for your son unless he gets serious about mx racing. If he does, I'd look at the Pro Jr or Pro Sr. The Sr Adv. can be modded with bigger carb, lc pipe, jetting and clutch washers to increase the horsepower but it still won't match the hp of the LC bikes.

CRF50 for 5 or so months (then becomes dads pit bike) and if your going to any KTM,Polini,LEM (left out cobra, no Rec models) go liquid cooled so your not limiting yourself right off the bat. Soon enough he'll be using every bit of that bike.

Might I suggest the Cobra motorcycle. It dominates the racing scene nationally. Not really a trails bike though. The two are different beast's. www.cobramotorcycle.com for info. www.cobratalk.com and while your at it www.ktmtalk.com

There are ways to tame down the Cobra inexpensivley. My 4 year old went from the pw50 to the cobra CM with some adjustments i made. I recently sold a used King cobra to a beginner coming off a few months of xr50 under his belt. he was spooked by the hard hitting clutch. we dropped a 1/2 turn throttle and adjusted the clutch. Then when they are serious about racing its an easy step to a racer instead of buying a new bike.

Jeez, imagine that coming from a Cobra dealer. Next well be reading about how dominate they are at Nationals. :worship: I was curious how long it would take before someone talked about how GREAT there brand is. :bang:
They want to ride, who cares what it is.
Had to edit the post after further reading, you did mention Nationals.

Relax, after all he did say that it wasn't a woods bike. Cobra is a great brand. I wish I could afford one. I still think the senior adventure is the best bike for mx, woods, play, etc. The honda has good reliability and almost no maintenance but it has no where near the suspension of the KTM or Cobra. If you are strictly woods riders you couild look at the TTR90 or CRF70

jeez I just suggested they consider another brand. cobra took 36 of the availible 40 top 5 spots at nationals this year in jr class and over 1/2 of the sr class spots. Every LL national since the late 90's...really the list goes on. Pretty dominant, not an opinion, a fact.

Jarvis mentioned getting more trophies. those are obtained by winning. So logic says if you want more trophies you want the bike best suited for gaining said trophies.

Also I did post some links to not only cobra websites but the biggest ktm website on the planet.

I feel very strongly that if someone wants to race then before dropping $3k on a bike they should do some research. I'd bet that the guy never heard of cobra til it was mentioned here, I know I didn't when we started racing. I just started seeing these yellow bikes killing us. I don't hide the fact that I'm a Cobra dealer because I feel confident that once someone does real research they will probably go with a Cobra. I don't say take it from me i say take it from the 26000 members of ktmtalk and cobratalk.

While we're at it there is a www.lemtalk.com which I feel is the second best bike out there above the KTM. it uses the morini s6c motor and looks nice, has nice suspension.

Sorry I really don't know how more polititcally correct I could be short of not saying anything which isn't an option. People should be allowed to hear there are options out there. I didn't even point the guy to MY website. Would what I have said be different if I took the tagline off my signature that said "authorized cobra dealer" What I said was no different than freighttrane saying the "ktm was the way to go" its their opinion. My opinion is jarvis should consider another bike. There are two options out there better than the ktm IN MY OPINION.