tonedeaf
have tires will ride
So I just finished Kevin Anderson's dirt bike camp up at his ranch in Orland. AWESOME!! I had such a blast with my friend it was ridiculous. Since he didn't have any other camps scheduled for December, he was willing to take just me and my friend for a whole weekend! Imagine it.....me and my best mate, both 23, and new to dirt bikes but NOT new to riding two wheels fast 
, the entire property to ourselves and the instructor, 5 different bikes to ride as we pleased....it was the greatest weekend of my life. He had a decent flat track oval, but mostly a maze of MX type stuff....berms of all sizes, jumps from tiny kickers all the way to 60 foot tabletops, everything from hard-pack clay to soft tilled soil, MAN it was epic 
we tried out all of his bikes, and here are the memorable ones I rode:
-ttr125 four-strokes, bone stock
-ttr125 fours, race prepped (upside down forks, upgraded shocks, engines uncorked)
-125 two stroke Yamaha (STRAIGHT UP EVIL...)
-husaberg 501, one of the originals, from the first year they made them in the KTM factory
-DRZ-400
I thought I'd spend most of the weekend swapping around pretty evenly between all his bikes, to get a feel for them....not true. I tried them all out, gave them some good time, but I was basically married to that race-prepped 125f the whole time. I was far faster on it than any of his other bikes. WOW it is so fun to have a moto the size of a mountainbike, that I can throw around, jump in complete control, etc. When i got fast enough that the bike wouldn't pull me hard enough out of corners, I just started learning to go into the corner way too fast, and just whack the throttle and slide the rear end until I pointed out of that corner, dammit! That felt a hundred times faster than tip-toeing around on the husaberg 501. That thing is a fire-breathing monster. but even a 125 has enough power to drift around and all that. The drz-400 is super heavy and nicely-powered, I can see that being a good dual-sport, street legal. the 125 two stroke.............PURE EVIL. I have never been more frightened by a bike (or exhilarated in a good way!!). Now I understand all the talk about two-strokes.......and thinking of the old-days of motogp, a two-stroke 500 that makes over 200hp
that makes my stomach clench.
So now I really want a bike to go play in the dirt, I'm pretty positive I'm going to buy one in the next few months. On one hand, I'm thinking about a DRZ-400SM, all the caveats of that, blah blah......but on the important other hand, I'm thinking about pure-bred dirt only bikes I'm thinking about having something small and mean to go play at carnegie or other parks....
I liked the TTR125 with inverted forks. I could get really good on it. I'm worried about outgrowing it super fast though. I understand that any dirt bike will go as fast as my skill can make it go.....but if I was ripping around like that after only one weekend, I think I should get something a liiiittle more...advanced. I did NOT like how tall and heavy the larger bikes were....I don't want or need a gnarly 400/450. Kevin told me to stay away from 250f's though, because they are super expensive to maintain....is this true?? seems like it would be just the bike I'm looking for, two times the motor of the 125 I really liked, and that four-stroke power band. so much control! The other side of the coin....I could get a 125 smoker If I learned to control that beast, I would be a freaking pro.
which would you get, in my position?
, the entire property to ourselves and the instructor, 5 different bikes to ride as we pleased....it was the greatest weekend of my life. He had a decent flat track oval, but mostly a maze of MX type stuff....berms of all sizes, jumps from tiny kickers all the way to 60 foot tabletops, everything from hard-pack clay to soft tilled soil, MAN it was epic we tried out all of his bikes, and here are the memorable ones I rode:
-ttr125 four-strokes, bone stock
-ttr125 fours, race prepped (upside down forks, upgraded shocks, engines uncorked)
-125 two stroke Yamaha (STRAIGHT UP EVIL...)
-husaberg 501, one of the originals, from the first year they made them in the KTM factory
-DRZ-400
I thought I'd spend most of the weekend swapping around pretty evenly between all his bikes, to get a feel for them....not true. I tried them all out, gave them some good time, but I was basically married to that race-prepped 125f the whole time. I was far faster on it than any of his other bikes. WOW it is so fun to have a moto the size of a mountainbike, that I can throw around, jump in complete control, etc. When i got fast enough that the bike wouldn't pull me hard enough out of corners, I just started learning to go into the corner way too fast, and just whack the throttle and slide the rear end until I pointed out of that corner, dammit! That felt a hundred times faster than tip-toeing around on the husaberg 501. That thing is a fire-breathing monster. but even a 125 has enough power to drift around and all that. The drz-400 is super heavy and nicely-powered, I can see that being a good dual-sport, street legal. the 125 two stroke.............PURE EVIL. I have never been more frightened by a bike (or exhilarated in a good way!!). Now I understand all the talk about two-strokes.......and thinking of the old-days of motogp, a two-stroke 500 that makes over 200hp
that makes my stomach clench.So now I really want a bike to go play in the dirt, I'm pretty positive I'm going to buy one in the next few months. On one hand, I'm thinking about a DRZ-400SM, all the caveats of that, blah blah......but on the important other hand, I'm thinking about pure-bred dirt only bikes
I'm thinking about having something small and mean to go play at carnegie or other parks....I liked the TTR125 with inverted forks. I could get really good on it. I'm worried about outgrowing it super fast though. I understand that any dirt bike will go as fast as my skill can make it go.....but if I was ripping around like that after only one weekend, I think I should get something a liiiittle more...advanced. I did NOT like how tall and heavy the larger bikes were....I don't want or need a gnarly 400/450. Kevin told me to stay away from 250f's though, because they are super expensive to maintain....is this true?? seems like it would be just the bike I'm looking for, two times the motor of the 125 I really liked, and that four-stroke power band. so much control! The other side of the coin....I could get a 125 smoker
If I learned to control that beast, I would be a freaking pro.which would you get, in my position?
)