Buy New! or continually improve your Dirtbike

I take really good care of my bikes. I send my suspension in to get serviced, I do all the bearings when needed etc. I am overall pretty good with keeping my bikes nice. That being said, even with all the maintenance in the world, nothing feels like a freshie. 

I’ve held onto my bike for several years. It’s an 01 CR 250. With parts availability becoming the biggest issues, I’m finally looking at purchasing something new. I’ve done my best to keep it up but, it’s becoming  a bigger headache each year. 

At the end of the day, it’s still a 23 year old bike. 

Yeah at some point parts become an issue. This is my wifes 90 CR250. It's one of my old race bikes. I've tried to get her on a new or even new(er) bike but she wants no part of it. "I love this bike just keep it going" A couple years ago it needed a cdi, after tons of searching we found one on ebay and luckily it worked. Now the bottom frame rails are looking thin, I'm not sure how to tackle that problem yet.  Tell you what though this thing starts 3rd or 4th kick after sitting for months and idles like it's brand new. She lugs and tractors it around in too a high a gear and it never fouls plugs, has never been finicky, it runs good at sea level and runs good in Kennedy meadows at 8,000 feet. She loves it, and I love it too cause it save me thousands that I'd have to spend on a new one LOL. That bike has given us a lot of "Yuck for our Buck" and owes me absolutely nothing. This weekend it had sat for quite awhile, the gas smelled funky and varnishy, I poured in some fresh gas, kicked 3 or 4 times and it settled into a beautiful idle pang pang pang pang. I keep my bikes for several years but not that many. For a 34 year old bike it runs great.    

I stocked up on a bunch of oem parts when I first got the bike. I have two large Rubbermaid containers and, several boxes full of parts stashed. Oem bearings, clamps, radiators, hardware, coils etc. None of that matters if I need to replace  power valve or, tranny parts. Aftermarket stuff is often a gamble.  

For kicks, I went through eBay and priced out all NOS OEM radiator hoses. Most of those are NLA.  After copying  and, pasting part numbers on eBay, the hoses totaled to over $250! 
Price gouging is a big thing with old bike parts as well. I threw a Kickstarter in the basket that was in stock figuring it would be ok waiting for the weekend. Went back and, they were no longer available. I decided to check eBay. NOS OEM Kickstarter in stock at nearly double the cost it  was on RMATV. I love my 01. I won’t sell it but,
it certainly gets old looking at the parts interchange, networking and, scrounging for parts. 
 

Hanging on to an old bike is a lot of FN work.

2 years is it for me. I’ve either gotten sick of the bike or freak things start to break and I can’t risk an untimely malfunction. I had a 2020 crf450r after an 18 and 19 crf450r that I absolutely adored. It was my best bike to date, kyb kit suspension XPR vortex and xtrig 24mm clamps. I planned on keeping it replacing wear parts but for a 2 month stint it was one random thing after another going wrong with the final straw being the back hub breaking coming up short on a tricky section nearly tossing me over the bars. I never rode that bike again and of course none of my parts fit the 21+ CRF plus Honda didn’t really improve much from the 20 so I bought a yz450f instead. 

I love that both those Hondas have the Pro Honda Oils sticker right at the front of the front fender - right where it should be.

Right there with you, love to see it 👍

Two years for me as well. Can still get some decent money for a two year old bike and about that point things start to need more attention than I have time for. 

I bought my 03 CR125 for $900 a few years ago, and another one again for $900. Parted out one and in the end got a free bike, fully rebuilt. But as others have mentioned, parts are less common and I am getting more problems now. It is probably due for another overhaul.

Went and picked up a brand new CRF250R and it is the best. Amazing bike. The riding experience is so much more enjoyable. I love the 125 but the 250 is such a better bike; no amount of work would get it to the same level. And I would have purchased second hand however the prices are sky high; rather spend an extra grand and go new. Also, Honda offered $1200 off.

Kind of the same boat as Chance, have my 2002 CR250R I bought new. Never did a lot of mods, just kept it up and did some minor tweaks to it over the years. Fairly low hours too. I love that bike, but I need to do a crank seal on it. Checked the crank, clutch plates, stuff like that, everything is still in spec but do you just do it while it's apart or run the old stuff because it's probably still as good or maybe better than what's around?

But yeah, she's still old enough to take to the bar.

I’ve been just maintaining mine. I had a few new 450’s that I put many hours on (‘06, ‘11, ‘17)…but I found myself loading the old ‘93 250 up about half the time. Decided to sell the 450 and just enjoy the old bike. I’m old and slow…and the two-stroke is just more enjoyable to ride in my opinion. 

I seem to get a new bike every 3-6 years, sell it while its still relevant and low hours and onto the next one. I usually buy the new one during biggest rebate time and so forth as well so I'm getting good deals on em. 

That's awesome!!!!

Every 2 years (about engine 50 hours). I stay on the Japanese 4 year update cycle, get good money for my bikes when I sell them, and don't have to worry about big repairs, or random stuff starting to break. 

Both?

So you buy 2 "current gen" Jap bikes every 4 years?

Neither. I buy a bike, get it dialed in and run it with basic maintenance for 5-8 years. Then I’ll get a new one, and usually keep the old one for a few more years before selling or sometimes just giving it away. Makes new bike day kinda different, I get really accustomed to the old one and can’t really trust the new one for a few rides. But I totally get my money’s worth out of a bike.

My bike's already 5 years old and has 150 hours on it. When I bought it I was planning on 2 years, but it's only issue so far has been the OEM fork seals leaking at 20 hours. Some HD SKF seals and no issues since. I'll hopefully get a new bike for for the 25 model year, we'll see how things go this year!

Yup. EG got my 2022 CRF250R for 9,000 OTD. Will sell it for 7,000 once winter is over. I am even selling the FC linkage and suspension to someone who is going to swap it out for stock stuff for $1,000, so not much loss for that upgrade. Was stock otherwise. 

50 hours is when I would want to do a top end, clutch, suspension service. I can do the clutch, but nothing else, so cheaper to sell and have new everything. 

Might not be for everyone, selling bikes these days is annoying, but overall it works for me. 

Interesting. I would just buy the first or second year of the current gen and run it until the next gen comes out. 

But if you have the means then go for it I guess. 

I have several older bikes that I have restored to ride/ race but with my modern bikes, when I get around 100-125 hrs, 1 season, I sell them & get new… I don’t want to get into crankshaft’s, valves and transmission rebuilds on my modern bikes..I know a new bike is not going to make me one iota faster than the last bike, but I”m in the twilight of my riding days, no time to wait for parts or repairs if I can help it…

Oh yeah, don’t buy the first year of a new generation KTM. They’ve gotten way better, but history shows that they’ve built some shiny turds in the past and it takes a year to figure out what’s needed to make them work right. 

I get a new bike every 1-2 years  the last 25 years. Since 2021 i stayed with a Husquarna TC 300 which is a great bike with some modifications.Think i keep the Carburated Husky for another few years because i dont want a TBI 300 

I changed my mind as i start to collect older bikes , and saw that i‘am not that much faster on the 2021 TC 300 like on a 27 Year old KTM  360 SX , so no need the latest Bike every Year 

The old two strokes must be kept and preserved at all costs. 

With the EFI four strokes, the issue is that they all still feel pretty good til about 100 hours. Then all bets are off.

Then you have three ugly choices: keep running it and pray, a pricey preventative rebuild, or sell/trade at a pretty big hit.

The older I get, the more I lean towards option #3. 

I'm still riding a 2011 a new bike is not going to make me $12k worth of faster ones it's all said and done.  Framed it a couple years ago and freshened everything up but it's not like the 90s where we got one every other year.

The last new bike I owned was my 2006 CRF450, and I still have it. It is getting a full engine rebuild at the moment. I also have a YZ125 which has also just had a full rebuild, the only parts that were reused were the cases and transmission. All genuine parts were used in the build. My other bike is a 2016 YZ250 that is like new to ride. I don't ride enough these days to justify buying a new bike, plus I am loving being back on a smoker.

You need the double boost port for the 125. Pro125? Help this guy out. 

This is why I am addicted to the bike builds category here on vital. So many awesome builds going on. Particularly this guy, he’s nuts!

https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/bike-builds/1992-roller-1993-1994-1995-1…

First year Honda’s have had the most issues in recent years vs any other brand. Kawi as well. 

Good thread. I have been an every 2 year guy for the last 10 years, but with the lovely state of CA doing some different registration BS, 2021 will be year round bike etc. Has made me hold off an keep my 2021 while I save up a few to keep 2 bikes. Also, Kawi got rid of there 0% 12 month offer which was awesome! Any other 0% from other brands. Cheers.