Moto on Budget - Tips & Where to Spend Your Money

Yep, people will get a revalve without a basic understanding of rebound, compression, sag etc. 

Should you get a revalve before an exhaust? 100%

Al Posey (NorCal Legend) said this when I was a teenager and asked him how to save money racing dirtbikes: this sport is about spending money, not saving it. 

Don't skimp on boots and helmets. Keep your bike mostly stock. You probably only need a Tacoma/Ridgeline, not a full-size truck, to get your bike to the track. 

Spend money on suspension, tires, and coaching. Those are cheaper than hospital bills the the USA, and will help keep you upright. 

Here’s my $2000 moto set up. 

The appeal of race tech to me is that for a great price I can have AT WORST a B+ suspension setup. Maybe Enzo could do better, maybe not. What I get with RT is the shim spec sheets and I like that a lot. 

01 250? Can't see the pipe.  It's an awesome bike!

RT rocks.  It helps a lot when you're ready for the revalves.  

For me, to truly enjoy moto the absolute best thing you can do is work on yourself and your conditioning. Best of all, that shit is free and healthy. 

For anyone not a kid you have to be in shape. In my early 30's I used to ride with my kids. We would ride sat and Sunday and fuck I couldn't walk right until Wednesday. Then I skip a few weeks, same shit. When your fat and out of shape riding mx is no damn fun. It also leads to mistakes. When those legs are too tired and your ass can't get up in time to leave a jump causing you to endo or air wheelie. It's time to get in shape.

A large majority of adults learning mx cannot ride a 4 lap race at whatever your race pace is.  Getting hurt and missing work is a sure fire way to get into a mess and have to sell all your shit.

And lastly, learn to do your own maintenance and repairs.

2000 YZ125, has 2001 OEM replica graphics though. I just bought a 2000 YZ250 to compliment it for $900. If you TRULY want to do MX on a budget, this is the way to go. It'll be my local MX setup all summer. 

Do not buy expansive pipes. Buy a top-end kit instead. 

I recently bought a FLEX pipe for my Husky 300TX and have really been impressed. 

If you did not know it - you would think its a FMF Gnarly pipe. Priced at under $200 - dang good deal IMO. 

Saved a bunch compared to PC and FMF, etc.

Last time I bought a new pipe for a 2 stroke I got taken out the first day with it at the track. Put a hole in it so I just put the old dented up pipe back on it and I still ride it like that. lesson learned

Perfect - cheaper reliable 2stroke, 5 gals of gas, socket set, boots helmet gloves goggles.

If you’re not worried about hitting a jump right out of a corner, then you can get a lot of mileage out of your rear tire. If you do good at the local races, a lot of times you can choose a trophy or a $credit at the local shop.

If you have to have a new bike, look for one several years older that’s left over. Otherwise get a good one on FB marketplace either blown up, or good shape. The point is to make as many laps on the track as you can (or through 5 gals of gas) or get seat time however you can.

I agree with your points, I feel for new riders though the maintenance side is already going to be a struggle? It can definitely be done on the cheap if your doing the bike work yourself but it takes years to aquire the knowledge and experience to know what to do or look out for. Nothing more disheartening than rocking up to the track as a beginner and having bike problems, I know from experience. 

You don’t know what you don’t know is the absolute perfect description for motocross haha. I cringe thinking back to my younger, dumber self but we all start somewhere and progress from there. Decoster has been going to the races for 110 years and I’m sure he is still learning as he goes! 

Marry a wealthy woman... learn to love her! 

You'll have your own factory ride. 

My First 2 questions are how green are you as a rider and how much do you weigh with gear on?

Gear Colors are always changing and there are tons of leftover gear colors out there so start with as high of a quality safety gear as you can.

Revalving can help on setup if needed but having proper springs and fresh oil is the best start. While servicing suspension go ahead and Frame the bike and greasing everything that moves and replace any worn out bearings.

Scrounge around the racers for used tires.

Buy tusk everything when available. Sprockets, air filters, etc

Only change air filter when dirty 

use rotella oil, don’t need to change before 10 hours 

93 pump gas fine 

Hide family in the back seat lol 
 

Yup,  Maintenance.   You cannot be in this sport for any amount of time if you cannot fix your own stuff.  Unless you just have massive disposable cash reserves.  Befriend the local old timers at the track and sponge knowledge off them.  Lock yourself in a room with Jay Clark tire changing videos on loop and do not come out until you can change your own tires with no issues!!!  😁

Skip nearly all bike performance parts. Get the stock suspension correctly set up and get the ergos comfy. Have a good helmet and the tools necessary to do your own routine maintenance. Then just ride and have fun. 

Bikes are so capable today. The vast majority of us don’t NEED anything more other than properly setting them up. Eventually the suspension needs freshening up with oil and seals and that is typically best left to those with experience. Have it valved (maybe) and properly sprung (if necessary) then. 

Edit: as shown above, an older YZ250 is a great place to start. Inexpensive to purchase, low maintenance, endless affordable parts availability, and it will not be the limiting factor on how fast you go. 

I’m pretty frugal when it comes to motocross - some Tusk products and tools I’ll give the nod to. 

JT sprockets and tusk gold chain has treated me well over the years.  Tusk chains are stamped Japan. 

Never. Ever. Ever. Pay full price for gear.  Fall has always been my best scores. 

I spend good money but never retail on helmets and boots. 

I think a 450 is probably the cheapest way to moto - premix adds up quick on the smokers.  (Huge fan of smoking though) 

OEM oils have always been a fair price in my opinion - ecstar, yamalube, etc

I'm hopefully near the end of my "racing on a budget" days but for the past 4 seasons I've funded a relatively respectable program in my book. Granted, before I go into this too deep, it should be acknowledged that coming out of high school, my parents gifted me one final race bike in their dime ('21 YZ250X) and I already had a truck (good ol' Ford ranger). Otherwise, from that point forward it was on me if I wanted to race while in college. At the time I felt like I was a solid mid pack B guy locally in the woods with potential to move to A soon and couldn't have imagined giving up racing. Moving up didn't ultimately pan out, at least not yet. At 22 now, I'm not sure if that's realistic anymore but I digress. Here's corners I cut that worked out:

I almost never rode the bike unless I was racing. Granted, I was racing pretty frequently until this past year so I never really got rusty. 

To continue trying to develop endurance, bike skill, etc I rode BMX or was in the gym at least 4 days a week. Much more affordable and even though nothing beats seat time, I feel like it helped keep me sharp.

Almost never went to a race alone, almost always carpooled, camped together to spread out food cost, etc. plus it's more fun to go racing with friends.

Closeout gear from previous model year when needed. Luckily, had a goggle hookup so that helped too but otherwise, I only got new gear when my old stuff wore out and I cheaped out big time on everything but helmet and to some degree, boots.

Bought whatever tires were on sale, and ran them as long as I got any semblance of traction. Luckily, I ride a ton of hard pack so until knobbies start chunking, it's pretty easy to stretch a tire. 10-15 hours on a rear was pretty realistic, I tended to run the IRC VE33 in the rear, and actually really liked it but the front tire IRC makes to match it left a lot to be desired.

Clean air filter every ride, no matter what, new chain and sprockets as needed, same with transmission fluid, and new top end annually. Otherwise I was not serious about bike prep. I do regret this a little bit because we have a lot of parts to replace over this winter and admittedly, after 2023 my bike was pretty hammered. Good news is that YZs are pretty affordable from a parts standpoint and my dad has hung up his riding boots for the foreseeable future. I ended up on his bike this season for the few races I could make it to this year while wrapping up college. It was eye opening how many things I just "rode past" on my bike that I should have done a better job at maintaining and replacing. Throttle tubes, cables, brakes, etc. honestly I was just making do with but probably to a fault. Will say that I got two seasons out of the YZ's clutch(roughly 120hrs) and only replaced it just in case. It still has life left in it, I'm not hard on clutches but still, I was impressed.

If I had to do over again, I would have spent more time on preventative maintenance, truthfully the parts I neglected were all pretty affordable in hindsight. I'm really excited to ride a bike that feels "tight" again when we get my YZ dialed in.

As an aside: I raced a bit of moto and Arenacross during this time as well. For what it's worth, entry fees were way more costly (raced 2-3 classes) but wear and tear on the bike was so minimal compared to a 2-3 hour woods race that I feel like it all kind of evened out on the back end but I never put one to paper on it. Would be curious if anyone else has.

Pic from my first season racing as an "adult" in 2021, I feel like the memories were worth being on a shoestring budget:

I bought a Suzuki, immediately saved thousands. Gotta get a skid plate, radiator braces right off the bat it’s cheap insurance. Gotta get a revalve/respring on any bike if you get out of second gear. At least service them. On a budget skip the bling/pipes/rims latest gear and spend that money on Highest quality chain, more oil changes, clean filters, tires. That titanium pipe isn’t doing shit with a slipping clutch, or bald tires, or blown form seals. You don’t need a 90,000 dollar truck to haul a dirtbike either. 

Dont waste your time and money changing your oil every ride or doing your air filter every ride. Modern 4 strokes with an average rider can easily go 5-8 hours with the an oil filter every other change. Two strokes can go double that use some descent synthetic and youll be all set. 

If you ride in dust you will probably have to change your air filter, if its not dusty at all you don't have to change your air filter every ride just look at it if its dirty then it probably needs changed. 

I reread most of this thread. I believe everyone is well intentioned with the air filter suggestions but we are missing it a little because we have the knowledge but can’t express it or don’t realize we aren’t saying it. 
Change the air filter(clean/re-oil) when it’s not tacky anymore. That happens for a variety of reasons. The big two are soiled and time. If you ride a lot and it’s not too dusty you may get several rides out of one but if you go several weeks between rides it may dry out and not be tacky anymore. Obviously explain to a new rider that air filters should be changed when dirty and dusty.