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I'm gonna hijack this thread for a moment to whine from my brokie woods guy perspective.
It's a damn shame that you can't buy a bike like the XR250R from a major manufacturer anymore.
While yes the CRFF, TTR, KLXs all exist; they are all ultimately play bikes. They are awesome at existing as neglected machines that get drug out every once in a while to put around, and they are bulletproof. Still great fun. Glad they exist. Can even be great fun if ridden hard. Hence vintage motocross classes, people like Torture Test Magazine & Carson Brown wringing the necks of these bikes, yada yada yada.
However, I'm disappointed you can't get something in between those bikes and a WRF or CRFX/RX. You just cannot purchase an air-cooled 4T with a whiff of performance from the factory anymore. Bikes like the XR250R, TTR250, DRZ250 are just non existent. Unless... You dip into the Chineseium. GPX and AJP sell basically exactly what I am asking for. GPX imports fully Chinese bikes, and AJP uses Chinese engines. Not really willing to take that step.
The KLX300R is very close, but it's heavy and complex relative to the XR. Very close.
I agree and have posted before that my 1984 Honda XR200 that i had when I was 14 is a far superior bike to my 2008 Yamaha TTR230. The suspension on the TTR is so dissapointing.
By that worn out, regurgitated illogic are you getting groceries and picking up your crocheting yarn with your 2026 motocross bike?
Someone in China is going to see this thread, and 81 YZ465s are going to appear. Then the ideological conundrum will be "my bad ass new vintage bike vs. Chinese pot metal child labor trash"
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Speaking as a 70 year old who started racing in 1972, it is physically painful to ride these bikes. Especially if you are tall - they are like minibikes. I sold my Bultaco Pursang recently after 36 years and racing AHRMA because I knew I would never ride it again. They were fun at the time, and AHRMA was fun for awhile, but new bikes are fun and they don't hurt.
So NO - I am not "in".
I'd be more interested in more manufacturers building bikes like Honda'd CRF250 f which is basicaly a modern XR200r/XR250r.
Yea but also not. They need better suspension IMO. I'm glad they still get made at the price point that they do, but they should be at least a little better. We need a modern Japanese air-cooled 4t designed for the intermediate adult. Not just the beginner adult or teenager.
All this is a fancy way to call myself a fatass.
Like this?
Why do you keep posting pictures of 300 pound enduro bikes with liquid cooling, fuel injection and electric start? I'm pretty sure that's the polar opposite of what OP had in mind.
It's air cooled and lighter than an XR400, guess I need to keep posting to help get the word out 😆
I think it’d be funny if they made those and kept updating them 😂 One manufacturer adds electric start, then disc brakes, etc.. progress is always moving forward, even when stepping back
Amen brother - I wouldn't give the good times and the bikes from the 70's up for anything but after riding a modern bike, in particular a modern 4-stroke - I'm not in.
Although I'd like another crack at my 81 yz250 knowing what I know now.
No, but I would be all in on a current-year Suzuki RM250 or Honda CR250R. They wouldn’t even have to reinvent anything, just bring back the same bike, update the plastics and graphics, slap a 2028 VIN on it, and I would buy one.
I know Honda will probably never do it, but I honestly don’t understand why Suzuki doesn’t just dust off the 2008 RM250, freshen up the look, and put it back on showroom floors. I really think they would sell a ton of them.
I've got more into fixing up my 1992 KDX that I trail ride instead of my modern race four strokes than a new GPX300 would have cost.
Trying to find parts for older bikes is getting harder and harder because they are just getting older and older.
I'm thinking about picking up a 79 KX250 off a friend that is mostly but definitely not all there. Parts? Oh man is that going to be a bitch.
what's interesting in the play bike line is how mfg like Honda have taken the XR200 from a decent enduro bike, to a complete foo-foo bike.
There are certain years in the 90s that are the "best" in terms of suspension travel (albeit with spindly 36mm forks). I had an e-start CRF230 that was a tank. Sold it and bought a '97 XR200.
Like the 350's don't have a proper MX class around them, I think the manufacturers could build a 350 air cooled two stroke, kickstart, steel frame, lightweight - not restricted by AMA weight restrictions for the formal 250,450 classes. Something fun, simple, lightweight. Easy to upgrade.
I'm just not interested in a heavy pig of a trail bike, water cooled, electric start. I just want to have fun and simple is better.
If I get off my ass when I retire I will probably make myself what I want to see if I really like it.
https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/omdo/products/dt/
In my 45+ years of owning and driving my own cars, I have never had a power window come off the track, summer or winter. I have had 2 issues with crank windows, but that's less a statement about the crank windows and more of an issue of me buying a 40+ year old vehicle that was r-o-u-g-h everywhere, not just the windows. The entire manual system needed to be rebuilt due to age and weather, not because it was crank.
If we could have hit the pause button on when the production bikes were reasonable and the aftermarket could be used the most to make them much, much better for the fastest racers, I think it would have been 1977ish to 1980ish.
Remember when you could order a bike from DG, and get one of their mechanics at your first race with it? Crazy stuff. Or you could ride the bike virtually stock in a beginner class without having to spend several wheelbarrows of cash to do it.
Pit Row
Was it Jody in MXA who said he didn't want to race his 1974 Bultaco in 1975, why would he want to ride it now?
I do think there is space in the market for stuff like the old XR's, but now even whan a manufacturer says they're building something to be fun to ride the first things people start asking about is how to mod the engine into a fire breather with the lifespan of a bottle rocket and where to get A kit suspension for it, neither of which 90% of us can really even ride.
It's difficult to explain to how much I lusted after those DG race bikes. I never wanted anything as much before or after that time.
If I could take the money I have now and send it back to my 12 year old self it would be wild to have one of those DG racers.
You're missing the point, they don't want to ride old tech bikes, they want everyone else to be on them, the tracks to accomodate them, and the riders to be limited by them.
The 12 year old revving them out of the way isn't because they've become old, it's because the bikes are too good.
That's why the bikes they claim they want DO exist, but they will continue to find reasons to write them off. It was never about the bikes.
Grew up on the Mid 70's bikes. Was a great time to be in the sport of Motocross then and still is today. I have a serious collection of older bikes and parts are out there. Some are pricey, but no more than the modern bikes electronics and suspension. If you are thinking you need to get shot at the current AMA Champions, by all means the Vintage Bikes are not the path to stardom. Vintage racing is fun. I enjoy the older bikes, finding and working on them. There is a reward in the fruits of your labors. IT is safe to say that both disciplines of the Motocross Racing are excellent to participant in. Happy Trails all
same thing happens when a manufacturer builds a bike no one buys.....think about it
would have loved to have owned the Moto-X Fox RM125B back in 1977....
maybe even today 😁
Everyone keeps mentioning the low maintenance of these simple bikes but I can guarantee you if you are actually racing these things at a decent pace you are going to break way more shit than you are on a modern bike.
My 2023 300XC has 100 hours on it and all I do is tires, air filters, gear oil and brake pads, service the suspension every 60-80 hours and you have a reliable bike that you aren't wasting a $50 entry fee when your bike breaks lap one.
People really do poo poo the reliability of modern motorcycles for no reason.
The Internet has fried our brains in that way. Every unlucky sap who has a wheel explode, front sprocket come loose, weirdo electrcal issues, etc runs to social media to bitch about it immediately. Not that they are wrong for that, you just now hear about the small percentage of people that have unexpected problems.
This isn't really true for things like the triumphs with genuinely widespread issues, but it's easy to start thinking all modern bikes are trash just from reading social media. Back in the day you just never heard about it outside of stories from buddies.
I think I led folks down the wrong path a bit. My original question should probably been more along the lines of would you be interested in a racing series/bike that was lower tech, cost less, but produced with modern materials and manufacturing techniques and raced on tracks that were appropriate to the level of suspension? What got me to thinking about this was a track I recently saw that had been laid out for e-bikes. While they're not my thing, the track itself would have been awesome on an old school bike.
I have this track at my house. If someone built a real MX track like this, id ride the shit out of it!!
Vintage motocross series that allow air-cooled 4T from any year of production allow for this. I think that's the closest thing you have to this that currently exists. However, we are just not quite there. A lot of times the air-cooled 4T are mixed in with all the 90s bikes, and you'll never really be all that competitive on a current production air-cooled 4T vs any 90s MX bike.
I think a pit bike/trail bike series would be awesome. Lots of events near me have trail bike classes, but they are also age classes for kids.
While it would be totally awesome if you could buy new production 70s esque mx bikes, I think it's something we could do with what we already have. The suspension tech on most of the true "trail bike" class has actually gone backwards pretty significantly since the late 90s.
Something there I think...
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