Dirt Bike Modifications Forum

Dirt Rider's Internet Bike Story

Who is in:
www.thumpertalk.com
www.crfsonly.com
www.dirtrider.net
www.ktmtalk.com
www.minibiketalk.com
www.dirtrider.com
(there is the possibility of a freestyle board, still pending)

Dirt Rider magazine has invited the above listed forums to participate in a bike build up, where the motorcycle that the members of each forum decide to build will be featured in an article in the magazine. Some boards are small and some are huge, hopefully we'll get an interesting mix of bikes for the story. The rules are pretty simple and as follows:

--We must have the finished bike delivered to us in Southern California no later than April 2nd.
--We will need the bike for 2 weeks to photograph and test it. The bike will be tested for the purpose it was intended. MX bikes on MX tracks and trail bikes on the trails. Don't try and out think us on where we are going to test. We promise to get the bike in its element. Build the bike that represents the members! It would be best if the bike were set up for an average sized guy of average ability level, say 180 lbs, intermediate ability, but this is not a rule.
--The bike and what is done to it must be decided in a single forum on message boards by members of the site. In other words, there must be a clear and easily locatable track history of what bike is selected and what is done to that bike. We will have an address to that form in the magazine so the Dirt Rider readers can look in on it themselves to see the history. You can use polls, votes, other threads to make decisions, but everything should be traced back into a single thread to make it easy to keep track of. It is up to the forum moderator to make the final decision on specifics, but it should be done in the forum (in public) for all members to see.
--You can use whatever parts and changes to any bike that your forum sees fit, there are really no hard and fast rules other than these:
Using the MIC published RPM numbers for sound testing and the SAE J-1287 test procedure,
MX bikes must be below 99db
Off-road bikes must have a Spark Arrestor and be below 96db
--Ideally the forum will first select the brand (very easy in some cases), then the model, the displacement, then decide how to make that bike the best it can be and show off the expertise of the members and what they believe is the best bike out there.

--Dirt Rider will not be shooting these bikes out or doing a comparison test with them. We will test them individually and show our readers what your forum thinks is the best bike out there.

So good luck and I'm really interested to see what shows up in April!

Jimmy Lewis
Editor
Dirt Rider Magazine

Guys,

This board always wants to have more say in the magazine, well here is your chance. Pay careful attention to the above post and it is up to this board to get a bike togther.

I will act as the moderator on this so go easy on me, I have a magazine to worry about!

The first question is: WHAT BRAND BIKE DO WE USE?

At first we can try this in this thead, maybe later the questions will be in another till they are resolved, then they will be brought back here.

Good luck, have fun, make us proud!

JIMMY

YZF DO YAMAHA

I think that a honda crf450r should be used because it's such an amazing platform to start from. I'm confused about the whold building thing too, is DR going to be actually building the bike with the parts decided on the forum?  

I am also confused. Are we (members of this forum) actually going to purchase a bike and the aftermarket parts, assemble it and ship it to SoCal?  

You guys decide amongst yourselves what the ultimate best dream bike would be, and we (Dirt Rider) will build it and feature it in the magazine, saying, "This is what the readers from Dirtrider.com built." Capiche?

You don't need to buy anything or build anything, all you (the members of this forum) need to do is design the bike. When all is decided, we'll build it.

So what y'all need to decide amongst yourselves is:
What type of bike do you want, motocross or off road
What color: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue or something exotic
What flavor: two-stroke, four-stroke
What displacement: 50cc - ???
What kind of bells & whistles: mods/aftermarket parts (this is the fun part)

Might I suggest starting at the top of that list and working your way down. But hey, it's your guys' deal. Do it however you want. Appoint a leader, elect a senate, bare-knuckle box it out, whatever! It's up to you guys to discuss and agree on a bike that we will build as the "Dirtrider.com bike."

Ohhh, so we figure everything thing out and you guys make the bike and test it? When I first read it, I thought that each board had to make the bike themselves and I thought to myself, "Who the heck is going to buy a bike so we can mod it?" But I think I get what you are saying.

I think our first quesiton is whether or not we are going to make a MX bike or a trail bike? We should make a hill climb bike. You know the ones with the 4 cylinder street bike engine in them with the huge swing arms. But I think we can only make either a MX bike or a trail bike. What do you guys think?

I think it should be an off road bike.  I think there are more trail riders (outside of CA) than motocross riders, and I would like to see what the best off road bike could be.  There's my two cents.  

well, the decision that needs to be made would be mx or woods bike(off road). we can always go off road with a bike that would also work well on an mx track for an intermediate rider. KTM is the first that comes to mind. DR said themselves all you need are handguards. I say we go for a off road bike because everyone has there own favorite on mx. In the woods the equipment and accessories will make the difference. it would be more challenging.  

My vote is a 2005/2006 YZ-250 2-stroke with a 265/285 big bore kit.  The big bore kit would allow it to run with the 450F's (likely run in front of them) while retaining the 2-stroke virtues of light weight, flickability, and snap.

The 265 would make a good bike suitable for off-road or MX (amateur).  Add a good suspension re-work by Pro-Circuit (Factory Connection, Race Tech etc) and with minimal work we have a killer bike.

If we are talking Pro MX, then stick with the 250 and have a complete engine build by Eric Gorr or Pro-Circuit (or ??).

Additional details can be addressed depending on budget.

Also,

Look at the dates, this thing has to be wrapped up on the discussion board in about two weeks to give us time to get the bike and build it up. Most liklely it will be one of our existing test bikes and we'll arrange to get all the parts.

All of the other forums participating are doing the same thing, but they ARE getting thier own bike. We decided to include our own board to give you guys (and this forum) some exposure. So I hope to decide about one question a day. Today lets work on brand of bike and then start thinking about type of bike for tomorrow. At first this will be easy cause the questions are simple, then as it gets more popular the the decisions get tougher, it might turn into a mess.  

JIMMY

What is the budget anyways? Are we going to go with a MX off road bike, or are we going to go with a trail bike like a WR, CRFX, etc? I think if we are going to build a strictly trail bike, then we should go with KTM. If we are going to go with a MX trail bike, the YZ250 is the way to go. Keep in mind that KTM has a lot of bikes for off road to choose from that all preform really well. Is there a possibility that we are going to do a four stroke MX bike? What do you guys think? MX trail bike or a stricly trail bike. And dont think that the strictly trail bikes are slow becuase they aren't.

I think you should build the first 150f MX bike. Use like a yz85 frame, and then mod the crap outta a tt-r125 engine and see if you can get it to compete. Just my idea.

Honda  

I think a trail bike that has the ability to do some mx track is a good idea. My vote is for a trail bike.