From pit bike MX to freestyle to riding around in the back yard, Honda’s XR50/CRF50 (renamed/restyled for ’04) seems to be taking over the world. Other bikes like Kawasaki’s KLX110 are also popular, but the venerable air-cooled Honda 50 seems to dominate the category. Take a look around the web and you can see that there are an incredible number of companies making trick parts for these little bikes – everything from simple triple-clamp/big bar sets to big-bore kits and long-travel suspension.
I saw a few modified XR50s in the Two Brothers Racing booth at a local 50 freestyle contest, one of which featured a BBR Motorsports aluminum perimeter frame ($2599.95 w/swingarm, shock, gas tank and exhaust) like the one shown above, powered by a Takagawa 124cc DOHC motor. BBR also sells a Super Pro Team Bike, which features a BBR Super Pro Aluminum Frame and Swingarm, upgraded suspension, bored-out motor, and more. The Super Pro Team Bike sells for $4999.95 – which is almost as much as a new 125cc MX bike! Even crazier bikes can be found, like the Foes Racing setup shown below.
Pit bike racing is popular among “industry people” and former pro racers like Guy Cooper, and many current pros play around on pit bikes in their spare time (Quiet, don’t tell the team managers). Many local tracks are now hosting pit bike races, with a host of classes to encompass everything from a bone-stock XR50 up to a long-travel, monster-motor works bike, as well as larger machines like the KLX110 and Yamaha TT-R125.
Of course, there are plenty of ways to hop up your pit bike on a limited budget, and with so many companies selling different variations of the same part, it would be easy to build a relatively unique and trick pit bike without breaking the bank. Perhaps many of the adults riding and modifying these pit bikes remember the era of super-trick works bikes in AMA MX and are trying to build their own tricked-out works mini. The question I pose to our readers is this: do you think these race-modified pit bikes are “cool” or “lame”? Should MD test some of these products for you, or do you think the whole pit bike craze is a passing fad and we should ignore it? E-mail me and let me know.
