A commonly asked question is:

“I am a full size rider on a small bike, what should I get next?”

Ultimately, it boils down to personal preference, your abilities, and your goals. I wanted to go ahead and share my personal experience on this subject.

I started riding and racing when I was 16. At the time, I was 5’2 and 115lbs. I did school sports and wanted to do something else and fell in love with dirt bikes after my first race. I started out on a Honda XR 100. It was great bike. I then got a Yamaha TTR 125. I learned a ton on this bike and built a lot a lot of confidence. It was time for me to move up to a full size bike after a few years of racing. I tried out multiple bikes including a Honda CRF 150R, KTM 105, Honda CRF 230 and did not like any of them. The 150 was hard to start and ride. The 105 was hard to ride. The 230 was super heavy. My brother was getting ready to get a new Beta 250 so his bike was up for grabs. It was a 2008 KTM 250 XCF. I took it for a ride and knew instantly I could learn how to ride it. The bike was on the heavier side and I struggled to pick it up so that was a problem. I raced this bike for a little over a year. I ended up catching the bike on fire and it burnt down. My dad built me a Yamaha WR 250 while we waited for my new bike to come in. I hated the WR. It was hard to ride and felt like a heavy hog.

Finally my new bike came in about a month later! We are a Beta dealer and this was the first year for the all new Beta Xtrainer; smaller frame, lighter bike, mellow tractor like power seemed like the ultimate bike for someone moving up from a little bike and my dad wanted to use my to promote it! The first few times I rode it, I fell in love. Super easy to ride and start. My first race on it, I got the holeshot and had a blast. The first time I went to a super technical track, I hated it. But did learn it was not so much the bike, it was me. I was weak and small and couldn’t control the bike well. I started to workout and lift weights to get strong and everything changed. I figured out how to ride the bike and got many championships on that bike.

As my skills progressed so did my speed. I ended up getting a Beta 250 RR next and I stayed on 250’s for the next five years. I love two strokes and that’s what I always rode. Over time when I started to GNCC’s, I had in my head that I needed a four stroke so I got a Gas Gas 250F and the following year I got a Sherco 300 SEF and 250 SEF. Four strokes are really easy to ride but they are so much heavier. I felt like my overall bike skill went backwards because I couldn’t throw the bike around or save it when I made a mistake. If I did a mud race, I couldn’t get the bike picked back up. It was very problematic.

Towards the end of the last race season, I got a Beta 200 and ended up racing it at the last race, Ironman. I fell in love with this bike. It is lightweight, has good suspension, has tons of low end torque, and a confidence building bike. I have rode everything on it. Sand tracks, motocross, technical Missouri single track, Arkansas single track, Michigan hard enduro, NEPG’s, GNCC’s, literally everything. It is the do all bike! My speed, confidence, abilities have progressed significantly since getting on one. I do not think I would of experienced this on the four strokes.

This has been my personal experience but again everyone is different. If you have the opportunity to try other bikes before buying, I recommend it. Set up goes a long way also so do not mistake someone else’s set up for the mannerisms of the bike.