thinking about buying a bike

[450rRacer22]

wellll heres my situation...im 17 and i've rode quads all my life. i race my 450r in quad A, only thing is its so expensive. so im thinking about selling my quad and buying like a 250 of some sort. dont care what as long as its a 4 stroke. anyways, i've rode my buddies yz250f and i like riding it but i suck at it. the whole twist throttle just doesnt work so well for me. that was the first time i have ever ridden a bike. now, do you guys think that theres no way i'll be able to switch over to riding bike? or do you think its just gonna take some time gettin used to? i'd hate to sell my quad to get a bike and not be able to make the switch very easily. the reason i wanna switch over is cuz its just cheaper. i'd love to keep the quad and buy a bike to see if i can actually get used to it but thats not happenin. idk, right now im just kinda throwin ideas out there so anybody's opinion will be helpful.

[07250ex]

yeh i know how you feel you want both but u cant have boths so ur thoughts switch back and forth... i say get a bike and buy a thumb throttle =p

[Blue250X]

If you can get your buddy to let you, you should switch out between your quad and his bike for a day and see if you get used to it.

[honda300EXtreme]

i say stick with what you know....

[GPracer2500]

Of course you'll "get use to" riding a bike (although I admit I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that). Just don't expect the skills you've learned from quad riding to translate directly over to riding a bike. It's not like there will be some "adjustment period" and then you'll be just as good on a bike as you are on a quad. In many respects you'll be starting from square one. That's fine though.

[450rRacer22]

Originally posted by GPracer2500
Of course you'll "get use to" riding a bike (although I admit I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that). Just don't expect the skills you've learned from quad riding to translate directly over to riding a bike. It's not like there will be some "adjustment period" and then you'll be just as good on a bike as you are on a quad. In many respects you'll be starting from square one. That's fine though.
yeah buy getting used to it i just mean like the twist throttle and just being to ride decent. theres really one of the biggest problems i have with it is the twist throttle. out of no where i'll just twisted the living crap out of it and hold it wide open and cant stop myself. i'm so used to thumb throttle that when i ride with a twist it seems almost impossible. your opinions are helping guys keep them coming!

[mine]

If your racing the a class on a quad, you will regret buying a bike, ive been riding for almost 2 years now, (not play pit riding either) mx tracks, e-town,atco,breezewood, and I would probably say that i'm 60% comfortable on my bike. I ride once or twice a week, 50 weeks a year. Its not going to come easy, and dirtbikes just become so competitive so easy, after a while you will start kicking yourself as well as your parents for not getting you started at 5.

All in all, if you plan on racing, its not gonna happen with a good 2 years or so, and thats just the c-class. depending on where you're from, it might be longer. We have kids here in d6 doing 110ft camelback jumps on 85's.

[450rRacer22]

Originally posted by mine
If your racing the a class on a quad, you will regret buying a bike, ive been riding for almost 2 years now, (not play pit riding either) mx tracks, e-town,atco,breezewood, and I would probably say that i'm 60% comfortable on my bike. I ride once or twice a week, 50 weeks a year. Its not going to come easy, and dirtbikes just become so competitive so easy, after a while you will start kicking yourself as well as your parents for not getting you started at 5.

All in all, if you plan on racing, its not gonna happen with a good 2 years or so, and thats just the c-class. depending on where you're from, it might be longer. We have kids here in d6 doing 110ft camelback jumps on 85's.
yeah thats what im afraid of. keep the opinions coming!

[honda_524]

Currently I am in the same situation as you, but only I want to go from dirtbike to quad. I will tell you, dirtbikes can be just as expensive as quads. Just as "mine" posted, you will get really frustarted if you start racing them and aren't good. I started racing on my 85 when I was 15 and it gets frustrating when you are trying your hardest but can't seem to make any improvements. It will take a lot of time to get used to a dirtbike and they aren't as much fun as quads sometimes. For example, me and my friend were riding (my friend has a 400ex) it starts to rain and we head inside. We come out after it stops raining and go riding again. He is having a blast on his quad powersliding all over the place and I am stuck just puttin around because I don't want to fall. All and all I think you shuld stick with quads.

[cr977]

dude dont switch, i switched to dirt bikes years ago and i am still kicking myself, i would probably be an a class rider on a 450 by now if i would have stayed on quads versus a begginer racer that may or may not be going somewhere.:( i wish i would have stayed on quads so bad, dont switch it took me a year before i even got comfortable on a bike, i was not good until i had been riding bikes for 2.5 years then i said screw it and got another quad. i have a buddy who bought a 400ex rode it for a year decided it wasnt fast enough and made an impulse buy on a deal of a 250f dirt bike, he is not comfortable at all on the bike, and he wishes he had never done it, but his parents wont allow him sell the dirtbike(he went from rancher to 250ex to 300ex to 400ex and then to crf250 and his parents woont let him sell the bike to get another one).

ps-bikes break just as easy as quads and you wreck much more on bikes, and let me tell you, a quad has more parts but a bike has alot of more expensive parts. trust me, selling your 450 and buying a 450 or 250 dirt bike you will lose alot of money in mods and such.

[outacontrol]

Originally posted by 450rRacer22
yeah buy getting used to it i just mean like the twist throttle and just being to ride decent. theres really one of the biggest problems i have with it is the twist throttle. out of no where i'll just twisted the living crap out of it and hold it wide open and cant stop myself. i'm so used to thumb throttle that when i ride with a twist it seems almost impossible. your opinions are helping guys keep them coming!

I can totally relate to that. When i worked at a dealership i brought home new 250f's and enjoyed them both except for the stupid twist throttle, i started hitting jumps with it, but i think i would have been braver with a thumb throttle on it. this is odd to me, cuz i have rode sportbikes for about 8 years and have a hayabusa, twist doesnt bother me on that at all. i say buy a bike, have fun learning something new, and buy a thumb throttle for it! haha

[400EXtreme]

i wnet from bikes to quads then back to bikes. Its not hard at all you can easily do it.

[KXRida]

Like mine said, a bike doesn't just come to you over night. I've been riding a bike for the past 6 years and I am now fully comfortable on a bike. I find it very uncomfortable switching back to a quad and I used to race quad C for a little bit. After about an hour or two I feel ok on them, but I'm scared to death to jump a quad anymore. IMO they feel way too unpredictible compared to a bike. If you get one, don't expect to be lightning quick on it. It takes years of trail and error to go decently fast. I've taken a few mx classes and have ridden with numerous A class riders to help me out way back when. Now I can keep up with some slow B riders and I'm about mid pack in C class. I didn't have any trouble switching from a thumb to twist. You'll get "whiskey throttle" when you're learning how to use one, but my thumb doesn't get tired anymore and I have a lot more throttle control IMO. If I had to go back to a quad, I don't know if I could do it. Trail ride sure, but I'll take my rm ANY day on a track.

[lilyamaharacer4]

i think you should just stay with your quad cause ur racing in A class and you are gonna go switch to something that you couldnt even do good in C class to me that just dont make sense like to me quads are good for trail riding but they just feel so weird to me in the air after just practicing on my friends sx track but i feel like im gonna wreck off of like every single jump on a quad b/c if the jump isnt perfectly straight it shoots you really awkward

[zukirules]

I say keep the quad. I'm in the same boat, and always think about switching to bikes, but then it hits me that going from a quad to a bike is so much harder than a bike to a quad. If you like going big on a quad, don't switch to a bike cause if your an amatuer, you'll def. not be jumpin what you did on the quad. I don't wanna go from being an A rider to a c class rider on a dirtbike. But, then again I could trade my quad for 2 250f's and race those haha.