One of the unfortunate realities of the local motorcycle dealer is that you don�t get to test drive the bikes before you buy. So how do you know what size and type of bike to get? Assuming you don�t have a large number of buddies who have an assortment of bike sizes and years, you might have to rely on the motocross magazines for opinions. Probably the best approach is to try a number of used bikes advertised for sale in the paper, you can usually ride them, but be careful about forming negative opinions of certain models/years since the bikes may just be worn out.

I have owned two relatively-new motocross bikes in the past few years. After riding 2 and 4-stroke minibikes as a kid, I stopped riding for about 14 years, and then started again when I turned 30. A second-hand XR200 was a good start, but within months I realized I needed more power than the XR200 had to offer. The XR had good tractor-like torque to pull up hills, but not the power-hit that I was craving.

After riding the XR200 for a year, I decided that I needed a 2-stroke to get that rush from getting �big-air� like those guys in the magazines and in the Supercross races. I bought a 2-year old �96 CR250R, and was instantly impressed with the arm-wrenching power and ability to wheelie by just rolling-on the throttle. The CR250R is definitely a blast to ride on wide open outdoor tracks and on woods trails. The power hit is amazing and too tasty to miss. When my favorite open-riding area recently changed to a relatively tight motocross track of approximately 0.6 miles in length, I needed another change.

Being a new rider to the motocross-track scene, I found the CR250R had great power to launch from jumps, but on the tight track I found myself on the brakes a lot to navigate the obstacles. Care had to be used when rolling-on the throttle to prevent the back-end from blowing out while leaving corners. I bought a back-belt to help with the resulting back-aches, (my shock compression was set too high), and taping my hands helped delay the onset of blisters while pounding out as many laps as my stamina would allow. The steering was not as precise as I would have liked, (I needed a new front tire), and the bike felt a bit heavy in the air. I found that, on the tight track, I couldn�t use all of that great power, and wondered if some weight could be traded for a bit less motor, yet still have a decent time on the track.

As an avid reader of the motocross magazines, and after watching a few National Outdoor races, I couldn�t help but be impressed with the performance shown by the recent two-stroke 125cc bikes. Travis Pastrana is unbelievably good on the 125�s, and his battles with Stephane Roncada showed just how powerful the 125cc bikes can be. After two-years on the CR250R, I changed my mount to a 2001 Yamaha YZ125.

The 2001 YZ125 was a much better choice for me on a tight motocross track. I am 165 pounds, and certainly no Jeremy McGrath when it comes to riding ability, but the YZ just leaves me smiling my tail off after a day�s ride. The bike feels light in the air, it jumps well with excellent balance, it has a good-strong midrange and top end. If you fall off the pipe, you need to feather the clutch to get back on, but keep it in the sweet-spot of the power range and you can easily pull wheelies in 4^th gear by rolling on the throttle. The bike leaps over obstacles easily, with so much power in reserve that I know I won�t master this bike for at least a few years to come. The steering is very precise, I feel like I�m carving a ski-slope, I can put the bike anywhere I want it.

Carrying speed into the corners now is more important on the 125 than the 250, pinning the throttle and feathering the clutch is a cool feeling as you blast out of the corners. Weighting the outside peg, and keeping the outside elbow up are effective to keeping traction to the rear wheel. The brakes are strong, I can stop on a dime with one or two fingers and rarely need the rear brake. My back-aches are nearly gone, but I still wear the back-belt. My blisters don�t begin until nearly the end of the day, so little tape is needed. Gone now are the worries of the rear-end blowing out coming out of corners if my throttle-roll-on is not perfect, because now I can pin the throttle and use the clutch to carry me through.

My timing through the whoop-sections needs some work now. I used to just rely on the CR250�s massive bottom end to power me through, but now I have to get a good headstart and do my best not to fall-off-the-pipe. My current method is to time the first two whoops like a jump, and then just lean back and try to power-through. DirtRider magazine suggests going up one tooth on the back to help with this.

The suspension is plush at the stock settings, I haven�t been able to bottom the shock, but a few front-wheel landings have given a clunk when the forks bottomed. Modifying my riding style to avoid front-wheel landings into the faces of doubles has prevented future bottomings, but I may go up on the clickers to allow me to work on those doubles challenges without the fear of bottoming.

With my current skill level, I can't use all of the CR250 motor. Learning to use the clutch makes the 125 harder to ride, but should make me a better rider in the long run. I'm using more of the motor now, and find myself pinning the throttle, something I very rarely did on the 250. In a wide open field, on outdoor tracks with long-straight sections, on muddy tracks or in the woods, I would prefer the arm-wrenching power of the CR250R. On tight, twisty, narrow, technical tracks, I definitely prefer the YZ125 and find this to be the bike I can ride the fastest.