Pit bike. Mini bike. Mini dirt bike.

The world of dirt bikes gets pretty confusing. So, get your mind off of the usual 250 and 450 dirt bikes if you want to understand mini dirt bikes.

At the risk of you tuning out early but also respecting your time, we can say little difference exists between a pit bike and a mini dirt bike. In fact, close up you probably won't see much of a difference. However, as a general rule, kids ride mini dirt bikes, adults ride pit bikes.

Kawasaki KXL110

Pit Bikes

A pit bike looks like a mini bike and technically is a mini bike. It's much smaller than the regular size 250 or 450 class dirt bike and you more or less use it to ride around in the pits, thus the name pit bike, have fun in the backyard or occasionally race. Pit bike races bring the crowds to watch adults, acting like kids, who try and squeeze their bodies around these much smaller framed dirt bikes and have a go around on a specially designed Motocross track or BMX track. Taller riders have a difficult time navigating pit bike but those with a short stature have a blast on them and even start out on pit bikes before graduating to the regular sized dirt bike.

A Honda CRF50, Kawasaki KLX110 and Yamaha TTR (all 4-strokes) offer prime examples of pit bikes. In pit bike racing, you typically have 50cc 4-stroke class, 110 4-stroke class and 125 to 150 cc 4-stroke class. Pit bike speed depends on the size of the engine so on the low maximum speed of 20 to 30 mph for 50cc bikes and up to 50 mph on a 125 or bigger engine but don't expect a lot of torque.

Crashing on a pit bike still hurts but you probably have less a chance of extensive damage since you sit so close to the ground and the overall lack of power keeps you from getting big air when hitting any jumps. When riding, most adults don't wear the full riding gear and tennis shoes often replace riding boots. But helmet and goggles are a must!

KTM 85SX

Mini Dirt Bike or Mini Bike

Kids ride mini dirt bikes, also known as a mini bike, as race or trail bikes just like adults ride their bigger 250 and 450 brothers. Mini bikes come as 2-strokes and range in engine size between 50 and 105 cc. KTM has a pretty strong market on kids mini bikes but other brands also have mini bikes specific for children.

Mini dirt bike classes, like the Mini Sr. 1 to Supermini 2, range from 51cc to 105cc engine sizes for ages 4 to 16. A Beginner's Guide To Motocross Classes explains the class types in Motocross racing if you want more information. But as you can see, kids have far more classes to race on their mini dirt bikes than adults with their pit bikes.

Kids riding mini dirt bikes should wear all the riding and protective gear, for obvious reasons, but to also reinforce the aspect of safe riding and so they get used to riding with all the gear when transitioning to bigger dirt bikes as they get older.

Pit Bike and Mini Dirt Bikes

Pit bikes and mini dirt bikes have a few things in common. First off, you can learn how to ride a dirt bike whether you ride a pit bike as an adult or a mini dirt bike as a child. Think of either the pit bike or mini bike as training wheels for a big bike. You learn to balance on two-wheels while figuring out the throttle, clutch control and braking without fear of toppling over on a 250 pound dirt bike.

Second, pit bikes have relatively low maintenance. They often run and run and run and you really only need to keep up on general maintenance like oil and filter changes, air filter and coolant. Conversely, mini bikes require quite a bit of maintenance, especially the high performance KTM & Cobra bikes.

Finally, when the time comes, a pit bike and a mini dirt bike have relatively easy means to find replacement parts. Unless you really want to, go ahead and upgrade with aftermarket performance parts but mostly riders get OEM replacement parts for the reliability and hit the aftermarket for more performance, if needed. And whatever pit bike or mini dirt bike you ride, MotoSport carries all the necessary parts to get you back up to speed. Just use the fitment drop down menus on the page for the specific part you need to dial in the make, model and year of your pit or mini bike.