Once upon a time, many a young motorcyclist cut his or her riding teeth off-tarmac. Tykes on smaller bikes burbled over bumpy, leaf-strewn, or gravely terrain, honing riding skills while smoky, two- or four-stroke engines propelled them toward adventure. These rides often marked the beginning of that invisible draw, the magnetic “what’s around the next corner” pull of wonder.
Call them gateway drugs, these bikes. For many riders, these little machines kickstarted a lifetime motorcycling habit that might have waxed or waned with ebbs and flows through adulthood or instead maybe grew into a permanent lifelong passion. Often bikes became bigger as the rider got older — larger displacement, more horsepower, heavier weight, larger sized, more expensive, with a host of technology once reserved for four-wheeled vehicles.
“What goes around, comes around” stands as an oft quoted phrase, and one now proving true in the smaller-displacement dirt bike realm. While offerings of large adventure touring motorcycles have grown over the years, their little siblings have recently ridden into the headlight’s beam. Showroom floors have sprouted a variety of lighter, smaller-statured models with less displacement but improved off-road capabilities.
And the buyers of these smaller bikes? Those former little tykes.
A dirty trend
“I think riders right now, at this point, are maybe people who grew up in that heyday of the original dual sports and now see the success of those bikes,” said Bradley Adams, assistant manager of press and public relations for American Honda Motor Company. “Now, they have time to go out and relive those moments and enjoy that style of bike again, right? I mean, you’re talking about when those bikes were all the rage in the ’70s and ’80s, and you have that demographic of people who grew up during that time and got to experience it. Now, they have the time to go out in that same kind of riding environment and enjoy it, once again.”
Adams said there are a few reasons why these bikes lure older riders.
“First, in our opinion, this is often a second motorcycle for them. They have a little bit of disposable income, so they can afford to have that second bike, and they have a little bit more free time on their hands. So they think, ‘Where they can do these kinds of adventure rides and these trips and go out and explore?’ They don’t need something overly aggressive. It’s just something that they’re going to enjoy, on the side, outside of their main ride, which might be a touring bike or some type of street bike.”
Adams said the smaller size and simplicity of this newer crop of dual sport motorcycles is an attractive combination to older riders.
“They think ‘this small displacement dual sport won’t take up a lot of space in the garage. It’s not going to demand a lot from me in terms of its physicality, or even the entry point with its pricing, so I can have it. Then, when I want to go out and do a little exploring and adventuring, I can on something that’s relatively unintimidating and still very capable, but most of all, allows me to go out and do the riding that I want to do.’”
At 71, Joseph Giuffre recently decided to dip his boots back into the trail-riding pool.
“It’s something I grew up with. That was my first start in motorcycling, and I loved it, probably more than anything,” said the Woodstock, Virginia, resident. “I then gradually got into street riding which I also love. But I always had desire to go back to ride dirt. It’s a different experience than you find on the road. You get to places where there’s different noises in the woods, different scenery. It is a lot different than street riding.”
Giuffre rides a recently acquired lightweight KTM 125cc dirt bike and said he felt the time was right in his life to downsize both displacement and the physical size of his trail-riding steed.
“As we get older, I find we need to go lighter. I do anyway, and I’m just not comfortable on heavy bikes off-road. I had a Suzuki DR650, and, alone, dropped it off-road and had a hard time picking it up. Off-road, it’s so much easier to ride and handle a bike that’s light.”
James Farber, an avid dirt rider and owner of Suzuki of Seneca, a powersports store in Seneca, South Carolina, said he sees a similar trend in trail-riding demographics.
“Well, the sportbike guys are getting older. Sportbikes are uncomfortable, and now those older riders think sportbikes are for the kids. They’re at the stage in their lives where coolness and comfort start trading places. Basically, the older guys aren’t hardcore enough sportbike riders anymore, but they still want to go out and have fun. Dual sport motorcycles let them do that.”
Traditional dedicated dirt bikes don’t have lights or rearview mirrors and must not be ridden on public roadways. Dual sport bikes, outfitted with those accessories, can take to the highways to get to the dirt roads. Farber said this increases their practicality and usefulness.
“You go ride and you come home, you’re done. You can take off from your house without loading and unloading a trailer.”
Taking dirt riding to lower heights
Honda Motorcycles noticed this age bump in rider demographics, and in 2023 it released a new model to join its existing popular CRF dual sport lineup of lighter weight, 286cc motorcycles. Dubbed the CRF300LS, it boasts a critical difference from its other CRF brethren. That “LS” designation indicates “low seat,” and seat height figures critically for many riders, old or young.
At 32.7 inches, the seat measures two inches lower than its siblings’ seats, enabling an easier reach to the ground and assisting in mounting and dismounting the 311-pound bike. Simpler plus shorter equals easier — a good thing when riding trails. Adams said the reduced height stems from internal tweaks through the suspension, not from simply slicing away the seat’s padding.
For 2025, Honda improved the CRF300LS by upgrading and stiffening its suspension, improving the cooling, enhancing the LED lighting, and altering the side panels. Its 43-mm inverted front fork now provides 9.3-inches of travel, and the rear Pro-Link shock gives 9-inches of absorption. Its 286cc liquid-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke engine mates with a slick-shifting six-speed transmission.
“One of the things that we’ve loved to talk about over the years is how the CRF300 has always been one of the top selling dual sport models, and that’s considering all the really high-performance dual sports we’ve seen within our lineup and in other lineups. The CRF 300 has always been a top seller, which tells you that this customer just wants that kind of versatile performance,” Adams said.
“I think the sales numbers show what people really appreciate is that classic dual sport performance. They don’t necessarily need the hard-edge motocross roots. It’s just a quality bike that gets you where you want to go.”
Getting dirty (again)
Recently, my 77-year-old husband, Tim, announced his return to his “dirty roots,” and Honda obliged by loaning him a 2025 CRF300LS to test ride. He and pal Giuffre headed to Warwoman Road, a twirling delight of road that spans about 14 miles between Mountain Rest, South Carolina, and Clayton, Georgia. Recommended by Farber, it runs through the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest and serves as a starting point for exploring the environs of the Warwoman Wildlife Management Area.
Both men have dirt riding experience, admitting “it’s been a while,” and so eagerly aimed their light-weight steeds toward one of the many gravel and dirt paths shooting off Warwoman. With engines brapping and rumbling, their knobby tires bit the gravel surface and ferried them into the forest. Destination: who knows? That’s the very essence, the soul, of trail riding.
An hour later, smiles and motorcycles emerged carrying the pair of giddy, sweaty, high-fiving big kids who obviously had fun, despite a recent lack of practice. Such explorations continued for a couple of days, as the riders searched for treks that lured them to parts unknown, re-training muscle memory (and muscles in general) and sharpening skills all the while.
Like plants that cannot die, the dirty roots have regrown, for this pair of sojourners and the trail riding industry overall. The difference? This time we find those younger kids have grown, and now it is big tykes riding those little bikes.
