Best dirt bikes

No one on the planet has tested as many motorcycles as the MXA wrecking crew. Motocross Action is a motorcycle magazine—plain and simple. We aren't a fan magazine or aimed at the teenybopper crowd. We are about machinery and how to make them better. We have ridden every machine made, and some that shouldn’t have been made. Nothing engenders as much interest and controversy as the “MXA Bike of the Year” awards. We have been handing them out for 34 years (MXA has actually been testing bikes for 40 years, but in the ’70s we weren’t smart enough to comprehensively rank them).


- 1986 Honda CR125 - 

The MXA test crew understands that when a consumer plunks down over eight grand for a new bike, he doesn’t want to hear that he bought the wrong machine. We sympathize, but our job is to report the facts as accurately and consistently as possible. It isn’t uncommon for us to get angry emails from owners of a brand that didn’t do well. The complainers have a litany of reasons for why we didn’t choose their brand as the best. Here are the most commons whines.


- 1993 Honda CR250 - 

The “Yamaha Action” complaint: When Yamaha started winning back-to-back shootouts a decade ago, the red, green, yellow and orange fans claimed that we showed favoritism to YZs. We found it amusing, because we got the same letters when Honda won the 250 Shootout for five straights years (1983-1987)—except back then they called us “Honda Action.” Plus, even minimal research would reveal that Yamaha hasn't won a 250F or 450 four-stroke shootout in eight years. If you carried our critics logic up to today, we should be called "Kawasaki Action." We don’t have favorite companies—we reward excellence in machinery.


- 1994 Kawasaki KX250 - 

Advertising trumps integrity: One of the old saws pawned off by morons is that the manufacturer that advertises the most wins the shootouts. Hogwash! Need proof? The Suzuki RM250 won the 250 Bike of the Year award in 2004-2006 and the 2011 250F four-stroke award. Suzuki doesn't run enough advertising with MXA to buy the test riders lunch. Additionally, KTM won the 2004, 2011 and 2014 125cc shootouts, 2011-14 250 two-stroke shootouts and2010-11 450 shootouts—and KTM is definitely not MXA’s largest advertiser. Advertising dollars can’t make a bad bike good...at least not at MXA.

- 1998 Yamaha YZ400F - 

Different mags; different winners: It’s not uncommon for other magazines to choose different shootout winners. More power to them (and their flawed methodology). But, history almost always proves that the MXA wrecking crew is right. Need examples? Every magazine raved about the 2002 Honda CRF450—except MXA. We thought it had a serious handling flaw and a mellow engine. Who was right? Honda’s engineers spent the next three years working on the handling and beefing up the bottom end. When they got it right, they got the top spot. Then, in 2009-2012, the other mags raved about the weirdly configured Honda CRF450. We didn’t. Who was right? Let's not even mention the 2001 Cannondale MX400 which one magazine named the "Bike of the Year."


- 2000 Yamaha YZ125 - 

Anti-Euro faction: In the last 32 years, only 11 European bikes have made theMXA Best Bike list (2004 KTM 125SX, 2010-11 KTM 450SXF, 2011-14 KTM 250SX and 2011-14 KTM 150SX). To our critics’ way of thinking, MXA never gave European bikes a fair chance. To our way of thinking, European bikes came up short in their approach to handling for the better part of the last 30 years. Once they got it right, they got credit.


- 2001 Yamaha YZ250F - 

The winning margin: There are 98 bikes listed in MXA's best bikes listbetween 125 two-strokes, 250 two-strokes, 250 four-strokes and 450 four-strokes. Yamaha has won 39 of the 95 crowns. Yamaha's last win was in the 125 and 250 two-stroke classes in 2010. Yamaha's last four-stroke victorieswere in 2006. Kawasaki is second on the all-time list with 22 Best Bike wins. Kawasaki racked up almost half of those over the last nine years with the KX250F and KX450F. Honda is third on the all-time list with 16 Best Bike awards. Four of their 16 came with the 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 CRF450. But, the majority of Honda wins came during the hey-day of the CR250 (1983-1987). Suzuki has 11 wins (with five 125 two-stroke wins, five 250 two-stroke wins and one RM-Z250 win in 2011). KTM has dominated two-strokes over the last four years and has swept both the 125 and 250 classes since 2011. They also took one 125 class award back in 2004 and the 450 four-stroke class in 2010 and 2011.

- 2005 Honda CRF450 - 

There have been lots of chances for your favorite brand to make the list. So, love us or hate us, we aren’t telling you what to buy—we are just giving you the tools to make an informed decision.