Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket Review - Best Electric Bike For Kids?

Full Price: $500

Top Speed: 15 mph

Age Range: 14 years+ (but, see below)

Use Per Charge: 40 minutes

Charge Time: 8 hours

The Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket Electric Motorcross Bike – Overview

The Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket is a battery-powered dirt bike that comes with an authentic frame geometry and a high-torque, variable speed motor. It is advertised as suitable for kids aged 14+, but many parents seem happy to buy them for younger children (see videos below).

The MX500 can carry riders up to 175 lbs at speeds of up to 15mph and is equipped with large 14″ and 16″ pneumatic knobby tires for maximum power transfer.

Since the bike is electric, the motor is super quiet and is unlikely to upset your neighbours in the same way that a gas-powered bike might.

The Best Features of the Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket

The Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket has many great features (check out the full specifications below), but I think that the best features are:

Top Speed of 15 mph
Variable Speed Throttle
Long Use Between Charges
Reasonable Battery Charging Time
Dual Suspension

#1 Top Speed of 15 mph & Variable Speed Throttle

The high torque motor allows you to reach speeds of up to 15 mph using the variable speed throttle. As you would expect of a kids replica dirt bike, the throttle and brakes (front and rear) are both hand-operated.

The throttle is controlled by twisting the right hand and there are standard bike “lever brakes” on each side of the handlebar.

This sort of speed is pretty standard for this age group when it comes to electric ride toys and I think that it fast enough to provide a kid with a great deal of excitement.

It is obviously quite different from operating a Go Kart at this speed, since it only has 2 wheels and will take a little more maturity and strength to control it safely. This probably explains why the recommended age for the MX500 is 14+, whereas the Razor Ground Force Go Kart is 8+.

Although you will have to make your own mind up on this point, I would consider this bike more suitable for a 10 year old than a 14 year old since (unless they are very small) they wouldn’t get much use of it. I have dealt with this issue in more detail below.

Whatever age your child is, I would always advise you to ensure that your child wears a safety helmet whilst using the Kart. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a racing-car style helmet – a bike or scooter helmet will be sufficient to protect the most vulnerable parts of their head.

Not only does the MX500 dirt bike have a good top speed, but it also accelerates away at a reasonable rate thanks to the high torque motor. There is nothing more frustrating than having to wait ages for your electric vehicle to struggle up to its top speed. You can see from the videos below that this bike is certainly not sluggish.

Finally, although it’s not entirely silent, the motor on the MX500 is pretty quiet so it shouldn’t upset your neighbours too much.

#2 Long Use Between Charges

One of the most common complaints about electric ride toys is that you can spend hours and hours charging the batteries and then only get a few minutes of use out of them. So, you either end up with a very frustrated child on your hands or having to spend loads more money buying extra batteries to use whilst the others are charging.

At about 40 minutes per session, the MX500 Dirt Rocket’s battery charge will provide your child with nice amount of use between charges. In terms of distance travelled, this should be long enough to enable them to drive continuously for about 10 miles before the battery needs to be re-charged.

#3 Reasonable Battery Charging Time

The MX500’s batteries takes about 8 hours to recharge, which makes it pretty standard for this type of electric ride toy.

Although I can be a little frustrating for kids to have to wait during the charging period, I’m afraid that this is unavoidable with battery powered toys. At least with an 8 hour charging time, your child would be able to have a ride around in the morning and then charge it during the day so that they can have another go towards the end of the day.

Of course, you always treat them to a spare set of batteries if they’ve been exceptionally good and you think that they deserve a little more bike-riding action during their summer vacation.

#4 Dual Suspension

Even with a kids scaled-down version of a dirt bike, suspension is an absolute “must have” item. A dirt bike without suspension is completely pointless and would make riding over bumps and uneven ground pretty unpleasant.

Now, you need to be aware of the fact that not all electric dirt bikes come with suspension. The Razor MX350, for example, used to have suspension but for some unknown reason it has been removed and new models no longer have it. This makes a big difference to the rider experience and I suspect that this is the reason that many parents of younger kids (that would normally look to buy the MX350) are now considering the MX500 instead.

I certainly won’t be recommending the MX350 because of its lack of suspension.

#5 Steel Frame

The MX500 isn’t a cheap plastic toy. Instead, it is built around a strong steel frame to ensure that it can survive the jumps and bumps that any dirt bike has to deal with and (with normal usage) it ought to last a number of years.

Watch the Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket in Action!

Okay, so there is only so much you can learn about an electric dirt bike from reading words on a web page.

Instead, you can watch these videos to get a much better impression of the speed and manoeuvrability of the Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket:

A Side-On View:

Is The Recommended Age of 14+ Justified?

I am very surprised that the recommended age is as high as 14 years and I think that the Razor Legal Team may have been a little overcautious. The size of the bike makes me think that it would be too small for many 14 year old children and I don’t see any reason why a confident 10 year old couldn’t use one. In fact, I have added some videos below of children under the age of 10 using the Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket without any problems, but they might be exceptions to the rule.

You know your child and their capabilities better than anyone else. The top speed of 15 mph is probably no faster than they can reach on their push bikes and certainly wouldn’t stop me from letting my kids have a go under the age of 14. I would probably wait until my child was about 10 years old, but it would depend very much upon their general level of physical development and emotional maturity.

Here are some videos of kids under 14 using the Razor MX500 Dirt Rocket:

A 5 Year Old Learning to Ride …

An 8 Year Old Doing Some Tricks …

Okay, so I definitely wouldn’t let my 5 year old twins ride one of these as they are just not ready for it, but I hope that these 2 videos give you a better idea of the size of the bike in relation to different sized kids and help you to make a better informed decision.