My husband has been talking about getting our 6-yo son his first dirt bike, and I'm not thrilled. The kid just got the training wheels off his bicycle and now DH wants to put him on something that can go 35 mph??
As a compromise, I've been shopping for a dirt bike with training wheels. Can anyone tell me if this is a decent machine and a decent price? And more importantly - Is it safe???
Dirt bike canoe?
I wouldn't be as concerned with the training wheels as with the 35mph and most importantly, how the kid is on his bicycle. If he's competent on a bicycle, it should transition over fairly well. If he's wobbly on a bike, I'd keep him off of motorized stuff for now. 6 is a little young IMO.
FWIW, My mom wouldn't let me get a dirtbike (I was older - 12-14), and now I have racecars. You may be damaging him for his future wife. :)
If you just pulled the training wheels off, I would wait a bit. It's hard to say for how long, but much will depend on your son's aptitude at this age. Some kids can start early simply because they have a gift for or are inborn with certain skills. Others will take longer. My parents did let me have a go-kart when I was around 11 years old, which I soon traded for a mini-bike. The motorcycle didn't come until I was around 16 or 17 years old. My son is 16 years old and started riding when he was around 8-9 years old.
It's funny, but I have gone on to work in the motorcycle field as a mechanic. My mom came out for a visit once, and after looking at the motorcycles in my shop and knowing what I do for a living, said that if she had known I was going to take motorcycles so seriously, she would have let me have one sooner. I still laugh when I think of that.
When I was a kid we lived on a farm - had a minibike at 7 - they also had me driving a tractor in the hayfield about then. First bike with gears was around 9 or 10. It was a lot of fun. These days child protective services would have probably be in fits about what we did on the farm. Kids really don't have a concept of consequences - so if you can handle it, armor em up, train them and see how it goes.
Motorcycles aren't safe. The dynamics of man and two wheeled machines in motion make it inherently so.
Manage the risk with a good helmet and protective clothing, especially boots, instead of training wheels. Make sure they can comfortably and confidently ride bicycles without training wheels first too. If they ride as much as I did as a kid, that should only be a few weeks/months.
There are some very doscile starter dirt bikes out there.
Level 1 would be the electric ones. Some are zippy, but most are only a shade above dead slow. Very simple controls, a twist throttle and a brake lever.
Level 2 (these are my terms by the way) is where I started my son, at about 8-9 years of age. A Chinese 50cc thingie. Centrifugal clutch, variable speed belt transmission. So one twist throttle and two levers for the front and rear brakes. It runs slow, unless you leave it wide open and give it time to come up to speed. Then it will go quickly.
Level 3 is a 50cc dirt bike with a manual shift transmission. I'd say your boy isn't ready for this.
Basic safety gear for the lad as he learns. And while a helmet is important, goggles, jeans, jacket, etc are far more important. He's going to go down, he's going to get scraped and a bit bloody here and there. If you're a hand wringer, you need to not be there. Let it be a dad thing.
There are things that moms aren't always the best at, and many times, dirt bikes are one of them. When my son side swiped the fence, getting banged up and bloody, he couldn't wait to tell mom. He and I had to have a real conversation on why moms and dads are different, and how there are things that really are between dad and son, and mom doesn't really need to know.
I'm with BoxheadTim on this one...
Look, its tough to find an image of a Canoe with training wheels. Outriggers was the best I could do.
If this is not a canoe - 2 seasons of BMX racing will do him a world of good when he gets on his 1st motor bike.
Assuming no canoe: I got on a minibike when I was 5 years old, I was driving an 8N Ford tractor by age 6 or 7 (with my dad, of course), driving a King Midget at 9-10 and by age 12 was confident enough to tackle my first motocross race. Kids start even younger now. So I see nothing wrong with starting at age 6. Heck, I wish my daughter showed more interest in that kind of thing, I'd love to put her on one. As it is, I doubt she will follow in my racing footsteps. Oh well, I love her anyway. 
Most of the beginner minis are available with training wheels and have adjustable throttle stops. That way Junior doesn't grab a big handful right off the bat. The one you linked is a knockoff of a Honda Z50, the transmission can be put in 1st or 2nd gear and the shift lever removed for the first few rides so he doesn't go faster than Dad can run. 
It has a centrifugal clutch so it will idle in gear.
If he can balance on a bicycle, he can balance a minibike. He needs a helmet, gloves and decent boots; the gloves and boots don't necessarily have to be motorcycle specific (leather gloves and hiking boots are OK to start with), but the helmet definitely needs to be. Bicycle helmets are NOT sufficient. If he decides to race, now you upgrade to motorcycle specific boots, gloves and I'd then add a chest protector.
My 6-year-old my 9-year-old both ride a Honda CRF50. I did not allow either of them to use training wheels as I think it erodes "respect" for the machine. The CRF has an adjustable throttle and when first teaching them to ride, I would literally run along side them the entire time--good fun for the kids and great exercise for dad. I only had to do that for a few days/weeks for them to get the hang of everything. If the little one hasn't ridden for awhile, I still run with him for the first 10 minutes or so until he gets back into the groove. He rides with the throttle at a setting that allows very little power. The oldest has it set so it goes medium speed, but still not "fast".
I started on A Honda Z50 when I was eight. I thought it was easier than riding a bicycle. Training wheels would do more harm than good IMHO.
Helmet and pading along with the adjustable throttle that only gets increased with their abilities. I want to do that for my daughter now, but she does not have the interest at this time. My son (age 2 now) will want to, but needs to grow up a few more years.
I also started at age 8 on an old XR75 that weighed a ton. Rode it on the street before dad even taught me since he was at work and left it in the garage where I could find it.
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