"How much for a dirt bike?" is the question we get most, and it is the one hardest to answer in a sentence. The number on the page is real, but it only means something once you know what it carries. Two shops can quote the same day rate and hand you two very different days.
So here is the line-by-line, using our own setup as the example.
The bike, and what condition it should arrive in
The rate covers the machine for the rental period. What that machine is matters more than the number attached to it. A 2021 Honda CRF125F and a 2023 KTM 300 SX are both "a dirt bike" and they are not remotely the same experience — one is a forgiving 125cc four-stroke that a ten-year-old can learn on, the other is a two-stroke that will punish a rusty rider.
Ask what year the bike is and when it was last serviced. A rental fleet lives a hard life. Ours gets gone over between rentals, and the honest reason we mention it is that a chain, a set of tyres and fresh fluids are the difference between a good day and a day that ends early on a trail.
Gear: almost never included, almost always needed
This is the single most common surprise. On most rental sheets, including ours, riding gear is a separate line. A helmet, boots, and a pants-and-jersey set run about ten dollars each per day, or about twenty as a bundle — small money against the rental, but it is money, and it belongs in your budget rather than in a surprise at the counter.
Skipping gear to save twenty dollars is the wrong trade, and not only for the obvious reason. In desert heat, covered skin is genuinely cooler than bare skin, which is counter-intuitive enough that we wrote a whole post about it. Boots matter more than most first-timers expect: a foot that slips off a peg onto rock is the injury we see most.
If you own gear, bring it. If you own a helmet older than about five years, rent ours instead.
Fuel
Bikes go out full. The expectation is that they come back full, the same as a rental car. Fuel on a small-displacement dirt bike is not a big number — a day of trail riding is a few gallons — but plan the stop, because the nearest pump to a trailhead is rarely close.
The deposit hold, which is not a charge
This one causes more confusion than anything else on the sheet, so it is worth being precise.
A deposit on a rental is an authorization hold, not a payment. Your bank sets that money aside and marks it unavailable; it does not leave your account and it is not revenue for us. On our bikes it runs from $100 on the small electric machines up to $400 on the race bikes, it is placed about a day before your rental rather than at booking, and it is released after the bike comes back in the condition it left in.
Two practical consequences. First, a debit card feels the hold much more sharply than a credit card, because the money is genuinely gone from your available balance until the bank releases it — which can take a few business days after we let go of it. Use a credit card if you have one. Second, know the number before you arrive, so a $400 hold on a $275 rental is not a shock.
Ask any shop whether their deposit is a hold or a charge. The answer tells you a lot.
The paperwork, and why it is not optional
Every legitimate shop will want a signed waiver and a look at your ID before a bike moves. We send the waiver ahead of time so it is done before you arrive rather than in the parking lot — it is the single easiest way to get riding sooner.
A shop that skips this is not doing you a favour. It is telling you something about the rest of its operation.
What is genuinely extra
- Riding gear — about $10 a piece per day, or $20 for the bundle.
- A trailer, if you need to haul the bike somewhere yourself. Ours come in 2.5-bike and 4-bike sizes at $25 a day.
- Tax, which in Washington County adds a little over six percent.
What is not extra, on our sheet: a per-mile charge, an hourly overage on a full-day rental, or a cleaning fee for ordinary dirt. Dirt is the point. A bike that comes back caked in Sand Hollow sand is a bike that had a good day.
The question worth asking instead
Rather than "how much is a dirt bike rental", ask "what does my day cost, all in?" For one rider on a trail bike with gear, in our shop, that is roughly the day rate plus twenty for gear plus tax — and a hold on the card that comes back.
If you want the numbers for a specific bike, the pricing page lists them, and the fleet page shows what each machine actually is. Or just pick a date and see what comes back.