The Segway Xaber 300 Might Be The Best Beginner Dirt Bike. Here's How I Taught My Girlfriend How to Ride
I taught my girlfriend how to ride off-road on Segway's new Xaber 300 electric dirt bike. There’s no going back for her.
“Moto bros!... Moto brooos!” My girlfriend couldn’t seem to contain her excitement and continued with this chorus for most of our drive into the mountains. She had settled on the idea that we were now “moto bros,” though she had yet to ride a motorcycle. But the excitement was palpable, contagious even.
We were escaping the warm weather that arrives in the Phoenix Valley around mid-May and lingers until the end of October most years. A two-hour drive to the northeast would take us to nearly 8,000 feet of elevation into the Sitgreaves National Forest, and to a campsite surrounded by pine trees and rocky ridgelines.
The plan was to get my girlfriend acquainted with a motorcycle for the first time, teaching her the basics aboard the new Segway Xaber 300, an all-electric off-road dirt bike from the personal transportation brand known for its self-balancing scooter thing.
Segway has been hinting at electric motorcycles for a minute now. At the Dakar Rally last year, the brand entered an all-electric model into the Mission 1000 category, which the rally calls “a varied mix of projects that reflects the wide range of solutions to the mobility of tomorrow.” The company then unveiled the Xaber 300 at CES 2026 to an excited audience of influencers and technology nerds that were stoked to see the brand move into the two-wheel motorcycle space (they’ve previously offered only electric bicycles).
On paper, the Xaber 300 is interesting. A lightweight, high-output electric dirt bike priced at just $5,299.95, powered by a 72V 44 Ah (3.17 kWh) Samsung lithium battery that’s good for 21 kW of power, or roughly 28 horsepower. But in a market currently saturated with electric off-road offerings, could the Segway stand out?
My girlfriend had never ridden a motorcycle, or much of anything with two wheels for that matter. The youngest of seven, she grew up taking care of her nieces and nephews, and spent most of her free time at the beach with friends. But when she showed an interest in learning to ride, scrolling dirt bike reels on her social media stream, I considered the options.
I could find an old four-stroke Honda CRF230F, a bike that’s known for being friendly to new riders, has a relatively low seat height and limited power to get them sideways. Or perhaps an old Yamaha TTR250, the first proper dirt bike that I myself ever rode. In both cases, she would be required to operate a clutch and a gearbox, feathering her way into first gear, all while trying to maintain her balance and keep the bike going in the desired direction.
Sure, that’s the way I learned to ride, and likely the way most of our readers did, too. But the Segway Xaber 300 that was sitting in my garage offered a new alternative.
Instead of learning to operate a clutch and change gears as she goes, my girlfriend could first get her footing, learn to keep her balance on the bike, and focus on her riding position, which is critical when riding off road. The electric dirt bike would give her a chance to get going, to understand what it feels like to have and then suddenly not have traction, to determine when to use the front brake, rear brake, or both, and to get herself standing up on the footpegs, hinged at the hips, heels down and elbows up, all while not having to worry about what gear she’s in, or whether she might stall the bike suddenly.
The Xaber 300 has three modes that are intended to emulate the power output of a 150cc, 200cc, and 300cc four-stroke motorcycle, as well as "Beast" mode, though I’m not sure what the latter provides just yet. There are also customizable power curves in Pro Mode, as well as traction control and “wheelie coach," a gyro-based feature that helps riders practice and control wheelies. The bike is built on a lightweight forged aluminum alloy frame and weighs in at just 187-lbs full of, well, electrons. It features an adjustable Marzocchi inverted front fork and an adjustable 220mm rear shock and sits on a 19-in front wheel and 17-in rear wheel, both wrapped in knobby-ish CST tires.
According to Segway, the Xaber 300 will run 62 miles in 150 mode and has a top speed of 60 mph, which it can reach in just 5.5 seconds.
We settled into camp that afternoon, the girlfriend eager to throw a leg over the Xaber 300 that she was confidently referring to as “my dirt bike.” She’s short, something like five-feet and maybe two-inches tall, and weighs just a little more than half of the Segway she was getting ready to ride. There were trails crisscrossing the Forest Service road we drove in on, but I wanted to get her going in the campground before sending her off into the forest.
Geared up and with the Xaber turned on via the app on my phone, I coached her through the simple stuff. “Keep your eyes up – the bike goes where your eyes go - and roll onto the throttle slowly so you don’t surprise yourself. Oh, and the brakes are just like the ones on your bicycle, only backwards – right is for the front, left is for the rear.” And then she just...set off.
A cloud of silt and sand lingered in the air above her. She had immediately gone over the handlebar while attempting to turn the Xaber around. Undeterred, and remembering a technique I had only explained to her, never demonstrated, she turned around, squatted to grab the handlebar and the rear fender of the bike, then stood up slowly, bringing the bike with her.
Impressed, I was.
I had put the Xaber into the most approachable mode, 150, but had turned the traction control off. I wanted her to get an understanding for how much grip she had, or rather, how little. After a few hot laps around our camp spot and a couple more moto recovery squats, she seemed ready enough to ride onto the Forest Service road, a wide dirt track that carried us some six or seven miles into the National Forest, and continued on to the south, deeper into the woods. I trailed behind on my Kawasaki KX250X, the four-stroke single cylinder thumping along as I tried to keep a moderate pace.
She practiced bringing the bike to a stop. First using only the rear brake, then only the front, then both. Her throttle input was cautious at first, trying not to spin the rather skinny rear tire on the loose gravel road. But confidence came, and soon she was ripping along, with a smile so genuine that I couldn’t help but laugh. We rode up and down that road for a bit, then turned off onto some two-track that led to another unmarked camp spot. She hit a bit of sand, slowed and eventually tipped over.
“I don’t like sand,” she muttered. I concur. (Editor's note: As does Anakin Skywalker, and every other rider.)
By the time we were ready to return to camp, hot dogs, cold beverages and a hungry canine awaiting us, my girlfriend had grown enough confidence to ride standing upright, her heels down, body bent at the waist and her elbows out. She followed my line, riding over some rocks and through the formidable sand she had struggled through before. And there was that smile again.
What I learned, or rather what my girlfriend learned by getting her first taste for riding off-road aboard this Segway Xaber 300, is that without the required use of her appendages to change gears and keep the bike going, she could focus on the fundamentals. Her body positioning, how shifting her weight affects the motorcycle, how traction can come suddenly, and then disappear when you least expect it. In the end, what the Xaber 300 did most was give her confidence, and although she dropped the bike a few times and even went over the handlebar, she was ready to get up and keep going.
The learning curve for riding dirt bikes is steep. An ascent I myself made at the ripe age of 25, decades past when most people started riding off road. I had to learn the hard way. Stalling my bike on difficult hill climbs. Hitting false neutrals when I really needed to get into third gear. Trying not to loop out or dump the clutch at inopportune moments. It was a struggle. And sure, it’s made me a better rider. But there were moments, especially early on, when my confidence was in the dumpster, and the struggle seemed ceaseless.
What the Segway Xaber 300 offers is an entry point, with tailored power delivery, high tech functionality, solid components and easy operation. It provides a chance for new riders to get out on the trail, with wind in their hair, and dirt in their teeth. Even for someone like my girlfriend, who’d never ridden anything with a motor in her entire life. And now? Now she’s one of us, now she’s a “moto bro!”
It's Electric!
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