The Ozark has much better brakes than either of those, they are only disc brakes on the front but most of the smaller quads have drum brakes front and rear except for the newer ones. Easier to put in reverse too, you put the machine in neutral, pull out a lever on the dash that looks like a manual choke lever and then downshift into reverse. Its spring loaded so you hold it for a second, downshift into reverse and then just release it. To get out of reverse, you don't have to use the lever, just upshift back into neutral and back into 1st gear and so on. The Ozark has a little more power than the Recon and Beartracker as well. Top speed is about 50 mph, so not really faster but a little quicker than the other 2. On a machine that size, that's about as fast as you would want to go. The small tires and limited suspension travel would beat you to death if you went any faster than that. The sweet spot for little quads like this is moderate speed trail riding and light work. Most of the time when I had mine, 2nd or 3rd geard was used for trail riding, it would get up to about 22 mph in 3rd gear, about 15-16 in 2nd. Doesn't sound that fast but that's a pretty good pace on tight trails. 1st gear is pretty low, about the only time I used it was loading it into the truck or really slow technical stuff. It has enough power that it can take off easily in 2nd gear, even 3rd if its realatively level so no need to downshift all the way to 1st if you stop.

 

The Ozark, Bear tracker, and the Kawasaki Praire 300 are all good machines and can be found used at decent prices. The first two are auto clutch 5 speed trannies and the Praire 300 is an auto CVT belt drive. I added the Praire to the list because I owned one for 16 yrs and never had a single issue with it and I used it hard. It rode trails and plowed a 300' driveway and was my tractor for my 5 acre plot. That machine is full time 4wd and is something you should consider. I have had both 2wd and 4wd and will never buy another machine that is not 4wd! I think many on these forums will agree. As for the Honda's, stay away from any model with electronic shift transmissions. The Honda's with 5 speed auto clutch is fine, well made machines, but the electric shift trannies are very troublesome and expensive to fix. The old 300 4wd were bullit proof and would be an excellent choice as would the Praire 300 so it depends on whether you want full automatic or an auto clutch 5 speed?