in Maine you are allowed to ride an ATV at the age of ten as long as an adult is on it with you, another law is that you cannot carry a passenger on an atv. kinda silly if you ask me, luckily they dont enforce the passenger rule very hard

 

Spandexgranny,

Any idea if out of staters are under the same rules? Do they need a training certificate? Sometimes one state says somebody from another state must be under there home state rules. Where are some good places to ride as a family in Maine?

 

not sure about how the rule applies to out of staters, There are about 10 public trail systems in maine, I have only rode two of them, But I just picked up a map of the trails at the ellsworth walmart for $9.95 that shows all of them, and I have a rule book for the state somewhere around here but I will have to try to find it, I will look into it for you if you are serious about riding here

 

Spandexgranny,

I will just look it up on the internet, was just wondering if you knew off hand.

 

those stupid laws are all bs. they don't really care around here. some of the dealers will tell you that crap that they can't sell one to you because someone they say is too young is gonna ride it. before we got this knew d*ckhead sheriff, you could ride one on any road in the county as long as you didn't go in town regardless of age. now i do agree that really small kids shouldn't be on large quads. when i was 11 i got a polaris sport 400, it was a little big for me, but that was alright. i was 5'10 and weighed 155. there is no way i could have got on a mini.

 

Starting this summer in Minnesota a child between 12 and 16 can ride a larger class (than 90cc) ATV providing they take and pass a safety course on the ATV in question. They then receive a certificate to carry in case they are stopped. This seems sensible to me. It also means my 5'9" 140lb 13 year old can legally ride the ATV I have him ride anyway. He's way to big and agressive a rider for the 90cc class machine I own (he's not as agressive on the larger machines).

I feel the bulk of safety related issues on ATV's, child or otherwise, can be handled through education on safe riding and through application of common sense.

 

I agree completely, I'm glad that a state is finally taking rider skill into consideration over age, and the common sense remark, what a concept, too bad that common sense can't be taught or all of the problems would be solved. It makes me think of the whole Maine snowmobile dillema, 12 dead this year so far, the record is 12 and I'm sure that will be passed this year, in most cases a little common sense would have gone a long way, but when your going 80mph on a trail that you don't know and smash into a tree it's a little late for common sense. And after all of this, the state still picks on ATV's to no end, but I can't recall off of the top f my head ANYBODY dying of an ATV accident in maine, not saying that it hasn't happened, just can't remember any.