I am new to this so please have patience. I am looking to buy my 6 yr. old (soon to be on the 25th) a small ATV. I have done hours of research on the computer and I have come to my "almost final" decision. I think I am going with the Meerkat 50. He has been riding the Power Wheels since he was itty bitty and does extremely well. He has good control and understands all of the controls, turns, etc. His brother is 8 and has a 50. He is awesome with his!!! Does anyone have any positive or negative comments and/or suggestions regarding this one? Also, does anyone have any info on Raceway ATV; High RPM Racer; or Kid ATVs. I am considering purchasing from them. Thanks for any help you may offer!!!!!!!!

 

First off randan welcome to the forum. Stay away from high rpm racer, and wicked rocket. Raceway is awsome to deal with and wont screw you over after the sale. Most other companies just wnat your money and dont give any support after the sale. I have the meerkat 50 and it is a tough little atv but it is small. MAy be too small for a 6yo unless he is small. It has lots of power and very easy to use. The 50 is alot smaller than the power wheels sportsman 700. Why not buy the 8yo a 90cc and hand down the 50cc to the 6yo. The 8yo would be a better fit on something like the mini falcon 90.

 

Thanks for your response, 2manytoys. I appreciate the help. I thought the "opinions" would be flying on here but doesn't look that way. Thanks again!!!!

 

Dont worry you will get more opinions. This is the first day for your post.

 

you should look at the sunl 90cc ,good quad for the price

 

Raceway is good to deal with as 2many said. I've bought a sunl 70 (for a 7 y.o.) and a baby falcon 110 (for a 9 y.o.) from them and am happy with that decision. They helped with the couple of problems I had after the sale.

I dont know why 2many lumped kidsatv in with wicked rocket and high rpm racer, however. Before I bought, I tried searching for info about the four mentioned companies and many others. Virtually the only two internet chinese atv sellers that I could find what appeared to be unsolicited positive comments on was raceway and kidsatv.com I've found few negatives about either company.

As John of Raceway is a sponsor of this site, so is Jim of kids atv a sponsor of atvrider.com. He has many posts on that site. He also has quite a few posts on this site trying to help people with their chinese quad problems regardless of where they bought their atv, including a good post on valve adjustment for a guy with a poor running kazuma 50.

I've not bought from kidsatv so I cant personally say whether their service after-the-sale is good or not, but it would seem uncharacteristic for it not to be based on what I said above. I would have no problem ordering from them.

Rodney

 

Welcome to the forum Randan. My son is also almost 6 years old(march 28). I bought him a Kazuma mini Falcon 90 from Raceway ATV. The size of this mini is perfect for my son and hes a bit on the short side. There are however some things that you have to look out for. You definitely want to have some decent mechanical knowledge before you embark on one of the chinese mini's. No matter which mini you choose, please dont look past the fact that they need to be gone over with a fine toothed comb before you let your child ride it. Change the oil with some good quality oil. Also, change the spark plug to a NGk.
I am pleased overall with this mini.
Stay away from all the other dealers as well. There is so many testimonials on how bad these other companies have treated their customers. Raceway has ALOT of praise from happy customers so stick with them.
Our Kazuma has had its fair share of problems. The baskets on these arent very big, so if you plan on letting your child wear motocross style boots, you will need to change this setup out. The front steering stoppers are totally worthless. I fabbed up some brackets to fix this problem and so far its worked great. From what I have heard and read, it seems as though Im the only person that has had serious problems with this. The stops allowed the steering to go way past the point of no return, hence "locking" the inside wheel. The starter button broke inside, the wire came off so I had to take that apart and resolder it. The brake pedal is a bit odd, it sits quite high and is the style of a cruiser type street motorcycle. I also added wheel extenders from ebay. They bolt onto the studs, and then the wheels bolt onto them. They increased the width by 5" overall and made the ATV MUCH more stable. My rims were also not quite sized ride, so I had to redrill the holes to allow them to fit over the studs.
I am happy with the fact that I only spent $800 on this quad.
The suspension is absolute garbage on all of these quads from what I can tell. I have found some different shocks for this that appear to be much better and actually affordable. I checked into buying some other shocks for this thing and was shocked to find out it was going to be around $700 to upgrade. Im going to be able to do it for less than half that. I will keep you posted on how they work out. Ive also found a machine shop that is going to make me some nerf bars and a different style brake pedal.

 

I forgot to add something. I would stay away from the 50. My son is small and he would not have lasted on this size quad.

 

random you never said if handing down your 8year olds 50 was an option that would be my choice then go with a 90 or mini 110 for him the 50cc is so small they out grow them to fast

 

I am sorry, I forgot to mention that the 50 is a dirt bike. My soon-to-be 6 yr. old wants a quad. Actually, the older one's bike is battery powered. It's the new deal from Razor and that thing is really cool!!! It turned out to be well worth the money and he has already gotten lots of hours on it since Christmas. He is going to want to move on to the real thing though so I'll probably be buying him a gas bike for his birthday in August. The little guy can ride them fine because he has been riding the Power Wheels stuff since he was old enough to sit on it and ride. He is just wanting the real deal now. I don't want to get into anything too big for him to start with because I am afraid it will be too dangerous, even though you can govern them down and they have the safety stuff on them. I am going to stick with the Meerkat 50 for now and if he outgrows it too soon, I can always sell it and get some of my money back. At least I won't be wasting too much in the beginning. My oldest wants to stick with 2 wheels so even if I bought one that was too big for the little guy, it wouldn't be the right thing to give to the older one. I could always keep it for myself....hmmmmm. Since I am only 110 lbs. soaking wet, it might fit me well!! ha