Me: I've been riding for 15+ years, quads, dirtbikes, and streetbikes. Previously a helicopter mechanic/crew chief.

Ordering: Ordered a KMX 50 from raceway ATV for my 5 yo daughter who showed interest in her brother's LT80. Ordering process was painless, price was good. A few hours after I ordered they called me to let me know it had gone on sale and they wanted to refund me the difference in price. Nice. Quad arrived in a few days, pretty quick. My wife did the pickup and reported no trouble.
Arrival: Quad was in a steel under cardboard crate. Steel was 1" angle iron, welded by someone only passingly familiar with the concept. A handful of bolts also held the angle iron together, thankfully. The front wheels were unmounted and resting on the front fender/floorboards, along with a box of bolts and goodies. There was apparently at some time a ubolt or something bolting the rear axle to the steel crate, but it was gone leaving the rear end loose. The front had a pair of ubolt kind of things holding the front axle down; both were loose, one was missing a nut completely. Only visible damage to the quad was a cracked front fender and scuffed gas tank.
Initial assembly: Installed front tires, installed battery acid and connected the battery. Used the included screwdriver to tighten the battery screws, and it (the screwdriver) broke on the first screw. Drained the oil immediately and put in fresh oil. Tightened up all visible bolts. The chain was stupidly tight, and the rear axle was crooked. A couple bolts loosened and adjusted and both problems were fixed.
Initial startup: Not so easy, that. Dang near drained the battery with much cranking, lots of almost starting, lots of starting for a second or two. Much playing with throttle and choke. Finally got it started and idling enough to warm up.
Initial drive: As soon as I put it in gear (the sticker by the gearshift is wrong, by the way-it shows first being up and it's down) it died. More fiddling and playing with to get it started (in neutral) and raising the idle got it to go into gear without dying. First gear is pretty short, but it pulled me around (175lbs) just fine. Ths shift into second brought the front end up pretty quick, surprized the bajeebles out of me. Ran it all the way through 4th, brought it back in and adjusted the throttle down for my daughter.
Subsequent rides; Similarly difficult to start, but once started worked just fine.
Support: I sent an email to raceway about the cracked fender. John responded and asked me to call him. Called, was told he was with a customer and would call back. Didn't. Called back next day, same story. Went to the bahamas for a few days. Came home, called again, and finally got through to John. He agreed to make it right, and the next day I had a new fender.

Today I decided to install the new fender. Took old fender off, took gas tank off. Did a bit of looking at the quad. Maybe 1/3 of the bullet connectors were seated correctly together. Wiring was run poorly. One of the reasons it had been hard to start was because the choke rod hit both the frame and the plastic before it put the choke fully on. Much fussing and carb removal/reinstallation later I had the choke rod bent and twisted in such a way that it would put the choke on correctly. From the WTF department, the carb top was loctited on. Ended up having to remove the other end of the cable from the thumb throttle to get the carb completely off. That of course led to a corroded screw on the thumb throttle that I had to drill out to get the cover off of. Put the carb in the vise and carefully forced my way through the loctite to get the top off. Technically didn't have to for what I was doing but if I ever have to replace the throttle cable that top has to come off and I may as well do it now. FWIW, all the carb work is much easier if you either sit on the back to compress the suspension or remove the rear shock. I didn't remove the rear shock from the top because the top nut is rounded off already, and the bottom is pretty tight to get tools into. Sitting on it worked just as well. BTW, the rear shock spring is just about strong enough to use in a car. Upon reassembly, I rerouted all the wiring, lubricated and properly connected all the bullet connectors, tightened the key switch lockring (the keyswitch fell into the plastics when my daughter was riding it because the nut came loose) and generally fixed whatever I could.
To get the front plastic to fit correctly I had to bend the support bars of the footboards to push the fenders up. Plastics are nice, but fit pretty shabby.

Impressions: This is a $500 quad, and feels like a $300 quad. The engine (gears, mostly) is absolutely inappropriate for the quad's size. 1st gear is about as fast as I'd feel safe letting a kid go with this wheelbase/track width. You can theoretically put the quad into a single gear and remove the shifter, but starting it in gear doesn't work very well on mine and you have to remove the footboards to get enough room to remove the shifter, so it's not like you could start it in neutral and remove the shifter once it's started. To get the engine close to level for draining the oil the rear end must be raised 6-8". The rear brake cable rests against the muffler, melting through it's insulation. I may make a bracket to hold it away. The rear kill switch doesn't come with a lanyard and doesn't really work anyhow; it's a threaded eye-bolt going through two pieces of angle. The threads cause enough drag on the angle that unless you pull the bolt straight to the rear it won't move at all. I'll either sleeve the bolt to reduce drag or junk it entirely. The money I saved by buying a new kmx vs. buying a used japanese quad has pretty much been offset by the amount of time I've spent working on it. In comparison, for the same money I recently bought my son an 8 year old LT80 that has been totally trouble free and starts and runs very well. Cosmetically challenged, mind you, but mechanically both well designed and well built.

All this said, my daughter loves it and in the end that's all that matters. Personally, I'm not real happy with it. If you get one, plan on immediately taking it pretty much totally apart and fixing the electrical system, adjusting the carb, and generally just putting it together as if your child's life depends on it rather than the way it was built at the factory. I'll add pics later once I get them resized.
whodat

 

Thanks for the review, sounds about right for the price I suppose. It would be great if you could give a follow up in a few weeks/months.

 

Will do. BTW, forgot to mention: A widening kit or mod is pretty much mandatory for this quad. With it throttle-limited to the point that it would barely move (I'm guessing 3-4 mph) my daughter managed to flip it on flat level ground. I'll probably knock out the studs and replace them with bolts and put some pipe-spacers on, probably welded to the wheel flanges. For the front I'll probably just cut the axle outboard of the frame and weld in extensions, 2" per side.
whodat

 

Very good write-up, creative and well-worded with a good balance of serious info and humor. The info isnt exactly what I wanted to hear though, I just ordered a Kazuma Mini Falcon 90 yesterday from Raceway. So far very pleased with Raceway, but in all honesty I havent been on the other side yet. If things go as well after I receive the bike and have an issue, then I will be pleasantly impressed. From what I read, Raceway is about the best yer gonna find.

I have no issue with going through the bike once it arrives, I would most likely do that even had I ordered a Yamaha--- Im alittle silly that way, more comfortable with it if I did it.

Sounds like the quads come crated with a few pre-packaged issues to deal with. But if thats the worst of it and the little 50 continues to provide even mostly dependable service for your daughter for a few years, then I think you did alright. Even if you have issues, I think John @ Raceway is at least very reasonable with resolving those issues.

 

Whodat,

one thing you may want to do is move the airbox. If you look at the airbox tube it is faced right at the rear tire. Well its gonna suck up all kinds of crap. You can take the rear plastics off, undo the bracket that holds the airbox to the frame. Unscrew the outer part of the airbox and turn it 180 degrees. Then you can bend the bracket and mount the intake to where it is behind the battery. It works much better this way. I pretty much disassembled the whole thing when I got it and fixed anything that I thought would be a problem. I even went to home depot and got longer bolts and made spacers for the wheels. This made a huge difference in stability. I took the carb apart and cleaned all the crap out from the factory, cleaned all the jets and put everything back together with lock washers and locktight. This thing has tons of power. When I opened the crate the floorboard was cracked from the tire that was jammed in there. John had a new one to me the next day. So far it has been flawless. Runs great and my son loves it. I dont think it is bad for a first atv or for someone that has some mechanical ability but for the average joe they will have problems.

Scooter86,

The kazuma 50 and the mini falcon are completely different quads. The 50 is very basic with no suspension in the front. Easy to work on. The falcon is a decent little atv but you must do your homework if you want good luck from it. You cant just gas and go. Plan on spending a few hours with it to make it right. If you do that, they are pretty reliable.

 

I had a Kazuma 50 , for the price it cost I couldnt complain . Given it a solid ride meaning no give , kinda like a old go kart . I will add that this little Kazuma 50 went up a hill we had to push a Suzuki 50 up ,I gave 600.00 for Kazuma and this guy had 1800.00 in Suzuki and the Kazuma will smoke a Suzuki 50 once the kid learns the gears . I decided my next kids quad was going to be more stable turning [ we added wheel spacers which helps but this Joker basically has no suspension , if you really sail it you will crack the intake manifold ], and have a kick start incase battery goes dead , although you can roll Kazuma off . I dug up every info i could get on 6-11 year quads , If you compare them , you will find E-ton Viper 70 is the best rated quad in this class , Dual starting , 6 inches rear suspension travel , hydraulic brakes, a cdi with a adjustable rev limiter, brake light tail light horn,flag, maxxis tires etc , This baby will scream , Raptor 80 is no match , will climb anything you would try it on . If you want to read the shootouts Eton won go to www.etonamerica.com 3 magazines had shootouts and Eton beat Yamaha,Honda,Kawasaki,Suzuki,Kymco, won ATV of year both classes . Eton is taiwanese like Suzuki,Kymco , Where as Kazuma and those cheapies all come out of china . Word has though Honda and Yamaha have a lot of their stuff made in china also . Jianshe sold 50% of one plant to Yamaha in 1992 , I think PW80 and some parts come out of that plant. But before long every one of them will have some Chinese parts on them . Even Harley Davidson is negotiating with Chinese , who would ever believe that

 

Whodat, and others reading this post.Just wanted to add something my local kazuma dealer showed me when I brought my sons 50 in for maintenance.If you set-up this quad yourself(from the crate)be sure to check throttle cable tightness.Apparently its loose from factory and can get stuck open(full throttle)where exposed cable meets(slides into) plastic sheath.Need to remove gas tank to check.He told me of a child getting hurt locally because of this and this tip is not in the set-up manual shipped with quad.Hope this helps....ride safe,

 

Yup, I can see how that would happen. There is a glaring lack of a rubber boot between the cable sheath and the top of the carb. Upon reassembly for the nth time after adjusting the choke, I put a few wraps of electrical tape to both seal the gap between them and to physically lock them together so it couldn't come out and cause a full throttle bind.
whodat

 

Recent update. I went to fire it up the other day, and found that the gas had drained out of the tank. No, I hadn't turned off the petcock. Took the gas cap off, and the gas cap is composed of an outer cap and an inner seal held together with some screws. Guess what fell off inside the tank when I took the cap off? Everything but the outer cap. I just put the cap back on and left it empty. I shoulda bought an LT50, or a powerwheels, or anything but this piece of crap.

 

Thats too bad that you have had a bad experience with it. I have had our meerkat for a while now with not one problem as of yet. The first thing I did was make wheel spacers and it is very stable. The shifting is kinds messed up but for a 4-5yo first or second gear is plenty fast till they get big enough for a bigger quad. It is a tough little machine and would be hard for a 4-5yo to break. I did take the plastics off when I got it and fixed the things that I thought would be issues. Locktite everything, waterproof connectors, relocate air filter and spacers. So far soo good!!!