A beginner has a good chance of both landing on top of them. Would much rather have a bike land on me than a quad.

But again, it's personal preference, comfort and knowing a persons limits that determine the safety factor of either choice.

 

You guys made some good points.
Too many variables involved to say one or the other,but for the record...I bought an old KE100 to teach the kids to ride, which spent more time on its side than its knobbies. The boys got the hang of it, but one bit it hard when he washed out the front tire in some slick stuff. My daughter fell a couple times and was too spooked to keep trying. She doesn't like a clutch either. She started riding my brothers 250 Ozark and fell in love. Guess I'm in the market for a small automatic quad!
The terrain we ride is usually hard-packed but rutted, so its a little technical on two wheels. I keep the girl away from any big hills cause her limited skills make for a high probability of a rollover. The boys are fearless,(not always a good thing), but have learned that two wheels are alot more forgiving in tricky situations.
You guys covered it, but it comes down to having respect for the machine/your ability, and safety gear!

 

I said a better chance. If some kid bumps into a tree, is a quad going to suddenly flip itself over? Think about it.

 

the reason the dealer said that is because you have more wrecks on a dirtbike than a quad, but they are not as dangerous, the one time you wreck on a quad its deadly just whatever you do make sure you teach them the basics and fundementals of the sport and make sure they know what to do if put in a situation and the first couple times you go riding go slow and dont let them out of your sight good luck on either of the choices

 

They share some commonalities, but it's still apples and oranges.

More chance of a crash with less chance for serious injury or less chance of a crash with more chance of an injury. Some of the trails we like to ride, at the speeds we like to ride them, would be next to immpossible to ride (at those speeds) on a dirtbike. On my first ride on my Z, I had numerous large dents and gouges in all my rims, bent brake rotor, brake rotor through factory skidplate, stick through factory skidplate, and a ton of scratches/gouges on the underside. A lot of the trails around here are really rocky and washed out and not good for dirtbikes, at least not if you want to ride like an a-hole. We like riding like a-holes every now and then.

 

I one thing I think we all overlooked here. Have the kids said which they rather have?

 

I wanted a dirbike as a kid but we were pretty poor, I managed to get a snowmobile around 12, but from money I earned over the summer. Unfortnately I never got to learn to ride a dirtbike. After getting into quads a few years ago I decided to get a dirtbike as a lightweight backup to bring along in case the quad broke down or something. While the dirbike is lighter and easier to handle on tighter trails having never really ridden one it didn't feel exactly natural to me, I simply preferred to ride the quad and the bike is for sale now.

 

Scootergptx is right what do your wife and kids want i know you just want them to be safe but i would find some one like a friend let them ride a quad then let them ride a dirtbike see what they like you want to get them what they feel more comfortable on, but anyways good luck with what ever you decide to do and keep us posted

landon

 

Actually, i think the safest thing to start out on is a Gocart.

 

i dont know about yall but the place were we ride doesnt allow gocarts i dont know why just 4 wheelers 3 wheelers and dirtbikes just wanted to share that with yall