I would think a 250 class would be good. The Honda Recon has an electric shift automatic where you can shift with your thumb or let the transmission shift for you. Not 100% sure. Honda guys???? There are a few 250s left with semi-automatic transmissions where you don't have to use a hand clutch lever to shift. You just shift with your foot. I haven't ever seen anyone who couldn't pick it up. It's that easy. Just some random thoughts.

 

Take her out to a few dealerships and just let her sit on a few and see how comfortable she is.

Also might want to consider getting a used one. If she's not gonna be riding it that much, you could find a nice used one for a lot less.

 

@moose

Actually, I have a Honda Recon 250ES myself. I'm looking to get something bigger in the future, as it was my first quad. As far as it goes with the girlfriend though, I've taught her how to shift it with the push button shifting, she seems to understand the basic concept of it. However I think I could go a bit smaller/lighter than the Recon even. And even though the shifting isn't all that hard, I think she'd enjoy it much more if she didn't have to shift and could focus more on learning how to drive the quad itself. While the Recon isn't the most powerful/faster quad, it does have a little more juice than I think even she needs.

@scootergptx
Yes, whenever I buy a quad it would definitely be a used quad. Going to the dealer would just be to look at them and get the idea, then I'd probably go with a few years older model. Really, I don't see the point in buying a new quad at nearly twice the cost if the used one runs perfectly fine.

In another note.. I do recall riding with one of my friends one time and he was on his little brothers Honda trx90 for craps and giggles and he managed to make it up a pretty steep hill climb just fine. Infact, I was surprised at just how well the quad ran, even with a fully grown adult on it. So I would imagine a 125 would have even more power than that obviously.

 

I know the ds we had was a dog. Weak 4 stroke that I sometimes wondered if it was gonna have the guts to make it up the ramp to the bed of the truck.

I'm sure I could have tweaked it a bit, but the wife was really picky about me doing that to her quads. Says she didn't need to go any faster.

Trail blazer has been apart for a while now. Hopefully she won't notice the new bore, aaen exhaust and slight change in the primary spring.

Gotta make it fun for me to ride too.

 

Polaris Trailboss 330 is a nice quad for cheap $$. You can pick up a clean one for around $1500.

 

You have that right. Its like having a 5 speed stick with foot clutch, in a Taxis in NYC. Sure you can but who wants to bother?

 

We have three ATVs right now. One is a Raptor 250 that we bought for my son when he was 11. The other two are Can Am 800s; an Outlander 800 for me, and a Renegade 800 for my wife. Seriously, the Renegade is my wife's ATV. Just because she is a girl doesn't mean she wants to ride the wimp quad of the decade. I think its kind of nice, to tell the truth, because she can pretty much keep up, better than most men I go riding with. And I never ever have to worry about her not having enough power to climb any hill we come to. She has been riding it for a year now, and has about 800 miles on it with no problems.

Back to the Grizzly 125 topic though. How many of you guys have owned one? We did, for my son's ATV from age 9 to age 11 before we bought him the Raptor 250. I'm sorry, I wouldn't even consider buying a Grizzly 125 for any adult. They are embarrasingly small, and have no power at all. They might go 40 mph, after 15 minutes of wide open running down a very steep down grade, but I doubt it. They are a cheap little ATV with no power and no suspension, and work "ok" for a 9 year old kid, ... although you've never seen a happier kid than when we replaced our son's Grizzly 125 with a Raptor 250. He has had four ATVs, a Polaris Scrambler 50, a Honda TRX 90, the Grizzly 125, and the Raptor 250. He tells me that the Grizzly 125 was his least favorite.

If you're afraid of an ATV being too big if it lands on your girlfriend then buy her a sport quad. Any of the entry level sport ATVs would be a much better choice than the Grizzly 125. I would even consider a Raptor 125 before a Grizzly 125. But the Honda 250 EX, Suzuki Z 250, or others would be excellent choices. Good luck, have a nice day.

DV

 

i would go a little bigger my mom is a small lady maybe 120 lbs and had never really drove a quad we bought her a phonix 200 and it dident have enought power to go up normal hills and easier trails. now she has a ds250 it is good but it is the heaviest of the 2wd 250's but there are other good ones it would'nt go lower than 250cc

 

Dang, I was kinda set on the Grizzly 125, now it sounds some of you guys are giving me second thoughts.

Like I said though, it's only something for putting around. Is it really THAT weak? My Recon 250 has plenty of power and it's actually a 229cc and it weights around 420. So I'd think with the grizzly 125 being about 100 pounds less than the Recon that that would have to make up for some of it's lost power. I'm sure 1 pound is not equal to 1cc, but I was hoping it would help.

If I were to go bigger than I guess the Polaris Phoenix would be the next in line, however I've heard it's cheaper in quality than most normal Polaris's. Man.. I wish I just had the grizzly 125 to test out, is it really THAT lacking in power? Like I said, just need something to scoot her around, don't need any insane horse power and acceleration, but don't want something that can't do crap.

 

So looking around at quads, I've recently stumbled upon the Yamaha Breeze 125. Seems it's a lot like the Grizzly 125, and was around until the grizzly replaced it around 2005. Anybody has any experience with one of those? I've been reading that they have surprisingly good power, but once again they look a tad bit on the small side.

I wonder what type of upgrades there are to increase the width/height of an atv like this if I wanted too just a little bit. Hmm...

Also, I don't usually care about looks too much, man the Breeze 125 sure does look ugly to me. Looks like it has absolutely 0 suspension.