Many thanks to everyone for the advice (lecturing in some cases, but I digress). Anyway, after much research here are my "semi-educated" decisions.

For my 14 year old; 2001 Honda Recon (red). Eliminated the Bayou 220 pretty quickly, really too small for him (physically) now... plus according to several sources, including one respondant here, it has a super low 1st and if you down shift unwisely (or mistakenly) while gowing uphill it is easily flipped. Also the dealer only wanted another $300 for the Recon. The Bayou 300 4x4 entered the picture late and stayed in the running until the end. The real discriminator here was that if I was going to spring for the additional $1200 over the Recon, I might as well make it $1600 and get the Rancher 4x4 (by any reasonable evaluation a superior ATV to the Bayou 300 4x4). So I was getting budget "creep" and decided for a first bike I'd stick with the original plan (i.e., 250 class). The BearTracker finished second. The weight to power ratio concerned me a little (I've been told repeatedly that an underpowered or undersized ATV is more dangerous than an overpowered). Plus the dealer wanted within $100 of the Recon for the Beartracker. After my son rode them both forget it, Recon all the way. We also looked at the following and eliminated each for various reasons...Polaris Xplorer 4x4; Polaris Magnum 325; Bayou 300 4x2.

For my 10 year old we decided on a Yamaha Breeze. It was really a combination of things. First, I liked the size of the bike for him. He just "looked" too big for the Badger... although I think he would love the "Raptor look" version of that bike due out in November. None of the sub 80 sized bikes were big enough. Plus I was really impressed with the ride of the Breeze. It's automatic, has a throttle limiter, and has full floorboards. I've heard that one thing that gets younger riders in trouble a lot is their feet slipping and them losing their balance... also when they get in the least bit of trouble inexperienced riders want to "put their feet down", which can lead to disaster. Plus, my grand plan is to graduate him in a couple of years to the Recon and assign this to my wife (5'5", 120#). The fully automatice will allow him to concentrate on riding... not shifting. It should go anywhere I'd allow him to go for the first year of so. Anyway, as fate would have it while I was negotiating with the dealer on my older sons Recon (he didn't have a Breeze) they took a 99 Breeze in on trade. It was like brand new... it couldn't have more that 25 hours on it. So that did it, I made a package offer. We were leaning towards the Sportrax 90 (couldn't find a Breeze).

Once again thanks to everyone... now to get them in an ATV class, then it's to the farm and the trails.

 

I would not buy the RECON.. Spend the xtra $ and buy a Rancher! Worth the $$$$$$ and much etter resale! He will not outgrow the rancher