I'm trying to encourage my wife to start riding with me, and the first thing I've gotta do is find a quad that she can ride. She's used to snowmobiles (from PA) and doesn't want to mess with a clutch or any shifting. Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to ride, two wheel drive, ~200 to 300 cc quad that is automatic? I've been looking at the Honda Fourtrax 200sx (I know that even saying "honda" on a Bombardier forum is blasphemous, but give a guy a break okay [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]) and I think that Polaris makes something like that. We're in Southern California and I think I'll start her out at Glamis or where it's nice and soft with some small rolling dunes, so that gives you an idea of the terrain we'd like to tackle. Any suggestions from past experience? I know that alot of the folks on this forum have been riding for a long time and there's a bunch of experience out there...I welcome any and all comments.

Thanks,

 

Scrambler my friend it has the power to dune and is automatic a two hundred won't cut it i tried a 250 for my daughter and she cuoldn't keep up or run hi on the dunes no power the 400 is perfect and no gears.

 

A Polaris TrailBoss is a nice quad for a beginner, 4-stroke, 325cc, automatic, wide stance, good handling and suspension. But dunes are another story. The sand sucks power and Heavy quads like Polaris don't do very well out there. No utility is worth a damn in the dunes, some will go, but they really aren't much fun, they just weren't designed for it. But the Polaris Scrambers have some more oomph and still have automatics. We had a TrailBoss and it was my wife's all time favorite. But we never had it in the dunes. She has since given it up altogether. I don't know if I will ever get her back on a quad.
......Anybody have any experience with a TrailBoss in the Dunes? If you don't mind a two-stroke the TrailBlazer might be an option. It is a little lighter than the TrailBoss, with more hop-up potential. I think Polaris are great for beginners. Good handling and suspension with easy automatics, floorboards, one brake lever.
.......It's either that or make the jump to an auto-clutch Honda like a 250EX, but it is tiny. Depends on how big wifey is.

 

Trailblazer is what i started my wife on.Its a nice easy to ride quad. It's a little underpowerd for any real big dunes but a clutch kit and pipe cured that! The power is alot better now but my wife dont like climbing nothing real steep anyways she just gose around. It also makes a good trail bike.

 

i had the same problem a year ago,the wife couldnt ride my old warrior at all,so i started looking and kept going back to the polaris trailblazer and scrambler.i got lucky though and had her ride a blaster of my freinds,even though it has a manual clutch trans she loved it,alot of it was due to the light weight,easy to turn,ect. so i traded him my warrior,got some cash to hop up the raptor and avoided having to buy a polaris.i didnt think there was anyway in hell shed be able to ride the blaster because she killed the warrior every time she let the clutch out but the small size of the blaster gave her confidence i guess.

 

Are polaris that bad? (avoid polaris) I think the trailblazer is a good little atv and for the money it makes it even better!

 

A friend of mine has the 250 Trailblazer for his wife, and the 400 Scambler for himself. The 250 doesn't have the power to climb the four main dunes at Silver Hills in Michigan (my only comparison), but the 400 Scrambler has plenty of power and quite an impressive top end for such a heavy quad. It'll give a 400EX a good run for the money.

How about that new Bombardier - the little 176cc liquid cooled, can't remember the name...

 

NeoSirfir,
Had the same damm problem,I originally had a 400EX for her to ride.Well to say the least she lost interest real quick,she doesn't like to shift,and was also scared following me up hill's,she didn't like having to rev the thing up or go to fast to make a hill also she didn't like not having reverse!So we sold the 400ex and bought a Scrambler 500 4x4(tried to get a grizzly but she still liked the looks of a sport quad)well................................she loves it,works perfect for her in every way,plenty of power,reverse,no shifting,when a big hill comes along she just hits the 4x4 switch and chugs right on up at her own pace.............................Sooooooooooo glad she back in the into the quad thing!!
Jeff

 

Thanks for all the suggestions, and keep them coming! I doubt that I'll have her tackling any more than a small mole hill this year, so definitly something that is stable and builds confidence will really help. It looks like we've got a consensus of Polaris machines, Trailboss, Trailblazer or Scrambler .... I'd love to get her onto the 250ex, but even the auto clutch may turn this gentle introduction into a belly-flop. So......how's the reliability on the Polaris machines....anything sure to go wrong with them? I'll go dig through the Polaris forum on these as well.

Thanks!!

 

If cash is a thing, check out the new rally, if not the scrambler 400 is nice, the 250 trailblazer seems to underpowered unless you put a clutch kit and a pipe on (( do you think your wife wants to ride something with a pipe ? )) If she has ridden snowmobiles, she can ride a 400 or 500 cc polaris.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]