Suprised by my little red machine.....
 

So Ive only owned an ATV for about a two weeks now. My son has been riding dirt since he was 5 but Ive just been watching. Well recently he wanted to start riding at the OHV parks so I bought a dirt bike and took him. Had a good time and my old dirt bike worked well but I thought an ATV would work better, he seemed to do better on his ATV then on his dirt bike.....plus I have to have as many toys as he does.....he also has a go kart but Im not going there.....fat guy go karts are to big to fit in my crowded garage.

At any rate I bought a cheapy ATV figuring I could likely go anywhere he could on his LT80 with it. This would keep me from pushing him to try something just to follow me.

So I scored a 1994 Honda Fourtrax 200cc 2wd machine in superb shape for $700.

Sure enough his LT80 decided to smoke a belt today so he had to stay home....but I had the trailer loaded so I went by myself.

The little red machine REALLY surprised me. It had rained the last 3 days so the park had quite a few mud holes and all the ruts were filled.....all the hills were sloppy etc. I stayed away from the really steep grades but other then that I went everywhere I wanted and never got stuck.....climbed up and down some pretty good grades without any real issues. For the most part I could just put it in 1st and ease up and down the grades. Climbed over tree ruts and rocks with relative ease.....had a damn good time on the cheap.

I would love to have gone down some of those steep grades but I was afraid once I got down there I would not find another way up.....and I likely could not have made it back up. So Im thinking winch would give me a little bit of a backup plan.

Good times......

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Very reliable ATV a guy who goes on our fishing trips for the past 15 years has one and loads it up heavy and always makes it no problem. I like how it can turn on a dime.

Which came in handy on those few trails I turned back on....back a bit off the trail and just crank her on around.

Just shows that you can have a real good time without spending tons of cash.

Here it is up front and loaded up.

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if you go mudding, bring a come along if you don't have a winch hooked up for sure. very hard to get any wheeler out of the mud w/ out another wheeler or some kind of winch. imo have fun and be safe.

Yeah Im looking at winches and also considering a hand winch of some type.....just havent decided yet.

If you need a strong hand winch this thing is serious. I had one but didn't want to carry it when I got my quad. Polaris had a free winch deal so... Here's a good site: The Wyeth-Scott Co. Established 1906

This just proves you don't need to spend $10,000 to have fun on the trails..... You don't need the biggest or newest machine to get into the sport.

This should also be a call to those who think about buying new Chinese ATVs because they are "cheap" .... Well I'd take your Honda 200 at $700 over any brand new ATV from China.

Nice find aaron. ;)

Id been there a few times on my dirt bike but I had 10x more fun on the ATV.....I could go slow and not worry about falling over.....didnt have to pay attention to the throttle as much..or ruts.....or tree roots,...just a far better time. Im a convert for trail riding....not bothering with the bike anymore.

This ATV has already been $700 worth of fun. My buddies give me a good ribbing cause Im a big guy 6ft4in and 330lbs on such a little ATV......but the upsize is its easy to move around on the trail and in the yard.....and my son can ride it now so after hes ready to move up from his LT80 he can ride it full time and then I can look at other machines, likely in the $2000 range or so. At 400lbs I wont let him ride it unless Im directly supervising him I would hate for him to roll it.

Im looking forward to going again.....