I just bought one of those little Redcat 50's....lemme tell ya that is one little tank! It has the Honda Z-50 engine in it and a four speed gearbox. It's not going pull any of the mini's off the line, but once you hit fourth at WOT you are haulin! (for a 50!)quite frankly it's too fast top end for a 50 in my view. If you have ever ridden a Honda Z50 or XR50 dirtbike then you will no what to expect performance wise from this quad.....just add one more gear to the top end and you got it.....this thing has GOBS of torque in first gear!
The frame is heavy and things are overbuilt for an atv this size, which is a good thing. There is no front suspension, but for a four banger for trail riding I don't think it will make much difference. It has electric start and a foot controlled brake..another nice feature.
It has a real working headlight, and not one of these little toy units either! It is a sturdy housing with a real glass lens and very bright halogen bulb, it lights up the trail very adequately! There are absolutely no flimsy parts on this atv, everthing is solid and looks bulletproof.
Now the downside....kids who are small enough to ride this quad cannot shift it. This shift lever effort is unbelievably firm although you shift it down (vs. pulling up) it still is amazingly tough to shift. Plus you shift in a "circular" pattern vs. four up then back down. If you are in neutral and tap down 4 times you will be in 4th, but if you tap down again your back in neutral then tap again and your back in 1st.....you can see what can happen here...your kid is flying along in 4th and thinks he's got another gear and taps down again...the motor races in neutral....so he accidently taps down again....and BANG hits first gear at 30mph! Over the bars he goes......not a good thing.
I am thinking about mounting a Cycle Country Electrix Shifter to it so he can just have pushbutton shifting on the handlebar.
This little quad is very good looking...it looks like a sport quad is supposed too....doesn't sit real upright and look top heavy...it looks alot like a miniture LT80. They are definitly a very poor choice for racing, but for ******* around with Dad in the mud and slop, it seems like this will be the ticket.
there is nothing fancy about these quads, but with the proven realiability of the honda engine and the heavy duty build, these look like they will take a severe beating and still crank right up!....time will tell.
Hope this short review helps someone that is looking for a new 50......

P.S. Does anyone have any experience with the Cycle Country Electric shifter????

 

Would anyone have any ideas on making the shifter action much lighter??

 

I don't want to burst your bubble but that is not a genuine Honda engine. The Redcat is the same as the Kazuma Meercat and I looked into those quads for my son and emailed the company with some questions, one being if they used Honda engines (main reason I was considering this quad).
My email to them:
I've been looking for a ATV for my son and I came across the Kazuma web sight and noticed your Meerkat 50. I have heard rumors that this ATV uses a Honda engine, is this true? I like the features this ATV has but under the safety features it says "remote kill switch" is this a remote control switch or a tether type kill switch? I was wondering if you could send me some more information on these ATV's either by email or direct mail and also if you had any pictures of the Meerkat 50 with a kid on it so I could compare size? Thank you for your time.

Reply:
There is no garage door remote per say just the ability to attach a safety laynard to the ATV which to me is a useless feature. They are not Honda engines but cloned from them. They are rated up to 86 lbs so they are small units. Feel free to call if you have any additional questions.

Anyway are you happy with this quad? Any problems?? I'm still thinking of getting one for my son.

 

I probably should have noted in my post that the motor was not actually built by Honda but was a clone...you are correct. We did not keep the atv as there were two issues that made this atv impossible for my son to ride. First is the gearshift, it is as hard to shift as any atv or motorcycle I have ever been on. The pressure it takes to move the shift lever up or down is substantial.....way too much for little feet.
The second thing turned out to be the lack of suspension in the front, initially I did not think this would be that big a deal....I was wrong. Because this is such a tiny atv with a small wheelbase every bump nearly knocked the handlebars out of my sons hands...it was very rough. There is no doubt this is a very well built little machine, tough as nails I would say, but these two items just make it impossible for learning riders to have any fun on.
If they would make the exact same atv in a bit larger frame and body, and put an cvt drive on it...and some front suspension, it would be my choice hands down! We loved the electric start, strong 4 stroke, bright headlight, and the styling, not to mention the price. But it's no good to anyone if you can't ride it safely!

 

So, did you replace it with another quad?

 

Well, we already had an LT50 and after much searching, we reluctantly just hung on to that for now. The ideal quad for my son would be about the size and weight of the new LT-A50, with suspension similar to that but with a motor that has some guts! If such a quad exists....someone let me know.....please! Everything else we've looked at is either too tall, too narrow, to cheaply built, or or just down right stupid looking! If you could put a strong 50cc motor with a CVT tranny in the LT-A50 frame and plastic, throw on some works shocks, add a headlight and electric start ...then you'd have a killer little atv! no such animal that I know of......

 

We started with the old LT50 for our kids. When it came time for little bit to join dad on the trails, we realized that an LT50 is truly a yard bike. We did manage to get some trail riding in by dropping the front tire pressure down to about 1.1 psi - just enough to hold them on the rims and yet give a little "suspension" to keep the front end on the ground on bumpy trails.

Jaybee

 

Hey There,

I am also researching kid quads for my kids, what a job that is. I think you can take the restrictor plate out of the exhaust to get more power on the new LT-A50? I believe you can do that on that bike. If I am correct, I have heard that it gives the bike the needed extra power. I think I even found the instructions for doing that online yesterday. If I am thinking of another bike, my apologies. I'll try to find the website I was looking at.

Take Care and good luck

 

I know a guy who made up a remote kill switches for the kazuma 50 atv for his son, email me if ya want any info on it and I'll get ya his email

 

You can take restrictor plate out of the 50 and it does make a difference in the power but it is still not very powerful. I'm gonna mod the airbox and rejet it to help it a little more but I still think it will be underpowered, so I might have to go into the motor someday. If anyone knows what size jet I should go to with modding the airbox please let me know..........