I am going to get a new quad for my 5 year old daughter, mostly sand dunes and trails. I have been looking in these forums and it seems the LEM is faster and lighter and the Eton is more bulletproof and you can make them alot faster with a little work. Both of my friends have the Suzuki/Kawasaki 50cc quads and they are heavy and have like 2" of suspension. and are pigs! any advise is greatly appreciated, as my daughter will kill me if I dont get her one soon!!!

 

I purchased a eton 40 for my 3 year old. He out grew it before he was 4. I had many problems with it as well. The LEM will be faster with better suppension. I am not sure that a 50 will work well in the sand, other than the paking lot. Has any one had a liquid cooled LEM in the dunes? That may work ok.

 

I bought my 4 year old son an E-ton Rascal 40 in July of 2002. It has been a great little quad. At the MX tracks the little LEM's are always out front.

 

Its all preference. I have a lem and love it despite all the gripes I've heard in the past on some sites. There all kinds of upgrades you can do to the lem as well as the eaton. Lem does not make a liquid cooled quad in the states but they do exist [My best friend has a 50cc lc cayman now I just rode and its fast but pricey with all the mods needed, but he will do them for a price.] You can upgrade the lem from 60cc to 80cc with some after market parts and going from the stock 50cc to any upgrade is pretty cool. I can help you if you need technical questions answered on the lem cayman.

 

Just want to make sure everyone knows the e-ton rascal(or the new viper jr 40) and the e-ton viper 50 are two very different bikes.The 50cc bike is the same size as the 90 with smaller tires and engine.It has the same good rear suspension(about 4 inches of travel) and about 1 1/2-2 inches on the front.It has all of the great features of the 90 including the rear hydraulic brakes,lights,horn etc.The little viper jr or rascal 40 is a much smaller framed mini with a remote kill switch,good for a very small child or one with no driving experience at all.Can't comment on the Lem from personal experience,I've heard they're fast but reliability is supposedly an issue.

 

I am starting to notice that on alot of the manufacturers, the only difference between the 50cc and the 90cc bikes is the size of the tires. even though my daughter is only "5" years old I think the smaller tires, closer to the ground, would make more sense if it was a two wheeler, but she wants to try to ride my DS 650! I think I am going to get her a 90cc bike, my friends have Suzuki LT50's and with all of the restrictions removed they go ok on the flats but anything other than a small rise and they wont go. Forget about sand!