We started our son on a 90 at 2 yrs. old. NOT!!!

He was 7.

 

It is really a tough decision to make, and if you are trying to convince the spouse by using material gained here, don't.. because every child is different, and environments where they will be riding also play a very large part. You child may be a progedy... while others may be lagging way behind normal. Are you willing to put your childs life in the hands of obviously twisted and opinionated people like the rest of us?

In my own opinion, which is pretty radical on a scale of 1 -10... Even I would have a great deal of problems with a 4 year old... Now if we were talking a bicycle... then maybe... I can be assured that they can fall and get a bike off of themselves... not so sure about a quad though. If your child can't tough the pegs sitting down, they are too small. If they can't squeez the brakes, they are too small.

If you decide to go forward, just be sure the riding area is limited to a flat surface with wide turns, and you limit the speed for a while. AND buy a lot of safety equipment. If you are not able to afford the gear, then move on to something else. The kids deserve every chance to make it safer.

Lastly, Honda has some good information available to help you make an assessment on your childs abilities and whether they are ready physically and mentally, AND capable of riding a quad. GET IT AND READ IT! It's free!

 

I was a prodigy. I was already in the hospitol at 4 from crashing a wheely on my pedal bike and jumpin off big jumps with my older brothers. so no one was worried about me. dang farm kids.. My friend started his boy riding when he was 4 and kid has full safty gear and he would walk behind the quad with a tether and if the kid would take off or get scared he just pull the kill. bike stops. worked really good. Now the kid is 6 and has a raptor 80 and friggin flys. He is jumpin and sliding thru turns and wants a faster bike. every kids differnt. Like some boys are shavin at twelve and some never have to shave [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

My son started riding a PW50 when he was 5 years, he was not interested before ( I bought it when he was 2 1/2, maybe I was a little moore interested as usual ) He is now 6 years, and rides his Arctic Cat 90 as he had done it for years, sliding and jumping ( I did remove the throttle / speed limiter after about a month of riding ). He now allready wants a faster quad. He can also manage my LTZ 400 in first gear.

 

My oldest son started riding an Eton 40 at age 4. My youngest boy is 2 1/2 and he now rides the 40. We do walk behind the 2 year old with the kill teather attached to a dog leash so the wife or I can pull it if he gets over his head. Throttle screw is turned almost all the way in as well. Bill

 

I started on a suzuki 50 at age 4.

 

Note: All of our riding is in "sand only". For sand you need more HP as the sand robs power.

My son started riding an ATC70 @ 3-1/2. He rode it in 1st gear with the throttle limiter screw all the way in. We walked along side of him while he rode. Each trip we usually would back the thottle limiter screw out a thread or two. That went on until one day until we determined he had full throttle. Then we started teaching him to use the other (4) gears. By age 5 he was really too big for it and needed more power. So, we moved up to an LT-80. He rode that it for about 2 years or until he was about 7 years old. He then moved up to a stock Blaster (his sisters). That of coarse demanded additional training in camp to teach him about using a manual clutch. He stayed around camp for the about the next 4-5 trips and then moved on to the dunes. That lasted a couple years or until he was 9 where he again was ready to move on. So this time he stepped up to a stock 250R (sister got booted out of her ride again). Initially he stayed close to camp and took it easy and or rode the small dunes. Again another 4-5 trips and he was hitting the regular dunes with the whole gang. On group rides he's right there with us and by no means is he riding over his head to keep up. Last trip @ the Oregon dunes 07/04 he lead one of the rides. He held a good quick pace, not blistering, but one we had to ride pretty hard to stay with him. Also, since 10/03 he's been TT racing his old LT80 and doing well. He's pretty consistanly finishing 1st or 2nd. Right now he in 1st place in the points for the 80cc novice class and second in the 90cc novice class with only (2) races left in the series.

If our family rode on "dirt" trails instead of sand, I would have kept him on smaller CC'd quads.

Rude Dog

 

Rudedog you got the smaller cc's on the trails right but is your son mentally ready to handle the 250r? My son is on a lt 80 and makes the right decisions almost all of the time, but I think he is years away from a 250r. And by the way he is very intelligent for his age but still has the maturity of a 8 year old.

 

YOu know somthing quadduck?, I find it ironic that the two of us who were yelling about regulations and limitations 6 months ago, have now seemingly fallen victim to the dark side and are now thinking that the regulations may not be so bad after all... I admit I think putting around on a 90 until they are 12 is a little too much, but I am just amazed about the transformation that has taken place in the past 6 months. Even I cringe when I read 4 year olds riding. More power to them, but I still can't agree with their ability to make good judgment calls at that age.... I guess they survive as long as nobody gets in their way... Just imagine the bad press the sport will get and the Child abuse claims that would result if a 4 year old is killed on one...

 

When the green adult gets in an accident or even an experienced one does it doesn't get the same atention that a child does. So even if your kid does have what it takes just remeber that if something happens the media will have a hay day with it, not to mention what it will do to you and your family. It is hard to face people when they believe that you are the reason for little Johnny or Jill getting hurt or worse.
I've been riding since I was little and I still occasionally get into trouble every now and again. So if adults can so can a kid, who has only been riding for a couple three years or so. Draggin I hope someday that I will posess at least 1/2 of the smarts that you seem to have.