I was in your position exactly when purchasing my youngest son's machine. I made the choice to get a raptor 80 for two reasons. One, I felt the mahine fit him better because of the size. Yamaha's minis are larger than some of the others, and the ergonomics fit him a lot better. Secondly, because of his weight, I felt that he needed the extra power. Well that is where all the problems started. What I felt was the right decision for him size wise, also cased a great deal of frustration, because of his age, he did not fall within the safety guidlines used my many states. Which means that he is locked out of taking the safety training courses offered, and cannot ride in many public riding areas where I wanted to take him. At least not legally that is. And I am not going to set a bad example and have him lie about his age to make it possible to ride. I have subsequnetly purchased a 9 acre piece of land that we use for riding purposes.... but the important thing to keep in mind is that it is important part of the decision. If you want to remain legal, and still give him a few thrills, the yamaha 50 is built on the same chassis, only the motor and tire sizes have been reduced. You can upgrade the tires at any time... although the motor is harder. Once nice thing though, is that they hold their value quite well. and you can usually get nearly what you paid for it if you choose to upgrade as he gets older.

All of this is important to me, as you can see with the land purchase, and add in the RV, and trailer.. and the for machines I ride, and the one for my wife, the sport of ATV riding represents a significant investment to me... and to not be able to let him ride if I go to a national park, or riding areas like hatfield McCoy etc.. well that really kicks me in the teeth.