lohman,

Your pictures look great!!! The pictures of your "mud holes" reminds me of the trails in my area. Lots of mud, lots of trees and lots of "slip slide and away" places to have fun on. That deep of mud is great for the big 4x4 4 stroke machines but isn't so friendly on the 2 stroke CVT "vented" transmission units. You'll probably need to limit the dept of mud / dirty water with your future "young rider" on his new mini. For a picture of our adult mud run results, surf: - Press Here -

The adults with no helmets reminded me of a situation that once happened to me. It was a warm spring day and I couldn't wait to take my son on our local mud trails. The snow was almost ALL melted and our trails were very slippery. We got up one Saturday morning at 6:00 AM, loaded up our quads, drove to our local trails, unloaded and we both dressed up in our dirt clothes. Dressed up for a good long awaited "mud run". We both hopped on our quads and had a blast for an hour. We stopped to have a little rest / refreshment and as I was finishing our drink, my son looked at me and calmly said, "now let's go back and get your helment". To my surprise and being rushed to hit the trails for the first time, I forgot to put my helmet on. With my winter hat on, I didn't even notice. Although though my gut kept telling me that I forgot to do something. So, we headed back to our trailer, found my helmet laying on the ground, (where it vibrated off my quad while it was originally warming up), I put my helmet on and "off we went again". Long story short.... Kids do notice things that "us adults" sometimes forget. That was the first and hopefully, the last time I forgot to put my helmet on...

After that incident, my son now gives me the checklist in return. We do a pre-check on his mini and his safety equipment and he does it on me. And yes, he does tell me we "can't go" even if I don't have the proper safety items in place. He even spots when I try to sneek by with my running shoes on. Reversed safety checklist of your future riding partner might work for you as well.

Hope this helps...

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spike99 and dragginbutt - When riding with our children, and at State Parks, we always wear out helmets. This last ride was in the middle of the week, on a buddy's farm, during the day, with no children around. We always stress importance of safety with our kids, we probably need to practice what we preach a little better. Thanks for the advise.

Agree the small quads won't do well in mud, like where we drive our larger quads into. The plan for my son is to ride around the yard, in the fields, and around the mild trails on our property. He will never ride unsupervised, or without a helmet.

-lohman

 

No problem. Hope it didn't sound like I was lecturing. Two years ago, we drove our quads "around our house" in the deep snow. What a blast!!! We had so much fun, my wife wanted to send my sister a few pictures. We removed our helmets, put our winter hats on, did the smile / cheeze thing and my wife sent the pictures to my sister. Next thing you know, my sister calls my dad, who immediately intern called me, and started blasting away. Yes, one of those "what are you doing with my grand kids with no helmets on!!!" lectures. And we didn't even send the pictures to him. Attitudes about helmets certainly have changed since the old days.....

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Here's another technical improvement tip...

Not too sure if you noticed but many minis don't come with a factory greese fitting (grease zerk) on their Swing Arm bar. Swing Arm wear happens on many minis. When your unit is off warranty, you may want to install your own Swing Arm greease zerk (if it doesn't already have one). To see how I installed a "push on" grease zerk on our Pred-90, surf: - Press Here - To me, all minis should come factory with a grease zerk in this location.


Hope this helps as well....

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Thanks for the update... We are not ragging on you... Some of us are involved with state, local and federal levels and we are fighting for the rights of all ATV enthusiasts... One of the biggest deals the environmentalist lobby uses is injury statistics... When ever they get their hands on pictures like those, they blow them up to show the "Damage" we do to the environment and they like to highlight our inability to protect ourselves by using helmets. If we are going to have any credability with the authorities, we have to remind everyone that we need them to help us as much as they can.. and wearing helmets is just part of that. Thanks for helping us out, and making sure the kids are taught in the proper ways.