I am going to buy an atv for my 9 year old. I am trying to
teach him the importance of safe riding techniques. Does anyone
know of a video that shows what can happen when you don't
ride carefully? A pictures worth a thousand words kind of thing.

 

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Not too sure if any videos do exist. If they did, I'm sure some media or tree hugger would plaster the gory clips all over the nightly news. Thus, destroying our mini-quad sport for the many great & safe youth drivers.

Here's a thought..... A 90 mini-quad is around 200 lbs. Some are up to 250 lbs. Ask your young rider to lay down and put the mini-quad ontop of him. After the weight compresses on his chest protector (say, 10-15 seconds), he'll no longer be able to breath. If he doesn't stop breathing, lift the mini and drop it on his chest. A nice 5" drop should do the trick. Does he stop breathing then???

If wondering, I'd NEVER do this to my kid. And especially NOT to another kid. But if you are trying to put "the fear of mini-quads deep into a young rider's heart", this is one method. It would certainly make a young rider realize how heavy & dangerious these minis really are.... Especially when they don't understand fast speed, proper cornering and how quickly these minis can tip.

Note: If you want to make your 90 safer then factory, consider making it wider (especially on the front) and if needed, give it much better suspension. We widened the front of our Pred-90 and it make it much more stable. Especially on the technical tight trails and sharp tight turns.


Hope this helps - some how....


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There was a video that came with our Hondas, but I can't say it was particularly impressive. The one thing it did not emphasize was SHIFTING YOUR WEIGHT IN TURNS. It had the riders LEANING to counter the weight of the bike in turns, but as one quickly learns just leaning isn't near enough..........the rider has to SLIDE THEIR BUTT OVER to do it right. This is the biggest mistake that I find beginners making.

 

If you purchase the cpsc age/cc ratio quad and it is a major brand the you will get to send them to the atv safety institutes riding class. They won't let kids ride atvs that they have classified as being too large. But if you find a friend with a 50-70cc they could use it for the class. If nothing else do a search or contact atv safety institute to see if they would send you the book.
As for what crashing looks like take him to a local track and have some racers show off thier scars or find an old copy of crash and burn magazine. Also a lot of owner manuals ( I know suzuki any ways also have really good info ) out thier would help you out.

 

qwadfather,

No - I'm not sick. Just had one of those days. Would I put my wife under her car? NO. Would I put my kid under his Pred-90? NO. Would I lay our 19 ft 4,000 lbs camper on top of me? NO. But if the kid is driving wreckless and the father wants to teach a quick lesson about cornering and speed, why not "lay it on his arm and tell him to push it off"? Man, that will certainly make one slow down in a hurry.


Asking a kid to "lift its tail" or lay the mini-quad on his/her arm is "more reality" to him/her - compared to watching a video. To some kids, a video is "just a video". But the real "feel" is reality. Thus, might have better outcome then renting a video.


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http://streetbikeworld.com/forum/default.asp
Look here in the picture section of their forum. They have some streetbike crashes that only a parent can decide if their child could look at or not. I let my boy look at some at 9yrs. old because he wasn't watching where he was going on his bicycle and I wanted him to see what speed and impact can do to a body and why not wearing a helmet was a bad idea. If you look around at sites that have fuuny videos there's usually some nuts on atvs crashing.
http://enwhore.com/viewmovie.php?mid=684
Here's one site. Projectblaster.com has some vids too I believe you can look at.

 

Found some videos on e-bay, we'll see how they work.