The wife bullied me into buying a quad for our oldest, age 6. We live in a very rural area and have had quads for the last 20 years.

I thought 6 was a bit young, but lost that fight...And to be honest 2 weeks after Xmas and I am happy I lost.

We looked at the Meercat and the Falcon. Although I thought the Meercat was more appropriate CC wise, the frame was just too small for our 6 year old. He's a tall one. So with nothing at our local Kazuma guy between the Meercat and the Falcon we went with the Falcon. It was assembled, with a new spark plug for $999.

So I read this forum, heard the good and bad and have to say it has been right on accurate.

I got the quad home and changed the oil right off. Although the dealer said use the shipping oil for a while, all I did was start it a few times and let it idle with the shipping oil. I mean for $2 a quart, you might as well put in the good stuff right off. It seemed to me like it took about 1/2 quart to fill it....Have a long flexible funnel ready to fill it as the fill is in a hard to get at spot IMO. I used 10w30....But have seen folks say 20w50 and make sure it is detergent free. I'd like to hear more about that a I am still confused about the oil(which type and the detergent factor) and the manual is out of date for the model.....

Anyhow the Falcon has gotten about 10 hours on it at this point. I did not Loctite the bolts....And I lost one....So I did go through and loctite some of them, replaced the missing one, but recommend doing them all up front.....

So far the Falcon runs great. I am about 190#'s and my boy is 50#'s....I rode with him to get him used to it all. Yes it exceeded the Max weight, but we're country folks and generally are tough on equipment, LOL.....

It seemed I could go about 25-30MPH and I'd imagine this thing would fly with just the boy on it.

The suspension is as bad as everyone says. The tires are hard and slip in the snow very easily. I forsee getting the wheel base extenders and some better tires.

If this quad runs this well for a year I'd be tickled. Looks easy to work on, simplistic....

I have not throttled it in yet....And may not.....In first gear the boy has to use the throttle to get unstuck and rarely is going into second.....It seems like, and I am sure there are more cautious folks out there, that he is learning to ride and use the throttle correct. If I restrict it, not only will he not be able to get through the slippery spots, he will not be learning how to throttle.....But that is likely another topic that you all might want to beat me up on...

Overall, I was very aprehensive with a Chinese quad...I expected the worst and have been positively surprised....I wish they used better tires, real oil, and softened the suspension. That'd be worth another $100 to me out of the box......But overall, so far so good.

Regards,

Scott

 

Welcome to the forum TrueGritScott, It sounds like you did your home work and it paid off.

 

I didn't know that 20w-50 non-detergent oil was available.
Just be sure that whatever oil you put in it does not have 'energy conserving" on the round API label on the rear of the container. The oil should be rated MA for cycles but you can use any good grade non-"energy conserving" oil in the engine. I just changed the oil in my son's Honda 90 and I went with Shell Rotella T 15w-40. It's a diesel oil but is rated for wet clutch applications in Allison transmissions and is highly reccomended for cycle use. Being that there is no oil filter, change the oil frequently since it's a shared sump engine.

 

good morning, i have also purchased a falcon 110,for my 8 yr old daughter. this bike came in the best crate out of the three,bikes i purchased. all the parts were ther and it was not damaged. i locktited all the bolts and changed the oil. quakerstate 20w50. i hope i did not make a mistake with that. my daughter is about 50#s, i had originaly adjusted the throttle down to walking speed. this is fine on a hard surface,but when we went to the arroyo bottom it wasnt going to work. i also gave the throttle back to her. she is learning to use it beutifuly. the arroyo bottom is very thick sand, so she cant get up very much speed. and she uses only first gear and reverse. i am very pleased w/ this quad,it runs like a top. i looked into the wheel spacers,which is a must,but raceway will not have these until the end dof next month. this bike has a 4 bolt wheel patern. i ordered k&n air filters for all three bikes today. im not sure that they will fit perfectly or not, but i will let you know when i get the desired filter and the part no.

 

santa brought the kids (11 & 9) a falcon for x-mas. locktited all the nuts, oiled the filter, changed the oil and it runs like a champ. we're in the snow belt and i've packed down some trails for the kids, falcon struggles in the wet snow (gotta love those tires). looked for chains but couldnt' find any, so i put about 75 studs in each rear wheel and now the machine cruises over the icy spots.

had a bit of a problem when the atv ran out of gas in the trails. switched to reserve and got it back to the house where i filled it back up. i apparently made a mistake in fiddling with the fuel valve on the right side of the machine, opened it all the way up and started flooding the motor and had gas running out of the little tube from the carb. wife was smart enough to close it about 1/2 way and have had no problems since.

did the second oil change after about 5 hours. be aware that the oil fill plug is plastic. i screwed it in too tight the first time and snapped off the silver plastic part, thankfully leaving the rest of the plug in place. time to call raceway and see if they can add that to my wheel/tire order!

all in all, very pleased with the machine and i'm thinking that it might be time for another one...!

 

along w/ my daughters 110 i also purchased a dingo 150 for my wife and an adult falcon250 for my son. the dingo runs very well and it has enough power to drag my 210lb fat a$$ up the hills. my sons 250 is on a large frame,the suspension is wide and very plush. the bike steers very well,and even w/ the throttle limited to about 3/4,it has good power. im thinking that mabe i will buy one for myself.

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UPDATE:

Well we've been running the Kazuma for just over a month on a daily basis. I'd say wee have 50-60 hours on the machine. To date it has run perfect.....Starts everytime, runs well. Gets a bit bitchy when low on gas, but that is nothing I am worried about.

I think now that I have some confidence in the machine I will buy some Wheel spacers and also possibly new tires.

I saw spacers for $20 on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LT-80...spagenameZWDVW


Not sure about them, but may give it a whirl.

Now tires I don't have a clue on, but the stock ones are stiff and hard, but maybe I should let the kid wear them out before we spring for new ones. What are you guys paying for a set of decent replacement tires?

In summary I'd say if you follow the advice found here, change the shipping oil, loctite the bolts(I've spot done them after loosing one) you'll have a pretty darn good deal.

Bad things are well known, hard ride, high center of gravity. But maybe the tires/spacers will help. Anyone have a softer shock mod to talk about?

Anyhow just wanted to update the group.

Regards,
Scott

 

I purchased two of those kits off ebay from him. They appear to be great so far. My son has only ridden his once with them on. Makes a huge difference in my sons Kazuma 90. Has a much more stable feel and look to it. Im working on a few things for this style of quad. My sons is the 90, like I said, so Im not sure how much would be interchangable. I have two more rear shocks coming for his and will let you know how it works out.

I also read somewhere else on here that the swingarm is a weakpoint. My son has not ridden his enough to find out yet. I have had a multitude of other problems though. My thread on that is here HERE

Good luck and keep us posted, I will do the same on the rear shock issue. The fronts Im just not sure what to do with that.

 

Another update:

Chain broke the other day. Seems the master link just popped.....Found a replacement link in the local HW store. What I have noticed is that the chain streched a bit, which I would say is normal for a chain. I still have to tighten it up, but no biggie.

ST

 

Well, I just popped in to tell yall that I bought some GBC R/A GroundBuster 2 rear tires for mine... I don't know how good they are on snow, because live in texas, but they sure work good on dirt!! Also, very cheap...got both for around 80 bucks on rockymountainatv.com. talk to you later,

Zach