My son is 3 and he has had a kawasaki 50cc since he was 1. Obviosly never rode it by himslef at first, but he since he was 2 1/2! I was pretty paranoid at first beings he was only 2, but since his dad and I are into riding, I figured I'd better get used to it, so we bought all the gear he needed for protection and let him go! I'd put some pictures on here, but I can't from the computer I am on, but there are some pretty good ones of him on atvtech.net in the pictures and video forum, in the mini riders section. He does pretty good with it, we have it tuned down to I think, 10 - 15mph.

 

2ManyToys,

No such thing as 4 speed automatic clutch? Honda has been making them for 30+years. It's a centrifical clutch, as it spins faster, weights cause the clutch surfaces to make contact and engage. Semi-auto is just another term for the same setup.

Most Sunls have this type of clutch and 4 gears.

 

Heather,

Thanks for the reply, that is the kind of stuff that I am looking for. Everyone else, please keep the technical stuff coming as well.

 

Kazoooma,

I own a Polaris and it is automatic. All polaris' atv's are CVT except the Predator. A true automatic is belt driven or has torque converter. I know how they work. The Sunl do not have 4 speeds, belt or torque converter. What you call a CVT trans is Constant velocity transmission. No gears just clutch sheaves. The faster it spins the centrifical force pushes weights out on the clutch and the belt moves up as the clutch closes up. A CVT has an infinate ratio. Hondas design is a torque converter just like a car. Or they have the semi automatic like on the 250's. You have to shift these. This is nothing like the SunL atv's. A semi automatic you have to shift with a shifter but have no clutch to pull. Anything with gears has to have a clutch, semi auto clutch or torque converter. The sunl has non of these. If you look at any parts breakdowns for the tranny it has 1 gear. thats the problem with them. They are geared too high so you dont have the low end of a first gear. They took the Semi automatic shifter off and that is thier term for automatic. Do some research and look up Semi automatic and automatic.

 

2manytoys,

Not to start a debate here, but your are wrong about the Sunls. You say they have 1 gear internally and you say they took the shifter off, that doesn't make any sense, why would they have a shifter if they have one gear?

How many Sunl's do you own? I don't see any in your sig, I have 2 of them. Both are definately 4 speeds, I know, I've used all 4 speeds on both of them. I'm sure about this! As for the clutch, I call it an auto clutch because you don't control it manually. It works as I described above. It is similar to a CVT in that it uses centrifical force, but I wasn't trying to say it was a CVT. As you can see in my sig, I have one of those too on the Dingo.

 

I have worked on the sunl 50cc and 70cc. Also the Baja 50 and 70cc. These are exactly the same. Im not saying they have a shifter then took it off what I mean is it is the same setup as the ones with the shifter but the case has no hole where the shifter is. I had to replace the wetclutch in the 50cc . when I took it apart it had the same setup as the semi automatics but no shaft for the shifter. The 50 was in second gear. On the 70 one of the keyways on the timing chain fell out. I had most of that one apart and it looked to be the same setup as the 50. If you say it shifts into 4 gears do you actually feel it shift? Or is it real smooth. Alot of people complain that the 70cc has no power. Maybe the 90 is setup different but I have seen what is inside the 50 and 70. Even looking at a parts breakdown it shows nothing else but gears and a wetclutch but no shifter. The sunl that I have worked on are described as fully automatic. And when I mean 1 gear I mean it is setup to only run in 1 gear.

 

I also dont want to start a debate. I just wonder why some complain that they wont go over a brick from a stop and others say they climb hills really good?

 

Ya know something I just thought of is the Kazuma meerkat has the 4 speed semi auto and the automatic. They are identical except for the shifter. The automatic one is the meerkat sl. Does sunl maybe have 2 different versions?

 

Yes, Sunl has both types, one type with 4 gears, and another that is single gear, probably 2nd. 1st would be way to slow, and 2nd would be slightly sluggish when starting out. I would not want a Sunl with only 2nd.

Yes you feel it shift, it just like the classic Honda Trail 70, Mini 50, all their 3 wheelers in the 80's, etc....

My daughters 90 has so much torque in 1st it will easily pull a wheely with me on it.

 

the problem with the autos are you cant slow them down going down a hill. What i mean is youcan adjust the limiting screw to the point that the machine does not have the power to start moving but with the autos if the start down any grade the machine will still go close to full speed on my sons red cat cub 70 thats about 25-28 mphwhich for my son that is four is far to fast the advantage with the three speed is that each gear speed is limited to rpm