Wow Dragginbutt...I almost feel insulted by your comments. The I remembered, opinions are like a$$%$les, everyone has one! The best thing about parenting is almost everyone is eligible, whats even better is there are folks out there like you that arent afraid to "chime in" when they think its needed. Thanks for your suggestions and advice...but my daughter is a much safer/confident rider at age 6 because i started her at 3. I also pride myself on the fact that she doesnt know how to log onto the interner or play a Wii, but can start her own quad. The time will come for her to be computer savvy, and when it does i will support her just the same. You are absolutely correct that a child under the age of 6 has the attention span of 15 seconds...thats why we have bikes, scooters, baseball, soccer, swimming, or whatever else happens to be the "in" sport fo the week.

So cring away there dragginbutt, but please dont ever say I havent "thought for more than a second"....

 

New to this site but OLD to quads and bikes and Jeeps and trucks and... and...and. New to being a parent though. We have a 5 year old boy and 2 year old girl.

I think it ALL depends on the maturity of the child. At 5 my boy is riding a LT50 quad, a CRF50 bike, and a Ski-doo Mini Z (120cc). They all have limiters for the throttle and they are all dialed down, but he still gets the experience of riding. As he gets older he will get to ride faster.

My daughter is obviously interested in all of her brothers stuff so it will be interesting so see how early we let her try to ride. I can't say if it will be 3 or 4 or 5 or...., all depends on how she develops.

Don't force your kids. When we got the CRF50 my son loved it for a couple days then it sat in the garage for a while, and that was fine. Now he rides the quad and I ride the CRF50. Riding TOGETHER means the world to him, riding by himself...not so much.

Riding a motorized bike or quad is pretty special for a little kid. Watch out for them and make it safe and everything should be good.

 

I once researched this very topic for a college paper. I chose to write the paper on something else less controvercial. There are no numbers for children under ten. Most of the accident reports show children between the ages of 11 and 16 on adult sized ATVs when they were not supposed to have the machine. The key to those accident statistics is supervision. Even the 3 year old on the raptor in the video is supervised. If thats how he wants to teach his kid, his busines. I saw the video, the kids pretty good and will grow to be great if thats what he likes. My daughter has a set of rules she has to follow. she wears a whistle in case she does get out of sight (behind the barn) and needs help. but she is never left alone when she is riding. Nobody here would use an ATV as a babysitter and put their children in harms way. Dragginbutt would never have posted had he actually done the research. MAybe thats why he has not responded since. Opinions are always insulting.

 

it seems ok to me, maybe she's a tad too young, but then again if she's got good motor skills then she could be a pro. I think a 49 with an adjustable throttle would be cool, i mean you could prob make it go the same max speed as those plastic wheeled little tyke things til she gets used to the new machine. i think ultimately its up to how well she rides now. personally, I would wait maybe another year or two...but thats just me.

 

I just watched the video and the quad is way to big for the kid in my oppinion. Now when I was a kid we started out on adult sized 3 wheelers cause there was nothing sized for us! Hell I didn't even know what a helmet was! Did that make my parents bad? I don't think so although my kids have rides that are properly sized for them as well as the safety gear. I would post a video of my daughter ridin at 5 years old but that would probably stir the pot as she flat gets with it and runs prob close to 30 on her little 50 and handles it better than her 12 year old brother.

 

I agree with the suzuki 50. my 3 year old daughter started on one. there is a rear pull string engine kill switch & this can be slowed to a crawl. the frame is very small & this will more than likely be her third & final summer on it. You're right to be conserned with safety. attention spans, rembering to brake, & watching you watch them instead of watching where they are going have all led to crashes in my yard. luckily nothing more than scrtaches & bruises to both my daughter & the LTZ 50. tough little things.