Today my son's ATV failed him. On a trail he was technically able to handle, but the ATV that met the "recommended" requirements was NOT able to handle, the swing arm broke.

Somehow I was blinded to this before, but this event caused me to realize the subtle lie in the ATV industry. ATV manufactures post stickers on 90cc ATV's saying "For 12 and over" not only KNOWING it will be purchased for younger children, but actually BUILDING them for them.

Why doesn't the ATV industry make a medium sized ATV with a 90cc motor? Because they KNOW that parents will buy the larger CC ones for their kids anyway and disregard the "recommendations."

The SP90 should be fixed under warrenty. I plan on keeping it, but it will soon become the "ride" of my 8 year old. It was apparently built for his age group anyway. My older son will get a 250cc class machine as soon as I can afford him. He be under my watchful eye, as always, of course, but he's shown exceptional skills on the 90 and I've no reason to doubt he can handle the larger machine once he gains the proper respect for it's additional power.

I'm still a little pissed at the whole limitations deal. My only hope is that at some point, someone with enough clout to do something will have the ***** to stand up and make a stand.

Sorry, just needed to vent a little. You can read about the trip under the "Tales from the Trail" thread on the Arctic Cat forum. An otherwise wonderful trail ride was clouded by the failure of an ATV obviously too small for the rider it was supposedly built for.

 

The problem is that you bought a POS 90cc atv. The Polaris uses a swing arm that is junk. The a-arms are just as bad. Find a Kasea dealer and take a look at their machine. You will change your mind on mini's.

 

I bought the SP90 because it was the ONLY ATV in it's class to sport racks and look like a utility machine. I really don't let him carry anything with any appreciable weight anyway, but I want to encourage him to think more of trail use than pure sport use. It's a personal preference of both mine and his that unfortunately severly limited us in our choice of equipment. Does anyone else even MAKE one (a utility type 90)?

I will agree that the swing arm is a POS, though. The machine is designed for the 6-11 age range, yet is supposedly marketted at the 12-15 range. This is a joke, in my opinion. Polaris (and the other manufacturers) know full well that their 90cc class machines are being used by the younger age group and design them as such.

Kasea, by your accounts, may be the only manufacturer (or one of the few) that actually designs a 90cc machine for average 12-15 year old kids.

The thing that gets me is that my son is 11, not even meeting the "recommended" age range for the machine he can clearly out ride. And while I consider my son to be very good on it, I don't presume to think he's an expert. Heck, he's still a rookie yet, he's only had it three months. It would not be too much of a stretch to assume he's the "average" level of ability for this class of machine and yet the machine is not even built for this average. If all parents made the concientious choice I tried to make, and bought their children the "recommended" machines instead of the 250ex's and Blasters, there'd be a lot more broken 90's and a lot more outcry.

One thing I did learn from this ride. This was on public land, and I saw a lot of riders doubled up (which I strongly discourage, even though we HAD to do this to get off the trail), and a saw more than a few younger riders on larger than "recommended" equipment. I now have much less fear of being "caught" putting my son on a Ozark.

I would like to add here that I do NOT advocate placing children on machines clearly out of their class. In fact I don't advocate putting ANYONE on a machine outside their class. I have some friends who are 5'2" and 100 lbs, smaller than my son yet fully adult, and I'd steer them clear of buying something larger than 300cc and/or 500 lbs, simply because the smaller machines are actually safer for them. What I DO advocate is strong parental guidance and judgement and allowing us parents to sensibly make the choices that are safest for our children without having to worry about what the sticker on the ATV says.

The first thing I am likely to do on my son's Ozark, when I am able to buy it, is remove the "16 and older" sticker.