Hi

[Jedi]

Hi All

I'm a new member of BHQTA and just wanted to say Hello.. HELLO!

Well I've been wanting a Quad bike for me and my 8 year old boy ever since i sold my motor bike but the Mrs did not approve. We had a family holiday recently and all had a go on a PGL run Quad bike day. We all loved it and it showed that it isn't dangerous with the right gear, trainging & location. So we have decided to buy a Quad bike that can be restricted so my kids can have a go and unrestricted for me.

I have started looking on ebay for an entry level quad so we can all learn and then get something better when we know what we want from the quad bike.

I was looking at non road legal quads but there aren't that many tracks to go to. I found one track in Reading and it costs £10 for kids and £15 for adults per day with own quad. I'm sure after a while at the same track we will get bored. So is it better to get a road legal quad to get more variety of riding.
If I get a Road Legal bike is the insurance expensive and are there any other expences i need to know about. The one down side is my kids will not be able to ride it on the trails and I will still have to take them to a track.

Well I look forward to all your advice as I need it...

Cheers
Jedi

[catmandoes]

Hi Jedi

Welcome to the Forum.

Without doubt you will get a lot more use out of a road legal quad. Insurance isn't all that bad but they often insist that you keep the quad in a brick garage as they do get stolen far too easily. You will also need to tax the bike which is standard car tax not motor cycle tax. The only significant coast in my opinion is repairs which, depending how and where you ride, can be regular and tedious.

My advice is to spend as much on the Quad as you can afford. Buying a cheap quad often ends up putting people off quads and they are often uninspiring to ride and can be very unreliable. Many of us stated with 'Quadzilla' quads. These are low cost machines of reasonable quality but still capable out on the trails.

There are very few places a 8 year old can ride as even the official tracks have trouble getting insurance for children. Im afraid my advice is that Quads are far too dangerous for children to ride. A quick search in the News will show a very tragic history of children hurt and killed on quad bikes.

Another alternative is to buy a long wheel base quad and then take your child with you out on the rides as a pillion .

Hope you enjoy the forum.

[RED PRED]

You are in the right place for quad advice .
Here are some starters;

How much do you want to spend ?
Do you want new or used ?
Do you want manual gears or an auto ?

One piece of advice that 99% of quadders would give is not to buy a chinese quad as they are generally poor quality and worth nothing when reselling, avoid the ebay importers like the plague .
The most common starter quad is usually a Quadzilla, the 250E has been a very popular starter quad at a reasonable price and with good relibility, it has a manual gearbox and is quite a small quad so may suit your kids, the throttle screw can be wound in to limit the power for your kid, the QZ300XLC is popular but is a fair bit bigger than the 250, both these quads can do up to 55/60mph with decent handling and brakes .
Some people have gone straight to a japanese quad and bypassed the starter quad scenario, this is great if you are happy with used/far more expensive quads, you can also wind in the throttle screw, another plus would be better resale values and reliability (cannot be guaranteed on used jap quads) .

Link to the quadzilla website

http://www.fasttoys.co.uk/

[corsasri]

jedi come to the dark side

[Raptorman]

Gary did that took you 2 months to work that line out lol

[RED PRED]

Malc, the transfer to the dark side always takes time, you cant rush it LOL

[corsasri]

yes i had to get my helper to read it to me.