Kid's ATV's - Why the Kawasaki KFX 90 and KFX 50 should be at the top of your list!

Hi everybody, it's Peter. And in this video we're gonna look at two kids ATVs. And if you're gonna look at kids ATVs, I encourage you to grab some popcorn, grab a drink, watch this entire video because as much as it's about the vehicles and it really is, it's about more than that. And I'm gonna try to cover some of that in this review of these two KX 50 and KX 90 s. And we're gonna try to go through what you need to pay attention to for kids ATVs and I'll try to cover that in as much detail as I can. But of course I won't get to everything. So if you have questions, do me a favor, let me know when the comments below and then hit subscribe because I'm filming here at Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals, Jim Gilbert's Powersports, and they give me complete access to their entire vehicle line.

And if you have questions that I don't answer in this video, I'd be happy to answer 'em in the comments in the future and also to make future videos so you can really see what these are all about and we can get all answers that you want out on video. So let's start with a quick review of these and an overview of kids ATVs in general and things that you as a parent may want to know. So if you're a parent thinking about getting your kid an atv, the first thing you wanna be concerned about is price. If you're like me and price is a really a complicated thing, you don't necessarily want to buy the cheapest one. What you want to do is get the best value. And one of the things to remember is, although there are cheaper versions of ATVs for your kids out there, when you're buying into this units like these, these are Kawasakis and Kawasakis have a major advantage over things that are maybe a little bit lower priced.

And here's a perfect example. If you buy a lower priced ATV and a part goes on it and you can't get that part for part of the summer or the rest of the summer or maybe even at all, suddenly you save some money in buying a unit and you've actually cost yourself a significant amount of money and time in waiting to get those parts. So one of the nice things about the Kawasaki models is you can get parts the readily available at your Kawasaki dealer. There's a network of uh, you know, set parts systems that can come in and get there. And it's something to really keep in mind. And other thing when you're looking at cost of things is these things hold their value like crazy. So buying something new puts your kid into a safe, reliable, tested unit that you can also sell for good value.

And remember, if it's a no name brand and all of a sudden maybe that part's not going so great on it, now all of a sudden it's worth nothing with these things, they're always gonna be worth something and your kids will outgrow these. So it's something to keep in mind that resale value's going to be important and these really do well. These are both 20, 23 models and I want to go through a couple details on just these actual ATVs that you may, you know, that may matter to you as a parent, it may matter to your kids as well. And then we're gonna talk about the overall ownership experience and that's really the part that I want you to stay tuned for. So let me go through these vehicles first to show you what I think is great about them and then we'll talk about a little bit more context

Around them. So the first thing I want to talk about is, yes, I'm too big for this. I'm about six feet tall and these are smaller. This is the 90, this is slightly larger than the 50 over there, but these aren't absolute blasts to drive. And I mean that genuinely from me, not just from kids because we just drove the two of these around from the showroom around to the back end here. So we have a little filming bay where we can work in for now and these things put a smile on both the salesperson's face and my face and we drove them back here cuz they're fun and that really matters. Make sure they're fun and these really are, but the way they're fun really matters as well. We talk about safety. So I wanna point out a couple little things even just in the suspension here that make them handle well and help them uh, be comfortable all day for your kid as he's out on them driving.

And let's just start with the suspension. We'll work our way back through some of the safety features and we'll work our way through both models, the 90 cc and the 50 cc model. So on the right of your screen is the 50 cc model and you can see a little difference in the wheels here. The front wheel is sort of rounded on the 90 cc and sort of squared off on the 50 cc. And you gotta keep in mind that these are all about training your kids to learn to be safe on an ATV as they get older. It's not just about going around rip around having fun, but it's a process of getting them ready and stepping them into the world of ATVs into that Kawasaki family. Now a couple things make a difference here as well. You can see the springs in here

These things are actually tuned. They're not just thrown together with a spring that holds the weight. They're actually tuned to keep the kids safe and you can see a variable spring rate in here. What that does is it allows you to have some minor compression over those smaller bumps and then the larger areas for the larger bumps, it basically sets it up to feel like a larger ATV will feel. So when they start to learn the processes on these ATVs, they're gonna understand the feeling and be familiar with it as they move up along the lineup. And you can see that again in little designs like the suspension. There's another couple things that are pretty cool for the 2022 model year. I don't know if you can see it on camera, let me see if I can take a look there. Yeah, you've got headlights here on the newest one.

So they used to have sort of reflectors in here. You've got headlights and taillights, they l e d. So it's kind of cool. And again, you're talking to them about uh, little extra you know how to learn different things. So when you talk about maintenance, hey are your headlights working? And keep that in mind. The other nice thing about the headlights is you can see if the key was left on, let's check a few other things out. So staying with the 90 cc here, you've got a couple things that I really like. Instead of just having a plain footboard that you know, just here for style, you've got that proper, you know, place to put your foot. So instead of teaching your kids to just kind of put your feet anywhere, you can teach them to put them in the right spot as they move to a larger atv.

This is gonna be more of metallic or stronger piece. Uh, but you've got all kinds of strength drainage there to get your kid positioning their feet in the right way. The other thing is the oil is right there. That's something that your kids can learn to check on their own if they're gonna be learning how to drive these things. They also need to learn how to maintain them to keep them safe, not just for this unit because you're probably gonna pay attention to this one, but as they move older and move beyond, you wanna make sure your kid understands how to use these vehicles. What you have to do to have the full ownership experience, it's not just about riding it like a bicycle, you really wanna make sure you're maintaining it. So having them check the oil on their own or check the oil supervise is something that's very easy for them to do and it gets them into the idea of hey, this isn't just for fun.

There's a responsibility in this and they can take care of things like that themselves. They can understand what's going on on their own. Taking a look at the back end of these, again, very simple, very similar on both models that you can see the massive difference in the entire size. So we've got the 90 cc here, the 50 cc there. There's a couple other differences we're gonna point to, but right now I've got the rear light on again, the lights don't show perfectly, the perfect color here on camera, but that is the bright light. Uh, over there on the uh, 50 cc, lemme just show you the 90 cc. It is a taillight right now on both these bikes and if you hit the brake then it is a um, brake light as well. The reason that the 50 is so bright right now is because I had the parking brake on and I just left the parking brake on the 90 as well.

We're gonna talk about brakes and everything else in a second, but let's just talk about suspension. You do have some preload adjustment in here so you can adjust that suspension to handle the weight of your kid as they change. So that's not nice thing to have. And you have disc brakes here on the back. Nice cover for the chain. So whatever you're going over, you've got some cover and protection for the components there and just easy, easy, simple access, everything right here. Now the 50 cc does have an extra feature back here. I'm gonna show you that right now as we move our way to some of the safety features. All right, I just wanna give you context of where we're looking. So I'm gonna zoom in here, uh, a little bit here and we'll try to show you where we're looking at the back end of the vehicle here.

And I wanna show you if I can get it right where I want it, right around there, this red little thing in the center of your screen. So we're gonna point to you that right there, we'll talk about that. This piece here is essentially an an auxiliary kill switch for this uh, unit. So if you were walking behind this unit, uh, you can have it strapped to yourself and if you pull it, this thing's going to die, it's gonna kill it right there. You can also uh, tether it to your child on the 50 cc model. The 90 cc doesn't have this, but by tethering it to your child if they were ever to fall off of it, it's not gonna keep going on its own or go down whatever it's not, it's gonna turn itself off as well. So couple of extra safety features, like I said, you can really govern these down so your kids can learn at quite a young age, but having that rear tether switch, uh, where you can sort of undo this strap here and pull that will kill it.

It's just a nice thing to have. And like I said, the 50 cc has it, the 90 cc doesn't and by the time they move up to a 90, you probably don't need something like that. Anyways, let's talk about some of the other safety features and controls on these units as well. So we're looking at the left side control of the 90 cc and this is equipped with a kill switch and an electric start. Now a kill switch is nice because again it's something that could teach your child as they're using these vehicles how to control the vehicle. So when you turn it off you should turn the kill switch off and they'll know how to do that on their own. Now you do have an electric start as on this as well as a kickstart. It is a carbureated vehicle but it has an automatic choke.

So you just press the start button and you should be good to go no problem. But again, you have that backup kickstart if you want on both of these units so you can teach them all that as well. Over on the right side of handlebar you have the throttle right here. Now the throttle may not move in its full sweep there depending on how you have it set. This is how you can sort of limit your children's enthusiasm. You can keep it in a certain level to have a throttle that only goes part way so that you know, uh, how fast they're going. And the nice thing is, like I said, because it only moves part way, you can see how you've limited it. So you can tell by just checking with your own hands, have I limited it to where I want to limit it or do I, am I gonna allow 'em to have full throttle or not?

So that is something that is adjustable by tools. You can very simply limit how far that throttle can be pressed and therefore, therefore limit their speed. So nice simple control right there. The other thing you have here on the right hand side is your parking brake and it's super simple to use. So I can pull that brake lever in like this, I can press this down like that and your child will know how to apply the parking brake. Part of learning these units is learning, hey, turn that kill switch off, turn the ignition off, apply the parking brake, those kinds of things. And you can simply do that uh, with your kids. They can learn it on themselves, they can squeeze it easily themselves to release it. So press it down, push the kill, switch in and you're good to, or sorry, the parking brake on and you're good to go.

Simple, simple stuff. So let's talk about using these, whether it's around the yard, around the farm or out on the trails. These things are fully capable. They're full kawasakis, they can go deep into the woods, deep onto the trail, deep through the mud and really get moving where you need to. And because they're so lightweight, they don't really get stuck. They're only rear wheel drive, which makes things simple but it also makes things fun and allows them to start to experience the ability to move that back end around when you give it a little extra throttle as they get more used to these things so they can understand that over steering feel, uh, help control things and it really does teach them how to use it. And if it got stuck, one thing that's pretty cool is this is the heavier of the two, the 90 cc.

It's quite easy to pick up the 50 cc. Same thing, you can just kind of move them around. They're fairly lightweight. You can kind of help the kids get uh, you know, stuck or unstuck. All the panels are nice, uh, sort of flexible plastic. So even if they were to brush up against a tree or something like that, it's not the end of the world. You've got pretty durable materials here. So really these units are all about learning in New Brunswick here you could take courses and you have kids at various ages able to ride on certain size ATVs. So the 50 cc is for the youngest of kids. You can move up here to the 90 cc to have other kids drive and they can drive them legally. They can learn to ride them and be safe. And that's really what these units are all about. Graduating

Them from a safe vehicle into a next vehicle, into a adult vehicle where they can learn the processes, learn the maintenance, learn how they actually handle, not just cheap ones, which are, you know, they look cool but they haven't really been designed to be used the same way these Kawasakis have. That's the big benefit of something like this. If you get your kids something that's a little bit too big and maybe don't go through the process of stepping them through the process, that's just the way to make an unsafe rider. This allows them to take some ownership over something that they can control. They can check the oil, they can make sure there's fuel in there. They are all floor strokes so there's no uh, no mixing of uh, gas and oil to fill them. You just put the fuel in them and keep them running.

But it gives them some ownership to really understand the safe process of having a blast out on a good atv. So like I said, the real benefit here, when you buy them new, they hold the resale value. You've got something with quality brakes that hasn't been abused that you can really take on and you can sell at a very good value when you get your child into something that's the appropriate size for them. They can start at a young age and learn the safety process. They can learn how to drive them safety through limiting the throttle through having strong capable brakes. And if something goes wrong, you've got a dealer network that is can really take care of you, that can get the pieces of parts to you to get them back on the trail and you're not stuck with something that, hey, that part broken, I just can't replace it.

And now it's a paper weight in your garage. So these are pretty fun. Let's talk about one final thing. So this final piece is one of those things that I think gets really overlooked and being here at Jim Gilbert's Power Sports, it really hit home for me because I'm gonna be honest, when I was researching these, they weren't super exciting for me to do a video and I don't get to ride them. There's not a whole lot to them. But I talked to Rob Davis here who is the power sports manager and it just shows when they call this can's huggable car dealer and can's huggable power sports dealer, it shows that they care. And one of the most important things about buying an ATV for your kid is having a dealer that gets it and that cares. And I know that sounds silly, but little things like getting parts, yeah that's important to have a dealer network, but it's also important to make sure you have a dealer network that helps train you, that can help get you into the right vehicle for the right kid and helps move you through.

Make sure that you're being trained so they can direct you towards some of those safety courses. They can direct you to towards some of the safer trails so you can get out and have an absolute blast but not have to worry. They can put you in position to succeed so that your kids go out, they have fun, they're safe, they're responsible, and they don't ruin the reputation of ATVs for all kinds of other people just because they weren't trained well or they didn't learn how to do things correctly. So one thing that's really important is your dealer network. I'm here working at Jim Gilbert's Powersports, where there's a clean up bay out side here where we wanted to film these out for you so we could get 'em ready. If you are looking for one of these for Christmas, it is early December and these are on a great deal right now. Make sure you swing by Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals and if you have questions, let me know when the comments below and I'll make sure I try to answer those in comments and in future videos. Thanks everybody for watching.