What is the right age???

[H1Pilot]

It's fun reading the thoughts behind the decisions...

Truth #1: Kids are always capable of more than you AND they realize.

Truth #2: Daughters are not the Sons we wanted them to be...there brains work different!

I have 2 boys and 2 girls. Son (22) still rides Rev 600 144. Daughter (20) still rides Polaris 500 133. Daughter (9) and Son (7) ride Polaris 120/170's w/98" tracks.

My oldest sons first sled was a 97 Summit 500 136 at age 14. I told him I would upgrade him as soon as he made that sled do things God never intended it to do. Within a year he had moved to a 00 Polaris 700 144 and at 17 he got on a 600 Summit Rev 144. He rings that 600 out and never holds up the pack which consists of 800s, all with longer tracks.

We are backcountry boondockers. Our sleds are built for that and I am building my kids sleds to do the same. Weight is a factor that affects rider input. Power is a double edged sword. More track length helps flotation but hinders maneuverablilty. This info is nothing new, but can be helpful when remembering who the sled is for. I look back at the days when I was 190lbs on a 600 xlt 133 chasing my buddy on his new 99 700 144. He always got to the top first, but I got there eventually and had to become a much better rider to keep up.

Any kid can ride a stock 120 as long as they can sqeeze the throttle and EVERY kid will be bored with it in 30 minutes or less.

Any kid can ride an 800 as long as they can sqeeze the throttle...

We make our best judgements for our kids, no one else can or should. I look to the Motocross world because they have been building kids bikes forever. Look at the racing classes and see what ages are riding what bikes. The majority of kids can handle the power and weight of the bikes in their age bracket/race class.

One last thought. The nice thing about youth or older sleds is that they hold their value when purchased second hand. You can change or upgrade every few years as your kids grow and not lose your ars.

 

[Shwinecat]

The majority of the riding is done in my area for the season. I just wanted to point out a few things I learned with my son riding this year. My son is 9 and weighs about 62 lbs. We took one 5 day trip to the mountains and rode numerous times where we live. We were in WY on Union Pass for our trip. It was the most fun I have had in years and it was the greatest thing to watch my son go from never riding in the mountain to be able to follow me through the back country.

My son was riding 05 M6 141 and I was riding 09 M1000 153 and my brother was with riding X-fire at all times. We scheduled our day and altered our riding to making sure he had the basics down and was never in a spot to get himself hurt or stuck where we could not get him out. We were very fortunate to hit the snow just right with about 8 to 10 inches powder on a good base.

We left the cabin and rode to one of the warming huts each day and stopped. I made sure he had his sense of direction and knew his way back to cabin from the warming hut. This helped him a lot in not getting scared of being lost and where to go if he needed to get help. We lit several fires so he knew how safely if he needed it for warmth. We then would head cross country shortly there after.

We spent several hours each day with him learning to sidehill. If you can't sidehill you can't mountain ride in the back country. I can tell you after 26 stucks the first day, 22 the second, 18 the third and 8 the last full day you get better at getting a snowmobile out when stuck. The snowbunjie paid for itself several times over.

The biggest surprise I got was I let him ride my snowmobile and he had easier time sdiehilling on my machine even though it was the heavier machine. It made no difference which machine on the flats or slight inclines but anything with any decent grade to it at all the 141" inch track would wash out on him. He would end up laying the machine on it's side with the track out of the snow and be stuck. The 153 let him go slower so he could pick his lines slower, stay at slower speeds and get the machine setup to go into the sidehill. I rode a lot of M-6 on the trip and if things work out it will have a new zip code for next year.

The biggest things I learned overall. If you do not have much strength you have to really have the steering and throttle down to a science. There is very, very little room for error. I have gotten by with bad throttle and steering habits due to being able to muscle my way through it. I will not buy my son a machine I do not enjoy riding myself. If I do not like riding it why would he. We are working together all summer to buy him upgrades.

 

[norsepeak]

started my daughter at 1.5. This winter she is 2.5 and rides the dog stuffin out of her mini z. It's got a bigger motor in it and does 18 mph and she is full throttle all the time, but she doesn't like to ride in tracks, she likes to make her own. (boondocking....daddy loves that) She just got a little quad too which she loves...it's pink camo.