Quad bike investment.

I am thinking of investing in a quad bike with racks. I want mileage not performance. What would be a good model to look out for. One that takes unleaded petrol would be ideal. A 400km range would be ideal i have twenty liter jerry cans plastic, a 4500, food water and a swag to carry.

Allot advertised second hand are like performance quads for jumping and stuff. I will go for a 2 wheel drive as they are cheaper. I notice the price increases with the cc 250cc is half price compare with 500cc.

G'day Birdman,the bloke that owns the quad bike hire for tourists at Denham (shark bay) is selling the bikes to upgrade to new ones. they are bombadiers (spelling?) he wants 5 grand each.
cheers sparra

Hi everyone

This is my first post, am new to the prospecting game and am looking around at the forums for any info that will help and noticed this thread and hopefully I can give back to some other members.

I used to work on 4 wheelers full time in a country dealership. Most bikes I saw came from the incredibly tough environment of irrigation farms, so I have seen what effects them and what models stand out. I have to admit that working in a Yamaha dealership has biased my view a bit.

If your most important requirement is mileage then do not get an auto unit. Make sure its semi-auto..ie it has an auto clutch but you still have to shift gears manually. Full autos use a lot more fuel and they are large capacity engines to compensate for the losses in the driveline.

http://www.yamaha-motor.com.au/products/atv/utility/09-big-bear-250-2x4-semi-auto

I would have to recommend the bike above, its probably the most reliable bike in the Yamaha range, with a proven old-school air cooled engine and no inherent faults chassis wise as long as maintenance is kept up to it. If you change the engine and diff oils at the recommended intervals it will go for ever...farmers neglect these things mercilessly and they always seem to last better than the more complex, bigger capacity models.

Honda make a similar model;

http://motorcycles.honda.com.au/ATV_Work/TRX250TM

If you buy second hand then you need to be very careful seeing that farmers are pretty much the only people who buy them new and then neglect them. Beware of diff problems because with Hondas, in most cases, its dearer to rebuild a diff then it is to rebuild an engine. The Yamaha's only weak point is the timing chain but only if the oil change periods have been extended or poor oil is used. Having said that if the chain is noisy its cheap and easy to replace as long as it hasn't been let go too far.

Cheers