My wife and I bought a Hi-Bird QH-250ST from AnAm Cycles in February - knowing we were going to go on a trip to the Hatfield-McCoy trails in West Virginia on Spring Break.

Yes - there were some minor problems - I'll get to that - but for $1300, this was a fantastic value. We rode all over those mountains from 3/27 thru 3/29, Green trails (easiest), Blue trails (intermediate) and yes, even the Black trails (the toughest), my Hi Bird made it through everything we could throw at it. I had plenty of power, never got stuck, great speed, and some great agility running through the rocks.

Keep in mind, this was an out-of-the-crate, put-it-together-yourself machine. It comes mostly assembled, and you have to put the wheels and nerf bars and handle bars on. Yes, I did go through and put loc-tite on all the bolts - when I put it together - although the guys at AnAm recommended that I loosen, loc-tite, and retorque EVERY bolt on the quad - i only did that with the ones that I used to put it together.

Here are the problems I encountered - Day one (right after I put it together in February) - I forgot that the lowest gear was reverse and slammed it into reverse when I was going forward - the chain broke. I called AnAm Cycles and they sent me a new chain - for FREE. We got the chain by the next weekend, put it on, and my son and I took turns running the 250 through the small trails in the woods behind our house. It did great.

3/27/08 - Day one on the trails - Had something clogging the gas line - cleaned it out, and promptly took the 250 up the black trails, rocks, trees, mud puddles, and all. It pulled me through everything!

3/28/08 - Day two on the trails - rode about 70 miles, back and forth through the Indian Ridge Trails, uphill, downhill, through mud, over rocks, doin donuts on some gravel roads, even on the highway, Route 17, for about 10 miles and back. On the last trail - after about 60 miles or so, the bolt holding the back end on unscrewed. HOLY CRAP! My son and our camping neighbor brought back tools and we tightened it up, rode about 10 miles back to camp.

3/29/08 - Day 3 on the trails - re-torqued the rear-end bolts with loc-tite, took off on the roughtest ride of the trip. Rode through green, then blue, then black, then green trails, and after about 30 miles, I rolled it. I bent the handlebars and broke off the right front fender. Got up, righted the 250, bent the handlebars back as much as I could, and kept going another 20 miles. Stopped once to re-torque the steering column bolts, once to retorque the nut on the right front lower tie-rod end - still rode through one more blue trail and got back to camp.

3/29/08 - night - (day 3 1/2) - My boys were out too late, went to find them - in the dark on the trails. Keep in mind, I had wrecked earlier in the day, hadn't applied loc-tite to any of the re-torqued bolts/nuts yet, and still had a bent handlebars. Rode about 16 miles, boys were fine, Hi Bird got me back to camp just fine.

Advice? If you buy one of these, take off the plastics, loosen, loc-tite, and re-tighten every bolt on the ATV - AnAm recommended that I do this when I first put it together, but I didn't listen.

If you're thinking of buying one - DO IT! The ATV has GREAT power, when I opened up the throttle, the quad handles everything you throw at it.

We also have a Honda 400EX, and a Yamaha 200 Blaster - and we ride a lot - the Hi Bird held its own. We are thrilled with it.

Things I would recommend? Get new, lower/wider handlebars, let some air out of the tires, maybe even get new, lower profile tires. Oh, and mount some lights on the new handlebars - riding through WV mountains in pitch-black darkness makes me want to prepare for ANYTHING.

All in all, this ATV is a great value - and I'd do it again.

 

I have the same quad and I couldn't agree more!

I rolled mine, cracked the plastic almost all the way through, bent the handle bars. Replaced the hanlebars for $20, then switched everything over.

As for the lights, I left mine on for a long ride and they burned through the plastic. I'm looking into mounting some on the bars too.

Great machine for the money. Loctite is our friend though!

 

Also, sand is not so friendly with these machines.....but then again no 2wheel drive i've seen w/o sand paddles, is all that great.

 

Problem is it sounds like the High bird may only do that trip so many times before things really break apart. I sold a 89 350 Yamaha Big Bear for $1300 that would do that trail for years to come without a hitch.

I tried to kill that ATV but gave up and sold it to a friend,he has not killed it of yet.

 

Hi ascottharris, nice review on your Hi-Bird. For the money they are hard to beat. Sounds like you already got your money out of it with all the fun you've had with it.

Please don't pay attention to TLC's negative MIC comments, he has posted negative comments about them on other threads and has nothing constructive to offer on them.

 

I bought my HiBird 250 in February and I love it. I ride mine in the hills outside if San Jose and it never gives me a problem. I do agree that you need to loctite everything. My first time out I lost the screws that hold the finders in place, but that was it. I love it so much I am trying to talk my wife into getting one for her and it will be another Hibird

 

Do any of you guys have paddles cause where i ride theres mainly sandy conditions and here and there its rocky but im thinking if anyone has got paddles on these Chinese ATV? Thanks

 

[img]i/expressions/devil.gif[/img] Thanks guys for the reviews. I'm about to buy a 2006 250 Hi-bird from someone for $500. He says there is nothing wrong with it, But as of yet I haven't seen it or test drove it. I have a few other Chinese quads, so I know how to fix stuff. I was looking for some reviews and I stumbled over this post. I think this made up my mind, I'm going Sunday to check this bike out and probably buy it....Thanks again

 

hey whats up i see you hgave bought the hi-bird 250,,, i wanted to ask you about a problem im having. after about 3 min of running the bike starts to spit oil out of a tube that comes off the motor.. the tube is black and it has like a bottle on it with a hole on to of it. it looks like some goes into it but i dont know what,,,,,,,,or is it a breather and if so why is it spiting oil

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Coloradotrailrider

Hi ascottharris, nice review on your Hi-Bird. For the money they are hard to beat. Sounds like you already got your money out of it with all the fun you've had with it.



Please don't pay attention to TLC's negative MIC comments, he has posted negative comments about them on other threads and has nothing constructive to offer on them.</end quote></div>

I read and re-read TLCs post a few times and don't see any mention of M.I.C., and it hasn't been edited out either.