Time has come for me to add a quad to my shed. unfortunatly all my friends have quads and I don't ,so I can't hang out with them until we get the sleds out.

So here is the question, WITHOUT people brand loyal touting that everyone else sucks ,what are the honest thoughts about the quad you own or have owned?
Like for instance, I have heard that polaris quads have lots of motor problems and yet have talked to a friend who said he's not had a problem with his at all.

What I am looking for would be a 4x4 2 up.I want to keep my price damn close to 7 grand. That seems to keep me at 400-450cc.

How are the Can-Am's? I know manufactures all say they have "most power in class", but what do you think?(check out the numbers on their website for percent of power over competitons)

well i test rode a Can Am, Honda Rincon, Kawasaki Brute force and Arctic Cat's. Out of what i rode i was least impressed with the Honda, most impressed with the Can Am (overall) and the Kawasaki and Arctic cat were both right in between. Honestly none of them were bad, but i ended up going with the Arctic Cat, i figured for the price of a 500 outlander i could get a 650 Cat so that is what i went with. The dealer said that the 500 cat was a gas hog and the 650 should be better on fuel and not only that the 500 was pretty weak in comparison. I have been overall impressed with the 650 H1 that i have. The one and only thing that i have to say negative is that when i did some major mudding in quite a bit of crotch deep water that the belt got wet. I thought that in this day and age that shouldn't happen, but god this thing can go through a lot of mud and water.

I paid $6200 for my brand new camo 2007 650 H1 (then added winch, plow brush guard and finishing mower and sales tax for right around $9000) and maybe it doesn't have the power of a 650 V twin but it has a lot more than any 500 i rode (maybe it just felt like it). I started out doing a LOT of yard work with it and the blade and lawn mower and logged the first two tanks in low and 4wd about 50% of the time and i was disappointed with the 15 MPG i got since the dealer said that i would get pretty good gas milage. when i got about 120 miles on it i went on a trip through BISF (Beltrami Island State Forest) and actually did a lot of trail riding at 30-45 and a LOT of swamp ridingwhere i got stuck 6 times that i had to get off and pulled/winched free, it was pretty fun. all in all at the half way point i had 44 miles on my trip meter and my buddy with his Honda Rancher (with bigger than stock mud tires) took the same amount of gas 1.5 gallons. At the start of the ride i was only able to get it up to 55 mph after 100 miles on that trip i was able to get it up to 57, now with 260 total miles it goes 59 MPH, pretty soon it will be broke in and i should be able to tell you what kind of milage and speed it gets then, but right now i am pretty happy with it the way it is.

I really liked the ride of the Can Am and if i was doing just trail riding it would be my choice, but for the work i have planned the Arctic Cat was the obvious choice, and i have not been regretting it one bit.

30 MPG on a swampy trail ride
12 inches of clearance
independant suspension
Price that can't be touched by the competition's next size smaller
This is everything i was looking for, had it for 2 months now and love it, honestly the only thing i would consider instead was the outlander but the ride was not that much better to justify more money and less power (in the 500).

Definetly the Can-Am outlander max 400. One of the best atv on the market. Allthough we have the one up it is and awesome quad that will do anything we ask it too. Plus the Max's are convertible to a 1-up machine if you'd rather have that. Trail riding, mud, hauling, towing and plowing, ours has done it all.

<<Thats it.

Polaris sportsman 500 efi great trail and workhorse. Bought for $5600. Will outwork all simular machines.
Efi is sweet. Pulls logs like a 600 class machine. I absoulty love it.

The requirement of a 2-up really limits your choices. I think you are limited to a Can-Am or Polaris. The Polaris is more of a workhorse, but isnt the best trail machine there is (too heavy to really be any fun on the trails). They do ride smooth and are comfy though and Ive personally never had issues with reliability.
Last summer I demo rode a Can-Am Outlander 800 4x4 and was not impressed. It has great power but it absolutely SUCKED at cornering. The front tires just didnt seem to bike and make the quad turn and then when it finally did turn it felt like it was going to tip over. IMO, it just wouldnt be a fun quad to trail ride. Can-Ams also look to be kinda cheaply built to me. (keep in mind, I used to have a Yamaha YFZ 450 SE that I rode on MX tracks, so I know how to ride a quad) I wouldnt recommend one even to my worst enemy. Can-Am definetely has a lot power, but IMO the chassis performance and quality is lacking.
If you didnt require a 2-up you would have a lot more options, but based upon what you said your needs are, you choices are pretty limited.

Yes the 650 and 800 have crappy front ends but the 400 and 500cc Outlanders have the mcpherson strut fron supension which is alot better than the big bores. We have never had a problem with ours at all. It hadles very well actually. Also the Polaris X2 is extremely heavy, so don't get it stuck.

I've got an 07 Sportsman X2 800 that I really enjoy and would recommend. I love the convertable 2 up seat and the ride is very plush. As far as being heavy yes it is but its an 800 2up 4x4 not a racer. If you want to carve corners buy a sport quad, if you want to ride 2 people legally thru almost anything the X2 is a great choice.

Thanks for the feedback, am hoping more will chime in with their thoughts.

I know cat has a 2 up.... I saw one at the dealership.

I got really lucky with my 05 honda 450r.. I bought it brand new 2 years ago and not one single problem with it..it's the fastest quad honda has ever built and I ride like an asshole and figured I'd blow this thing up and even got the 4 year warranty and all.. but not one trip back to the dealer..I'm really happy about that.

maintenance is key for reliability...change the oil and clean the air filter etc.. and they last.

If I was going to buy a new quad I'd definitely shop honda..very good company

A couple of my buddies bought '04 450Rs and blew them up twice in the first 2 years they owned them. They now both have '06 450Rs and they have been good quads for them, but they have learned to stay off the rev limiter. They both have cracked frames though. They do a lot of riding on MX tracks and even with MX suspension kits on their quads they still break a lot of frame and suspension parts. They are a race quad though, so you should kinda expect them to be high-maintenance. They would probably last quite a long time if all you did is trailride them, but buying a race quad for trail riding is kinda of a waste IMO. It would be like buying a crotchrocket and just cruising around on it all the time.
The only Honda is would suggest is a 450R. Their utility quads are all pretty gutless IMO. 2 years ago I demo rode a Honda Rubicon. It was so gutless that the engine seemed like it was lugging all the time and the tranny whine was pretty annoying. It was a smooth riding, comfy quad that cornered pretty well though.

Picked up an 06 left over Poo Sportsman 800 EFI a few months back, just over 1200 miles with zero issues. This bike flat out rocks, great ride, tons of power to spare, EFI gives the same or better fuel mileage as smaller bikes. I did a lot of research before spending 10K+ cdn, my #1 reason for going with the Poo was, this thing is built to handle anything. Ya it's heavier, lots heavier than comparable classed bikes, but thats why I feel it's a solid bike, over sized everything, and that 800 EFI power makes it feel like a small bike to me. I'm not a big mudder but have gone through enough holes to know it's limitations (which is almost unlimited). I'm more of a crawler technical trail rider and long trip bush hog quad camper. Impressed to the 9s with this bike.

I had the chance to try out an 07 Poo 800, 07 Griz 700 and 06 Bombie 800 for more than a half a day a piece before I picked the, and both of the other bikes felt light weight and flimsy and didn't seem to handle a solid as the Poo. But to each his own, try and get some seat time in as many bikes as you can before deciding and ask lots of ??? and opinions from other riders like your doing here.

One of the deciding factors for me was 2 of my neighbors run the Poo 800 one's an 05 EFI and the other an 04 carb, the 05 needed some minor cluch work after the breakin period (warranty) and the 04 had zero problems, both bikes are well over the 3k mile mark and both still running strong and tight.

Lovin my big bore Poo

Is that why damn near everything on it is plastic? Including the racks, what a fucking joke that is.

So I take it your not happy with yours ???

I'm more than happy with mine. My buddy has an 06 Sporty 700 and broke the rear rack and entire rear plastic. He had a tow rope wrapped up in the rack somehow, and it came loose, caught on the tire somehow, wound up and ripped the rack and rear plastic right off lol. Not sure how he managed that though.

The racks seem more than strong enough for normal use to me, they appear to better built then the Yami and Bombi racks IMO. WTF was the tow rope made of that wraped up in there ??? Both my neighbours use there racks to tie down their bikes when they trailer them (too cheap to spring for the a bumper kit) I wouldn't do it but haven't seen them have any problems to date doing it yet, so you'd figure they'd be plenty strong. Bounced my racks of many trees and rocks, just scratched em up a little.

I've had a couple of Popo ATV's. One 01' 500 Sportsman and one 04' 700 sportsman. Both have been great bikes. The 500 is practically indestructible. Yes like some one said earlier they do have plastic racks and I'm sure if you hit one with a sledgehammer you could break it, but overall the machines are built heavy duty. They also ride and drive very smoothly and easily.

My only complaints would be about the 700. It was a carbed model and it really sucked down the gas. I heard that the EFI's were much better. Also sometimes the AWD would engage when the switch was off. It seemed to be a problem Polaris had from about 02-04 and it was intermittent. I beleive the problem was traced to some incorrect fluids used in the AWD system, but to be honest I stopped reading up so much once I sold my 700.

I also own a Ranger, and IMO if you really want to carry two people you should be looking at a SxS. If you are wanting to keep up with sporty quads I'd get a RZR, Rhino, or Prowler. The RZR is by far the fastest and sportiest, but the Rhino and Prowler are decent rigs. I've got a fair amount of seat time in a RZR and it's absolutely sick. You can handle the rough trails faster than the utility type quads, it's much harder to roll, and carrying two what it is built for. People who don't have and seat time in a SxS think they will have a tough time hanging with quads, but believe me, you won't. Most people end up wanting a SxS (as opposed to a utility quad) once they see how capable they are. Of course all of these will run you over $7k

http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/Ran...RZR/Experience/

Had 3 poo atvs...first was brand new Scrambler in 1999 awesome driveing quad ,i had a wolverine before that could not touch the scrambler plus automatic was new to me then and i couldn,t beleive the response of a belt bike.Engine was awesome in the scrambler but after the warranty was up everything else fell apart(mainly suspension and right front axle).Bought a new 500 sportsman in 2001 put 10 000 miles on it ,rebuilt the clutch at 8000 miles and a few suspension parts but never touched the motor, still had perfect compression when i traded it in last year for a 06 800 sportsman EFI.I have 3 thousand miles on the 800 now ,it had a starting problem at 1800 miles(hard starting)which ended up being a crank sensor but everything else is perfect on it(and i drive it hard) Every bike out there now is awesome,look close at the brute force and the grizz with power steering they r serious machines real awesome!! The only 1 i wouln't buy is the new hondas..yes if reliability is your only concern its the one but i find them very boring to drive and no ground clearance compared to the others!!

are you a chick??

I'm picking up my 2008 Polaris ranger RZR 800 EFI.....its only 2" winder than a regular ATV........thay are so fun to drive.....



or check out this review:

http://www.atvtv.com/atv07-09Small.html

or this guys driving the piss out of it:

http://atvphotos.ca/gregquads/bobs_rzr_stave_compilation.wmv

I'd love to get one but I'm concerned with the fact there not classified as an ATV in Ontario, so that means no right of way road running or riding into town from the trail when you need fuel. So that would put saddle bag touring/camping out of the running, and for me thats the main reason I got into quadding. If they ever re-class them here I'll probably be first in line.


Check out Mudhole.ca there's a few guys in the Suds area with "side by sides" on there, lots of good info on trails and other shit too.

DUH, I guess I have a problem!

Here's a couple links for ya, hope I doesn't ruin your new purchass, and you'll still enjoy it.

MTO and ATV's

Ontario Trails Council

The by law in Sudbury DOesnt; allow atv on the road anyways.....I'll just put a blue flashing lite on the roof and call it a plow truck lol

I just wonder if you can even plate them ???

The reason I want a two up is for the times my wife might want to go with me.Otherwise it would be me riding with the boys so Ii want to keep it quadish. Those rzr's do look hot though!