can anyone make comment on a 02 sportsman 500, i'm looking at buying one and want to know the pro's and con's and what to look out for. reliability is very important

thanks

I have a 99 and have really liked it, just don't let the battery or electrical go bad or else the speedo will quit, happened to me

hey catman, can you explain why, and how your speedo went bad? dead battery? short? i never heard of this before...

I have an 02 sportsman, great quad, other then the speedo stopping at 950 miles, it's been trouble free, iwould estimate the mileage at about 3000 now!

my 02 has been flawless would buy another one in a heartbeat

Battery was dead and I was out on a ride, figured I could make it back to the cabin with the battery dead. Made it back so I went bought a new one and thought everything would be good. Well when I ran the quad for the 15 miles or so with the dead battery it made the voltage regulator go bad and with that shot to many volts were gettin to my speedo and all my lights blew out too. Fixed my lights, bought a new voltage regulator ($100), but I am still in the process of findin a speedo.

I have a few freinds with the 500's. They've all been pretty good quads. One guy broke an A-arm, another had electrical problems but all good now, 2 guys had front end problems but that is with the 600 & 700 engines and 26" tires. I've never had any problems with my 400 except changing the belt at 1600 miles. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another as they are good quads.

I wouldn't hesitate either, Sportsman's are one tough SOB

I just replaced a bent shift rod and stripped bellcrank on my buddies 2000 Sportsman 500. It was a real easy reapair. $25 in parts and the dealer said it is a common failure. If the bellcrank was made of steel instead of aluminum it would not have failed. But on the other hand I would rather replace a cheap piece of aluminum then risk damaging something major in the rear gearcase. I anticipate this failure on mine in the future sometime since I use mine for plowing snow.

The group ride we have this weekend consists of 5 Sportsmans and 1 Grizzley. Up here in north country the Sportys are the perfered quad.

I know polaris like to eat belts. I got 5 freinds that have them, everyone of them put a new belt on and then we went on an atv run 65 miles and 3 of them blew belts.