Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by kawie_guy
I am in Utah, home of the most extensive trail systems in the US. (Oh, and we also have Moab, the offroad capital of the world). Atvs are a way of life out here. I am in an atv club that has a wide variety of machines, and we ride together once a month. I personally trail ride two times per week, and average about 3000 miles per year. There isn't much that I haven't seen when it comes to atvs. I have owned a wide variety going all the way back to the first quad ever made...the 1983 Suzuki LT125.
I have owned two Yamahas, and several friends and family have had them as well. My feelings on Yamaha are that they are well made atvs. However, the Grizzly and Kodiak have historically always had too short of a wheelbase for the seat height. They feel like they are wanting to roll over. But, that has been improved on the new ones, and the Kodiak in particular is now lower and wider. If I were buying a Yamaha today, I'd definitely get the limited edition Kodiak which has the locker.
Honda. Who hasn't ridden one? They are all over out here. Their niche is reliability, gear driven, and good resale value. However, they are all severely underpowered, and the gear driven tranny is button operated on most models. I hate it. Also, the tranny will most likely total out the machine if it ever breaks out of warranty. CVTs are quicker operating, and are cheap to fix.
Polaris..easily the most broken down atv I've encountered. And some of their designs (like the ebs, adc, and battery placement, just to name a few) qualify for some of the most boneheaded engineering in mankind's history. There has not been one group ride this year in our club where there wasn't a Polaris that broke something. Several atv rental places based along our trail systems initially bought Polaris fleets. After realizing what a mistake that was from a servicing standpoint, almost all of them have replaced their Polaris fleets with another brand. Polaris' only niche as far as I can see are they have a cushy ride (if you are into that type of vague, sloshy feel), and they have cheap entry-level vehicles with good rebates. They also have lots of storage compartments, and a third headlight.
Kawasaki.... as my name implies, I am a Kawie fan. Its my current atv that I ride the most. I've got 16,000 miles on it, and I've spent less than $300 fixing things that I didn't break myself. And still, I get a smile everytime I ride it. It's the only Japanese brand to offer a vtwin. You may not need the power of a vtwin, but once you ride one, it's near impossible to go back to a single cylinder quad. In my opinion, if you want to trail ride, you've got to buy a quad that will motivate you to get out and ride it because it's FUN to ride. If you buy something that doesn't excite you, chances are you will get bored with it eventually.
Downsides to Kawie are they don't have many options anymore. You can either get a 300cc 2wd machine, or a top of the line 750cc 4wd. Their 750 is a handful for a beginner, but not near as big and heavy as a comparable Polaris or Can Am.
Can Am....
They are kind of the enigma. Some people I know love them, others curse them. If you get a good one, reliability seems good. But if you get a bad one, be prepared to use your warranty a lot.
Their niche is definitely horse power. They win the hp wars in every engine size.
I also really love their rear end suspension design. It combines the sporty feel of a solid axle with the plushness of an irs.
They also offer some great prices on their entry level 570cc base models.
Other than Kawie, Can Am is the only other brand that I find exhilarating to ride. Even their smaller engines like the 570 have some serious acceleration. I just wish they'd improve their quality control, and not charge an arm and a leg for oem parts.
There's my long winded breakdown. Whatever you do, go test ride it before you buy it. Quads are very hard to predict which one you're going to like best just by looking at stat sheets. You really need to feel it in the flesh.
Love your post!
I'm an occasional rider that started on a Yamaha 225DX trike, upgraded to a mid-80's Suzuki 2WD 250 sport quad and now own a Can-Am. The group I ride in used to be incredibly diverse. We had a Blaster, a Suzuki 450 sport, Grizzly, Polaris, Honda 250 (slower than paint drying) and the odd dirt bike. We'd go out in the trails and when you hit a straight the dirt bikes would take off and the quads would all kinda of [censored] around except for the Blaster, which would tear after the bikes.
Then one of the guys bought a Renegade. That was a game changer. Then another guy bought a Renegade. So then you had these two ridiculously fast and comfortable quads that would just walk everything else. My buddy with the 250 Honda was tired of riding a lumber wagon that couldn't catch the slowest quad in the group and so the year before last he upgraded to a Can-Am Outlander Max 850, the guy with the Grizzly bought an Outlander 650 and I bought my Outlander Max 1000R a few months after my buddy got his 850 because it was in stock and the price difference was negligible (was originally going to get an 850).
The folks with the Renegades seem to have gone through the teething issues (belts, water getting into the CVT..etc) as the more recent ones seem to be more problem-free. Will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens as the miles rack up, but the Outlanders have all been excellent so far.
I'm guessing our scenery is a bit different from yours though, LOL
Do the Renegades still have/use Visco-lock? That is the one thing that deterred me from getting one back in 05, there seemed to be too many issues concerning them like they would only engage if one could get the other wheel to spin. Not a great feature on a ATV, imo.
Glad to hear they have improved other things. I also remember them being quite pricey back then as well.
I purchased an 05 Yamaha Grizzly and although it didn't get a lot of miles on it before I sold it due to lack of use and everything else associated with that, it served me well and never caused me any grieve.