We were very eager to obtain one of the first production 2003 Rallys to give it a thorough going over. Our initial impression was this model is much smoother than the prototype that we tested last fall. That one vibrated a lot, and we speculated that the hand assembled unit contained loose mounts. That appeared to be the case as this Rally is quite smooth, even at full throttle.


The next thing we noticed was how the Rotax motor would start without the choke, even down to 40°F, yet when warm, the carburetion didn’t seem rich at all. Actually it’s good the motor will start without the choke because the carburetor mounted choke (actually an enrichener) is positioned directly behind the fuel line from the petcock to the carburetor. This means you have to place the fingers of your left hand below the fuel line and your thumb above the line to access the lever for operation. It’s a little awkward until you get the hang of it.

Once running, the Rally shifts positively into gear using the right side under-seat shift lever, up for forward and down for reverse. It rarely required more than a light touch to engage the transmission. Riders unfamiliar with the Rally tended to believe they were not in gear because the ATV didn’t move forward when throttle was applied. The Rally requires an unusual amount of throttle to get under way. The CVT belt drive is “clutched” quite high, thus requiring more revs than the uninitiated is used to. Invariably what happened was the rider released the throttle and checked the shift lever again to make sure it was engaged (which it was) and then, applied more throttle and off they would go. Again, this is normal for the Rally, and once the rider is used to it, nothing more is thought of it. Downhills require using a lot of brake because this CVT does not provide much braking force, even when you blip the throttle to keep it engaged. It could be the small motor but it really felt like it was in neutral.

Acceleration is smooth, and if you punch it, very brisk. Given the size of its water-cooled motor (176cc), Rotax certainly supplied quite a bit of power in a small package. GPS measured top speed was 46.2mph. Acceleration in a 100-yd dash was 8.4 sec. @ 37mph. Handling was top notch due to the low center of gravity because of the lay down motor and the low weight due to the SST chassis design.
The exhaust noise is low. In fact, the drive system produces more noise than the exhaust system does. With the large fuel tank (4.4 gal.) you can run all day, where other machines have to take time to fill up. The Rally rider just keeps going! Because Bombardier equipped the Rally with triple disc brakes, this ATV stops as well as it goes. The fronts are powerful and controllable. The rear disc easily overwhelms the rear Duro tires, but ONLY if you use the left handlebar lever. The foot pedal provides very little braking force for the same amount of actuation pressure. We quickly learned, if you want to stop RIGHT NOW!, use BOTH handlebar levers. Speaking of tires, last fall we thought both sets of tires were below the standard of the Rally. In bone dry conditions, the fronts pushed and the rears had little traction and didn’t want to slide. Well, this spring, with wet conditions, or at least some moisture in the ground we found the fronts do not push. They hold a line quite well and do not lock up unexpectedly when braking hard. The rear tires provide good traction as long as the ground is hard or there is a hard bottom under water. If the ground is muddy, traction disappears. Sliding is still not up to par. During the last snowfall of the spring, the rears provided traction, but there was only 1.5 in. of snow and  the ground was hard underneath. Slides were controllable but not easily initiated. The class leading suspension of 5.5 in. up front and 6.5 in. in back, does an excellent job of smoothing out the trail. Stutter bumps are a little jarring but otherwise, everything is smooth and comfortable. The well-placed handlebars and cushy seat contribute in no small part to getting you to your destination in tip top shape. The integrated plastic footpegs actually hold up and prevent your feet from slipping.

The integrated racks are novel and we quickly found a use for them. Throw a camera bag and water “in” the front rack and a chainsaw “in” the back rack and you have the perfect combination for trimming back trails and removing downed trees after the winter. Everything stays in place without the need for baskets, bungee cords or bungee nets. Getting on and off repeatedly for trail maintenance was a breeze. The power, suspension and racks makes this, in our opinion, perfect for this use. Add to that not having to unstrap and restrap your chainsaw two dozen times really means a lot after a long afternoon of trail maintenance. Speaking of maintenance, all chassis pivot points are factory equipped with Zerk fittings for easy greasing. The oil filter canister is located directly under the forward-canted cylinder and immediately behind the exhaust pipe. It requires a bit of jockeying to change the filter without being burned on the headpipe. The airfilter is located in front of the steering column and can be accessed without tools. However, our Rally was delivered without any apparent filter oil in the two-stage element. Make sure the retaining ring is in place to hold the element in position correctly. Ours had fallen back down inside the housing. Located next to the air filter is a small storage compartment. I would recommend you remove your manuals and paperwork from the rear toolkit compartment located behind and below the taillight and place them in the front compartment because the rear case allows water entry. The headlights are very bright (QI 30/30W), however, there isn’t a discernable beam pattern. The pattern is best described as a rectangular blob. As delivered, we thought the lights were set up for coonin’. The lights on high beam were 20 ft. up in the trees. We soon discovered that even adjusting them with the neat toolless star wheels did not produce much improvement. The beam pattern or what there is of it, is just a mass of light thrown forward in most every direction, left, right and up, with not much actually directed far down the trail. There is no pronounced “hot spot” and low beam is just a lower version of the high beam. With a tighter beam pattern vertically, these headlights could perform as well as they look. As it is now, riding in inclement weather, like snow, fog or rain at night is at times blinding, due to reflected light, yet not much reaches the actual trail ahead of you. If you don’t ride at night, this minor annoyance will not be a problem.

The panel indicator lights are not always visible in bright sunshine. The neutral light was especially hard to see. The bulb seemed to be positioned off center in relation to the green bezel and the partial light emitted was invisible when your back was to the sun. Our final test for the Rally was to take it along on a club ride of about 55 miles on the seasonal roads and trails of Northern New York’s Tug Hill. We discovered, to our dismay, the droning of the transmission and CVT to be annoying at a steady speed for hours on end and the transmission and CVT produced a “rump-rump” surging sensation that was most annoying. It may have been a bad drive belt because when coasting down a hill with the engine off, you could feel and hear it until you shifted into neutral. The thumb throttle was found to be positioned too far rearward and down for comfortable operation during steady-state operation.