I normally ride an 05 Grizzly so this is compaired to that.


The artic cat felt really nice sitting on it, I love the ergos and the aggressive stance this bike had. It had a ton of ground clearence (13 inches?). I really liked how you seemed to sit right up high over the front wheels, made it really easy to see what was going on around the bike.

I also love the exhaust note [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] the V2 powerplant really sounds cool. Made me kind of ashamed of my single piston noise of the grizz

The rack system looked great, and more solid than that of the Grizz.


The front end seemed to dive a bit, but I think a couple turns of the shocks would help that a ton. I didn't think it was any worse the the grizz before I adjusted them.

The tranny was a big turnoff. I didn't like the cheesy feeling lever, I wasn't ever sure the damm thing auctually was in the gear where I put the lever.
also I noticed the tranny didn't pull hard right off the bottom, at least I blamed the tranny for this. At a dead stop I would push the throttle wide open and the Artic Cat 650 would just kinda go forward like it was on a rubberband. It had a decent build up of speed but it definatly didn't squat and pull like the grizz off the bottom. I wouldn't be confident in thick mud on this machine, I think the tires would just slowly churn while the engine raced and fried the belt.


I didn't spend much time on this machine so my review is a bit limited. I really like the fit and finish and ergos of the Artic Cat and I must say I was impressed. I think they have come a long ways! I wished I coulda had more confidence in the tranny though.

I also really missed the park that the grizz has.


edit: this was an Artic Cat 650 4x4 with IRS green in color

 

you got all the good points and bad points right down to a T i love my 650 and compared to your grizz it should be about the exact same for power all the way through the power band but if you slide a dynatek cdi in it then well i crack it down at a standstill on the grass and it flips me over backwards. the tires are well needless to say junk my stock ones have about 50 miles on them and i put on some 27 inch itp 589's now it handles and actually rides better for my aggressive driving style. the front end dive i guess i never noticed but then again i am so used to it. i agree 100 percent about the tranny i don't like the kawi tranny on my bike and at first didn't like the capability of going 50 mph in low range and well more used to that aspect now that i can run it in low range most of the time and still when in the mud i crack it down and it is just snap power specially with that cdi in it. my buddy has a grizz with 26 inch tires on it and when i had my stock tires on it (26 inch) it seemed i had just a smidgin bit more then i put the heavy 6-ply's on it in 27 inch and that cdi and i still have quite a bit more then him so that shows you how much that cdi helped let the ponies fly.

 

great reveiw. the good thing is that the issues described are all fixed cheap by aftermarket parts like cdi box, clutch kit and new tires.

 

oh yeah i did put a clutch kit in to and that made a big difference.

 

Still proves that artic cat can't seem to make a wheeler of they're own. For instance the BIG BAD new 700 efi cat is just a KQ stuffed in a different shell, being a suzuki motor. But I've never really like the artic cat/suzuki. And the kawi tranny is a good tranny IMO. But then again I've never been a kawi fan and now I own one...oops [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I would deff go with the clutch kit, some bigger springs in there for sure so it would shift better.
the CDI I didn't know about, but sounds like a good mod also, would make that 650 a top notch quad.

 

toughguy,
Not trying to change your opionion because were all entitled to them but here is some information for you.

The 2005 arctic cat H1 is all arctic cat. Arctic cat built the engine for it and many magazines believe it was the best arctic cat yet.
Also Suzuki is a 31% share holder of Arctic cat which is why Arctic cat uses suzuki engines. they used the kawasaki 650 (praire engine) because at that time kawasaki and suzuki performed an alliance togethor to share technologies in the atv section so through proxy of alliance arctic cat got to use the kawasaki engine.

This is not forum bs that is commonly understood as truth. heres some investment info released by arctic cat.

http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir...item_id=207936