I was wondering if any of you read 4 wheel,atv action magazine's 4x4 shootout.what a bunch of crap!let's see they called the ac500 pokey,un competitive,awkward to ride,cheesy.ect.ect.what planet are these guys from.my 500 hitch to hitch has pulled a griz backwards for starters.im not one to knock others machines,but while the honda's with their elec shift,won't shift when wet,my ac rides on,when the polaris is sitting on the side of the road with a belt shredded or a major clutch failure,my ac rides on,when the griz is watching from the creek bank while im about rack deep in water.i could'nt coax him off the bank with a brand new drive belt.i ride on.anyway i just needed to get that off my back.it gets awful heavy carrying everybody else back to the trailer ,but someone has to do it.oh yeah they did say one good thing about the cat.BULLETPROOF!!!any advice on how to improve my ac to keep up with the competition ,please reply ,thank you very much.zigy

 

Never trust what a magazine says. just look at who put the most adds in the mag. Then guys who will win the shoot out. Like I just finally rode Rubican for the first time. Boy I was not impressed at all. I have no clue how they rank that above the sportsman. Or better yet what about the grizz, no offence besides having great speed, i trhink it doesnt come close to any of the other big bores I have ridden. (never ridden the suzuki or traxter) BUt that too is always up there in the rankings. Why because they advertise in the mags. Thats why you always have to test you options before you buy. You cant just go out buy what the mags say. My biggest gripe is they always say cat is under powered. what horse*&^% If I wanted top speedI would of bought a bashee or ds. But I wanted an atv that would go through almost anything. And I believe for that it doesnt get much better then the cat.
matty

 

It was a Honda lover who wrote that one for sure.They admitted that two bikes had more power than the Rubicon but wrote a small paragarph about the Rubicon's power and said nothing about the two bikes that out powered it.They even said they did not like the idea of Polaris adding more power to the SP500 motor because it was a utility bike and speed was not important.Points off for to much power and speed?I call that a bonus.

 

Yea it gets old having top end speed equated to overall horsepower. I requested some information on ATV tires from a write-up in ATV magazine a couple of years ago and had a rough time getting through to one of the editors what I wanted. After he finally understood he said almost all of are staff are under 30 years old and we all perfer sport ATV's.
It became very clear that I was in the minority being that I needed a tough utility and not a Banshee, or a sported up utility. Why would anyone review a Utility ATV and report on how it jumped, landed and how easy it is to do wheelies? That light front end the sport rides have is dangerous out in the country! So this leads me to the conclusion the market for a pulling, bullet-proof outback ATV is small compared to the crotch rockets the majority of the market wants. But I guess they don't make many HumVees either. This CAT I rode was the best of Breed in the bush hands down but you would have to ride there to know that!!! I get a smile on my face when I read these articles. Most of the time they don't even have their machine specifications correct and that means they can't copy from a brochure. Most of these editorials are the best disguised advertising ad money can buy. I would also bet most everyone, whatever type of ATV they have, had the same disbelief about what they read about their ride!!

 

The Rubicon winning Atv of the Year is a joke. It didn't even win its class. I can think of at least 4 quads that had it beaten for top spot. It just goes to show, when you compare anything against a Honda. Forget about it. These mags just have Honda on the brain. Must be paying the bills for those mags.

 

zigy,

hey man, we are all atv riders right? then why the hell should we follow the trail the bia$ed magazine editor$ blaze. screw 'em and blaze your own trail. it is disheartening to read that the machine i bought for $6100 is basically a piece of feces to the editors of some bulls**t magazine that makes the company who bought the most ads look good. there is only one way to prove which atv is better--an all out, no holds barred, purely redneck competition. i'll bring the A.T.F. (alcohol, tobacco, and firearms), who's gonna the bring the chips?

a ticked off texascat,

 

I think the only way that there would ever be an unbiased write up is to have all the manufacturers loan an ATV club the use of a machine for about a 6 month period for use on club event rides. Each machine would have to be the same approximate engine size. Each time have different riders and have them express their opinions after every ride using a standardized questionaire. Each person could only ride the same machine after riding all the others for equal lengths of time and covering different types of terrain. It may take a 5-6 week period before you'd be able to ride the Arctic Cat or what ever again or it could even be longer depending on the number of people participating. I think then the tests would be as fair and equal as possible.

Matter of fact they could even loan them to the Club I belong to. I wouldn't mind a bit. When it comes to Free I have an open mind.

 

Texascat,
I like that idea and plus get it all on tape.

Minehunter,
6 months is to long,Polaris guys like the bike to be new and the shootout over quick.LOL

 

A REDNECK competition? Hey, sounds cool! Where do I sign up??? A B.Y.O.B&G (bring your own beer and guns) would be pretty cool-fully safety conscious of course. Maybe riding/shooting during the day, a little celebrating at night...

Like I said, where do I sign?

Mike

Hey Minehunter, how's the 'Cat fairing here lately? Get the parts in, or at least ordered yet??? Hope your wife is feeling better by now!

 

I missed this discussion last night due to work. I think all of us are moved a little by what these guys write even though we don't believe them 100%. You don't find many AC dealers in Ark. I think we have one. I wish I had a chance to ride one. I believe the Suzuki quad is quite maligned by the press and looks like a good machine. Heck, they are all so much of an improvement of what we had 10 yrs ago I don't think for utility use you can go too wrong.
Just remember when you are out riding with your buddies you see machines put to the best test.

gardner10