Hey Guys,

I'm wanting to get into ATV riding. (raced motorcross as a kid, briefly had a sport bike in my 20's, now just turned 50, haven't ridden anything in 20 years) I want something I can use for ATV parks/trails and then something I can also use for hunting/camping. I'm 6'2"/300 pounds, was only 205 when I last road. I really want the Polaris Sportsman XP1000S for the extra width and payload capacity but was curious how many parks/trails I would be disqualified from using based on it's 55-inch width?

I see a lot of posts in various forums that say these range anywhere from strict gates that barely let a 50-inch ATV thru to no gates, to relaxed restriction and also talk of moving the standard to 60-inches.

I plan on traveling the country with my ATV's, camping and riding where I can. Mainly North Central areas - Colorado, Utah, Idaho, MO, MN, ND, SD, Montana. I'll also be riding a lot in Texas. (currently live in Austin)

Thx for any help.
-Crashk1d

 

Howdy, Crash. I go out to the Paiute Trail every couple years. They have trails that go from roads down to the 50" limit. In talking to the folks in the know out there the gated 50" trails there account for only 20% of the trails. Mostly due to areas where vegetation doesn't grow well because of the climate. Best bet is to get National Geographic maps of the trails you want to ride. They tell you trail widths on anything that has a limit. The trail widths are generally set by the National Forest Service (NFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The offices in the local areas where you might want to ride can be a great source of information also.