Does anyone know the history of the Sport? My '98 was the last year before Concentric Drive, but I was wondering if there were any other significant changes over the years. Also, what was the first year the Sport was made? Are there any model years to avoid in the used market?

 

Regarding Polaris two strokes- the largest number of changes were in 1996. All of the changes were highlighted in Dirt Wheels Magazine. As I recall some of the major ones were,

new cylinder, new piston, new rear shock diameter,
new fan motor, front hub seals

1996 was the big year for the majority of improvements.

Pre '95s were in need of many things. Perhaps some others can fill you in on the things that I left out.

 

Hey just wanted to say that I have the 96 sportsman and that thing is built like a tank!! It has been flipped end over end rolled on its side used to haul far heavier things than recommended by polaris and is still great!! I love it! Although they no longer make the sportsman 400 it is to bad its a great atv. But oh well now theres the even better sportsman 500. If you want an awesome atv go with polaris remington special addition. After all the stuff that has been done to mine the only problems have been a worn out sprocket, speedometer broke when it was flipped, and that about it!!! Like the person who posted in front of me said pretty much most the changes took place on the 96 model. Talk to you later, Quadman

 

96 and Newer are the best years to have. The 94 and 95 Sports were in the older style chassis similar to the chassis that the Trail Boss and Xplorer 250 have. In 96 they changed the color to yellow and put it in the new sporty Scrambler style chassis. There have been minor improvements made every year but the best improvement was the Concentric Drive System. The only Sport to have this was the 99 model. In my opinion the 99 Sport is the best one to have because of the concentric drive system plus it was the only year to have red and yellow graphics which makes it stand out from the 96-98 models which had yellow and purple graphics.