i'd have to disagree with you there. At the shop i'm at weve sold roughly 300 auto arctic cats over the years to people who abuse them like you wouldnt believe (farmers, ranchers, hunters mostly) and to date we've only sold replacement belt and that guy submarined his atv. The belt drive is very durable. As far as using heavier gears- whats the point? When have you ever seen a gear break in a motor before? I never have so why bother putting in bigger, heavier gears?

 

I think, if nothing else, the Cat should be recognized for giving people what they want, and listening to their consumer base. The rest of 'em just build what they want and make you spend $ to get it the way you want it. As far as groundbreaking, the only one that I consider to be best is the Honda with it's car-like trans. Then again, Honda puts drum brakes on a 8000 dollar quad. Seeing what AC has done, it might stimulate the other manufacturers to get with the program to save their loyalists from jumping the fence. AC is also currently testing an EFI system for quads, expect it soon. How's that for "groundbreaking"?

 

Not very considering that Cannondale did it in all of theirs (to my knowledge).

 

Trick188-The point was that the 650 is not the best UTILITY quad. When you are talking strickley about UTILITY. The 650 also has IRS witch is not as strong as any swing arm with a solid axel. Plus the frame tubing on the Traxter is almost 1/2 again as big;also the swing arm & the frame is of trianglular construction, one of the strongest structures know to man the other being the I-beam. The Traxter is supposed to be similier in design to the military Hum V , and they don't have to many complaints. So on that I don't see how the 650 could hold up to the same; if pushed to the Max every day. My truck doesn't or any other don't have a belt drive either WHY?? I live in farm comunity and it is not uncommon to pull 2000plus lbs. regularly. P.S. I have worked in three differant bike shops and we rebuilt many trans. Forks- drums bearings and yes Gears. How long have you been working on bikes? I've been doing it since 1964. Built hot rods drag raced & moto X. [Cars and Bikes for the drags.] In my opinion the little Suzuki King Quad is the second best UTILITY machine. Look over the construction and compare.

 

If you were interested in the strongest structure known to man, it is the parabola - an arch. A perfect one distributes the weight equally upon every point - truly amazing.

 

Once again i'll bring up the point that most of that is overkill. I have NEVER seen a frame fail due to anything other huge jumping and wrecks so why build a massive overweight frame. The frame geometry has more to due with strength than does the O.D. of the tubing anyways and who's to say that cats arent better there. As far as IRS being inferior it depends on what you mean by utility. Around here a utility quad has to be able crawl over some massive rocks and tree stumps to do the job. It may not be the strongest desing but utility isnt just strength- its mobility. A hummer (military and civilian) is fully independent by the way and I dont hear many complaints from them. As for trucks using belt drives it wouldnt be practical. You arent limited to size, weight, and compexity as much on a truck. Try to fit all the components that are on an automatic truck on an ATV and you'd find you'd need to lengthen the ATV alot. About the Suzuki king quad being the second best utlity machine I agree but notice the king quad is a tube frame and has IRS also. The shop i'm at is a Suzuki dealer as well. And i would be AMAZED if you could show me a picture of a shift drum that was worn out. Shift forks can bend and wear out with abuse and time but bigger gears wont help this. I'd also be surprised to see a gear fail that wasnt due to debri getting in the constant mesh or rider abuse wearing out the dog and slot corners (also a cause of bending shift forks) P.S. I am a factory certified Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, mechanic with over 2,000 hours factory training and top graduate awards from MMI and am an expert level off-road and MX racer so dont try to put me down on my mechanic abilility and experience

 

PuttPutt- Utility.... means its not a damn sport quad! Doesn't mean it is a machine manufactured to tow crap around all day on the farm. They are classified as SPORT, SPORT/UTILITY, and UTILITY. The sport/utility section is a bit shady with the best example being Wolverines & Scramblers. Neither fits the bill for utility, but they are more of a hybrid.

I didn't ever say the Arctic Cat was the best thing you could get to pull a hay trailer with. I said it is the best UTILITY bike I've seen. Thus, it has the best combination of features of any 4x4 Utility quad. The Bombardier probably pulls very good, and seeing that it weighs 800 lbs, it will need that strongest platform that you find so great. Although of course, the Bomb is a fat crotchety looking tank, and not my pick (or many other people's for what it matters) for something I want to ride on trails. The "Ape Hanger" handlebars are just too much, not to mention the fine way Bombardier put an awesome engine and differential in a crap chassis. But that wasn't the point, so I'm done with Bombardier. Reply about it how you want, but it won't get answer, cause I'm not doing anything else to branch this topic out.

Oh yeah, also the Humvee is a freakin fully independant vehicle there dude, so that pretty much takes away from your idea that the Bomb is supposed to be similar to it. Maybe you are confusing it with the the H2? The yuppie hummer, seen mostly parked in corporate lots next to 35% of the worlds Harley Davidsons. For all those that high class executives needing to spice up life a little.


thomez- Yeah, I have that issue with the 450 on the cover. Yes, its definitely worthy of being on there, but also, there are 12 months in the year, and its not like this is the ATV of the year award. I didn't say that the AC needs to bounce this months cover girl from the front page, I said its worthy of being on the cover.

Seriously dude, what pisses you off so much about this bike??? Really? Do you not like Arctic Cat, or do you not like utility bikes in general? The Polaris 700 is an ok bike, even though we've seen people on the Polaris forum rag it down in comparison to even the 500 Sportsman in some aspects. But I'm sure it made its way onto the cover of a magazine at some point, even though it had nothing that the previously released Grizzly 660 didn't have. If you want to compare engines, we all know that the 700 sportsman has nothing on the 650 prairie as far as the engines are concerned. There goes that extra 50cc's down the drain. Pull start? nope. 4wd while decending a hill? Nope. And remember the 700 has quite a bit more weight which is not near as evenly distributed as other quads. A good bit of it is in the rear which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence on steep hills. But I'm not ragging it. I rode it before it was even released and liked it pretty well. Even had a Polaris rep that I'd never heard of bring it to my freakin house August 30th 2001 cause he was in the area and wanted me to post a review of it. Rode good. I'd rather have the AC though.


Look at it this way, the AC has a lot of little things that were done a little bit differently than the rest and they were things that people wanted to see. Magazines have never given Arctic Cat anything but Ho-hum reviews, and I think most of the AC enthusiasts here are pretty much wondering how they will be able to side step this quad and brush it aside. It will be hard.

Remember the diff-lock debate when the Grizz and Prairie were both new? Grizzly has electronics to screw up and Prairie you have to hold the lever at all times. Well, AC combines it. Looks to me like some sort of **** like on a 10 speed bike or something. Not electrical... and you can engage it and have both hands free of holding levers.

The winch thing. Ever seen the arctic cat winch setup? 1/4" steel mounting plate replaces the front grille, cylenoid is rigged to plug directly into your 2 prong pigtail, and the switch is a pushbutton that mounts convenienlty under the start button. Looks totally stock. Nice thinking.

AC has that massive IRS clearance, but still keeps the width of the bike to where it is stable though still looks even. Yamaha missed this one with its narrow Grizz setup. There is a reason I keep my ITP rims on there most of the time, and it has nothing to do with the tires that are mounted on them. The Grizzly can scare you with that narrow track stock rim setup.

Heavy construction floorboards- take a look at the floorboards on an AC and then look at the ones on whatever you are riding. The AC is better, I guarantee it.

Its just a total package. IRS, 2wd/4wd/diff-lock, preload adjustable suspension, best in class ground clearance and suspension travel, V-twin 650 engine, 7 gallon gas tank, digital display, rugged rack setup with plenty of room, and stong construction overall.

Only thing I would rather have on it is a manual shift.

 

Bingo!

 

I nor anyone else could have said it any better than you just did Andy.You hit the nail on the head.It seems some people just like to pick on the new kid on the block even if they know deep down that they are wrong.If any machine were to claim to be the hummer (H 1)of atvs it would be Arctic Cat.They are undoubtably in the top of there class (IMHO).The mags and all other media just havent seen the truth yet.

 

Andy: ! Amen, You said it. I couldnt have said it any better.