Dan W,I believe in the brochure it says they will be the rawhide tires.Both rawhide tires(grip or ATT)look very agressive.I cant wait to see the 650 in the showroom and then my garage.

 

Where can I see a picture of the tires? They are supposed to be radials, and I don't believe the current Rawhide Grip is a radial. Maybe it is a new version?

 

I still say its the best utility made. You missed the point again dude. A utility bike doesn't mean that its built strictly for work purposes. That would be called a tractor. The Bomb is more like a tractor than an ATV actually, because it has good power, is very heavy, and is a poor chassis design for what most people would describe as fun. People that buy ATV's strictly for work oriented purposes are generally 99% using that as an excuse to tell their wife so they can get it.

A full on work ATV (other than something with a bed on the back of it) isn't practical. Try the Polaris Diesel. It flopped like a *****. Or maybe the old Yamaha Terrapro. That one proved that a PTO shaft on a four wheeler and some small brushogs or finish mowers aren't exactly the best way to go about things. It missed out on trying to steal play from John Deere, Craftsman, Toro, Kubota, or even a wal-mart Murray lawnmower.

In most people's mind, a utility ATV is pretty much something other than a sport quad. And not a tractor either.

 

Dan W you can see a picture of them here Tires but they don't say whether they are radials or not but I believe the Grips are. Andy He will never get it because he does not want to get it.

 

Utility means UTILITY - the best utility bike would be the one best suited to do work. And I'll agree, it is probably NOT the new Cat 650 that hasn't even seen a test ride yet. Think whatever you want though, you guys have CAT stamped on your brain as the best. You wouldn't see why it isn't on magazine covers and getting write-ups and you won't see that when you say utility you mean utility. That is quite simple. Sport utility is another story alltogether. Quidquid.

 

Utility means whatever the person sitting on the seat needs it to mean. The best one suited to 'pure work' might not be the best one for me, I have to cross some very rough terrain to get to where my work is. A live axle machine (like my faithful old big bear) just didn't have the ground clearance to cut it on my farm - it isn't providing much utility if it's stuck on a rock. None of this wimpy 6 inch ground clearance. Where I'm working, it takes a Man's Quad to get through.

We have Cat stamped on the brain as the best? Well, duh! This is the Cat forum. If we didn't think Cat was the best, we'd be riding something else. It isn't like we didn't try other brands, Cat just does what we want better than any other machine. I could care less why a Cat isn't on magazine covers, they glorify whoever spends the most on ads. A Cat is in my garage, and getting me across my farm, and has yet to break down or let me down. In the end, that's what counts.

 

You know I don,t really give a hoot about how butt ugly some of you think the new ac is I just know that come september i,ll be sitting on my new 650 LE I personally would have prefered it in a manual but them are the breaks my other 500 i ,used to bring to hell and back and I EXPECT THIS NEW 650 TO DO IT FASTER AND WITH A BETTER RIDE grond breaking or not i,ve tried many machine and the ac up to now is the only one for me[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Been reading the responses on this post & the New upcoming Cat 650. I may be a little bias as I have owned 2 Cats in the past. Presently I am on the Prairie 650 '03 model. No matter what 4wheeler you own, I have found out that none are perfect. My 1st 454 Cat felt like it took a city block to make a u-turn & the 500 Cat felt down on power compared to the other 500's on the market at that time but it did turn tighter. Overall, I was happy with the Cat product. Style is in the beholders eye & this 650 Cat looks just like my 1st 454, other than the "Jeep" look on the front & no-more out-dated-instruments. For me, this same type of style is smooth or others would say "plain-jane look". Being that Cat Still does not offer a camo painted model in any model including the 650, the Camo tape is easy to apply to the body of all the cats. Instead of offering the LE Lime Green 650, I would of prefered a complete camo painted 650,with the added Remington frt bumper/winch/gun boot/hand guards and camo painted rims ( just like those camo rims I saw on a Polaris ). I would like to see Cat do it right on a camo version, paint everything, including the body plastic,racks,rims & a matching camo seat cover. Maybe Next year, Cat will wake up & offer a Camo painted version. Yep, the Kawasaki Prairie Vtwin/transmission is the combo in the New Cat 650 but I would have to disagree with the one who said that Kawasaki has had some seroius problems with this set-up. Must of been made from a non-owner of a Prairie 650/700 owner. Don't always believe what you read from a few disgrunted owners, as allot of these problems are due to a poor dealer servicing.
The only thing you need to do with the Cat 650 trans is keep the .006 shim in for the belt adjustment & add the black spring. These two adjustments will & should cure any transmission concerns.
With the IRS,VTwin motor with loads of torque,6.5gallon gas tank,dif-frt loc,Goodyear Rawhide MT/R 26 inch Radial tires, 13 inches ground clearence, full 10" on all 4 corners for suspension, excellent racks, tow hitch reciever, full digital instruments & low center-of-gravity, this well be a sought after Cat 650 4wheeler. Even the price is where it should be, at $7299 list for a red or green & $7899 list for that LE Lime model.
I for one will be giving this New Cat 650 a very close look over to replace my 8 inches ground clearence Prairie 650 in the very near future.

 

hey I noticed you said something about the tranny something about a shim and a black spring is this not something that should not already have been taken care of when machines were build I mean the 04 or is this something I have to watch for and can you give me an example of problem that might occur. THANKS[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Mudmadcat:
Being that the Big Cat 650 is using the Kawie trans that is on the present 650/700 Prairies & if Cat did not change any of the clutching, then belt adjustment is something you will need to look into. You will have to check your belt to be sure that both of the 2 shims (washers) are not installed on the driven pulley & remove the thicker of the 2 shims ( the shims look like big washers), leave the thinnest shim in. You need to disassemble the driven pulley to get to the shims & without the correct & proper tools, you will not beable to do it. Check out the Kawasaki forums on "belts & the Prairie 650", this will answer all of your questions & any concerns. The black spring is added (after-market part) to gain power back from running taller tires & the Black spring will help the belt last longer. I am not using the Black spring in my Prairie 650 because I have the high-altitude clutch kit installed (a kawie option) & the after-market Black spring would work against my h-a clutch kit. All this h-a kit does is change my ramp weights in the drive pulley to lighter weights, adds two spring spacers to the main spring & in return I gain back some of the loss power due to the higher feet elevations that I ride at (6500 to 13,000 ft). It does seem to work as claimed. I am also using the DG Holeshot module, which so far I am not impressed with but again the High-altitude clutch kit could be already doing allot of what the Dg holeshot is suppose to do. I have decided to remove the DG holeshot w/my present Kawie clutch kit installed. If you are not riding in the higher elevations all the time, then I would not recommend investing in the H-A clutch kit, as the kit parts are $120.00 + labor to install, unless you do it yourself to save on the install charge. Cat may not even offer the H-A clutch kit, haven't seen any real tech info on the Cat 650 trans but from the pictures it looks exactly the same as the Prairie's 650/700.
I have a friend who has been riding a Grizz 660, his belt is not like the Kawie 650 belt & during a recent summer ATV trip, a friend of mine help me do the belt adjustment on my P650 while in the RV Park. My friend saw how easy it was to remove the thicker shim & reinstall the driven pulley & belt, it took about a hour. Knowing this, my friend already sold his '02 660 & is now checking into the lowest price he can find on a Green Cat 650.
If you leave your belt on the loose end on a Prairie 650/700, you will be replacing that $93 U.S. dollars belt at 600 low miles!