No , it did'nt sound like that all. I was just being very biased. There are good and bad things in every brand. I am very happy with my 650 and I would not own any other brand.

 

nice to hear that kind of cat pride in a fellow member, i may be biased too, but trust me i did plenty of homework before buying my quads, reading up on all the articles from every manufacturer, and the ac came out in front by a wide gap thanks to all its class leading features

 

Me too, even though I only have the 400, I looked at, and rode, everything before making my choice. I still feel that I got the most for my money, an all around great bike. Now, I have to talk the wife into the H1. Not gonna be easy. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Good luck Bluethumb, I used the excuse that "We need a second machine and it is an automatic honey!"

 

another good luck from me blue an well this is my 4th arctic cat and i actually thought of going to the 660 grizz just then arctic released the 650 i am not a big fan of kawasaki ( still not) but i gotta admit they crank alot of ponies into their motors and i like that sorry to all you polaris people but we just got rid of our last polaris on the farm and vowed never to own anything with that name on it again and we live right next to the factory and have the availability to get stuff on discount but catskinner is correct there are good and bad things about every brand i do love the polaris ride but when we got in the real muddy stuff i was smiling the whole time [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] the 700 efi may have more top end like previously stated who cares i can clutch up a 500 to do 70 mph but with no bottom end but you run them both in low range and see who would come out on top actually that would be alot of fun to know the winner of that one

 

Bear4570 has it 100% right. Listen to him. There are 2 forces primary and secondary. The primary force is what you all are talking about... slinging 2 large pistons up and down at the same time. BUT, for the most part, that does not matter... WHY????? Because it is counter balanced by the crank... has anyone looked at a crank in a while??? Thats what the big weight on the crank does. Also, like most other 4 strokes (in utility ATVs) , the Polaris has a counter balancer shaft. So, for the most part, that negates that big force. The same concept of getting your wheels balanced on your car... you counter act the force with another weight (force) in the opposite direction. So NO BIG vibrations by a parallel twin. And the secondary forces (caused by the big ol' boom) in each cylinder is staggered evenly (like the 650 v twin) so nothing unusual there. As far as reliability, there might have been a few odd ball engine failures (like many other ATVs in their first year models), but in general they are a great motor. It's not the norm for the engines to shell... contrary to biases, it's a good motor and so is the kawi 650 (700 and 750) motor.

 

yes you are correct polar but the v motor always has and always will be a smoother running motor then the inline take for instance vehicle motors but i have not heard any bad 700 motors for the most part much like the 650 actually when it comes to all the new atv's a person doesn't hear of really any motor failure so KUDOS TO THEM ALL

 

The reason most inline engines are not as smooth as a V engine is the lack of cylinders, not the inline configuation. I've seen inline 8 cylinder engines that were as smooth as any V8. The reason the manufactures like the V configuration is less throws on the crank, aka cheaper and of course it makes the motor shorter because the opposite cylinders are only half a cylinder width apart rather than a full cylinder width. Proper balancing solves the vibration problems.

 

It seems like manufaturers are going to smaller motors. Take Chev for example, puts out a fine V8, but they make a really smooth and powerful inline 6, and now have the I-5, and a big I-4 out of the same motor. I think the inline design is every bit as good as a V8.

 

the big drawback for the inline 8 cylinder motors is they had trouble with the crankshafts breaking right by the flywheel cause 8 cylinders going up and down was to much strain on the crank and a reason the v-style motor is more smoother is cause all the cylinders don't fire and push the connecting rode at the same point in the crankshaft it basically has more momentum and has another cylinder firing at a differnt part lol ok i am having a hard time describing this i wish i had a pen and paper but the fact is you crank a 650 v-twin wide open i feel no vibration yet you are correct with the inline being smooth due to proper balancing but the inline still feels vibration