I have decided to retire the old girl from any hard labour, that means the wife is going to ride it now, and I am torn between the v2 and the H1. What should deter me from buying the H1 beside the fact that it is new and maybe the bugs are not worked out yet? I will be using it for hunting in the bush plus all kinds of farm and cattle work, with of course the odd romp on weekends for the hell of it. The father-in-law says I should buy Honda, but who listens to their f-i-l anyways. I am hoping for a lot of input from people who own or have ridden these machines.

 

I HEAR THE h1 IS WAY UNDER POWERED

 

I would reccommend the H1 hands down. The H1 isn't quite as powerful as the Vtwin but much more so than the 500, plus you get the bulletproof tranny to boot.

 

what makes the tranny so buletproof as compared to the others?

 

what is the difference in the price? If you can get the H1 for a lot less than the V2, then it would be a good move. If they are the same price, I would get the V2 all day long. If it were only like $300, I would still get the V2.

The H1 won't be underpowered. There is no way in hell you can get something with a 650cc engine and it be underpowered. Just because it won't outrun the V-twin in a drag race DOES NOT mean its underpowered. There were just a lot of guys out here for some reason expecting the H1 to be some super quad for some reason, and probably were dissapointed when it wasn't as fast. My thoughts are that the Grizzly, Rincon, and Quest all have 650 size single cylinder engines and they can't outrun a 650 V-twin, so nobody should expect an H1 to do it either. But it will still be a powerhouse regardless.

As far as the transmission, if its the same as the AC belt auto's on all of their other bikes, they have always had good service records as well as good engine braking. The Kawasaki design has had a couple of problems here and there, but is still probably pretty good anyway. I'd say Yamaha and Arctic Cat have the best belt designs, and this is only coming from the number of compliments and the lower number of problems that I have read about in the last 5 years concerning them both.

 

hay rooch,last saturday i looked at booth side by side road both ,i did not like the vibbration of the h1 the power did not compare it's not the same machine with a differnt engine ,the tires are smaller ,as far as the tranney being bulletprof we havent taken a lot of shotes at it yet,but it is geard way to low to use m

 

now what is the vibration from, is the motor out of balance or something? The dealer here wouldn't let me ride one until I'm seriuos about buying and they only have a paved parking lot that a guy could do circles in. I don't really need a bunch of top end, but for the times you need it it would be nice to have, I mainly need the low to midrange stuff, that is where I do most of my driving anyways. I would have to agree with Andy and say that it can't really be underpowered, but it should have lots of low end torque you would think?

 

I have an 05 V-2 and love it can't help you with the H-1 have not rode one yet.

 

You said that you want to use it for farm work. I have an 04 640. Low range is much higher geared than a Grizzly or Polaris. If the H1 transmission is geared low, you may prefer it over the V2 better for lauling heavy loads or pulling trailers.

 

The H1 is a better machine for work than the V2 and yes the H1 has Arctic cats Duramatic tranny wich is the best auto on the market . From what i have heard the H1 has a much lower low range wich would be nice for pulling and other work . Some people are saying the the H1 really wakes up after it is broken in and will almost keep up to the V2 . Check out http://www.arcticchat.com/ There is alot of guys over there that have the H1's and V2's and even 1 or 2 that have one of each , they should be able to answer all your questions