I have an 05 500 auto in lime green and i broke a 1sq ft piece out of the rear fender on what I thought was a light bump on a tree top at 5-10 kph that was laying in the trail. Another guy i ride with has an 06 400 trv in lime green and he broke the front fender first then cracked the rear fender and his brother told me today he broke another fender on sunday although i dont which one he also had the exhaust pipe break in two right at the bend as it comes out of the engine

 

i have a buddy with an 05 650 cat and his fenders look like somthing from a frankinstine movie.
the fenders on the new cats are so hard when they come up against a tree or a tight spot they dont bend like the 03's and 04s do they brake.
me and my buddys do alot of bush riding and almost every time we go out my bud always gos home with somthing broken.
plastic is the least of his worrys.
we ride alot 100 plus miles a month and his cat is in the shop right now getting new cv joints drive shaft u joints, he had all his front end bushings changed a while back.
and his frame cracked and they fixed that also.
hes had so many problems with it hes thinking of trading it in soon.
i had all kinds of trouble with my 03 cat ( no broken plastic issues) but my cats body was the same as bears.
but i broke everything else. and then theres my other buddy gord who also traded his 04 650 cat in because his was falling apart also.
if you ride hard i would think about somthing else or a year from now youll be ready for another quad because youll be so sick of yours braking down it wont be funny.
and im not joking when i say that.
my buddy barely got $7000 cdn for his 1 year old 650 cat when he traded it in.
and new there around $10,000 cdn.
i ride the hell out of my 700 kawi prairie and i only had to change the swing arm bushings. and i have 44000 klms on it.
if you wont do much riding and will be taking it easy then you will love the ride of the cat but stay away from steep hills unless you want to be flipping it.
and im not joking about that eather.
the choice is yours and its your money but if i were you i would look at a few other quads befor i buy a cat.
kawi has 2 years warrenty on there new 700 prairies.
and bomb has 3 years cat is 6 months because thats about how long youll get out of it befor somthing brakes.
unless your one of these people who say that they have had there cat for a few years and havent had a single thing go wrong with it. well ask those same people how many miles they have on them and 90% of them will be under a 1000 miles.
i never had an issue with mine till i hit 800 miles and then i broke my first of 4 axels.
and a ton of other stuff.
like i said the choice is yours and so is the money but if i were you i would look else where first.
just my 2cents worth. good luck.

 

mudplaster, before you start bashing Cats you should have your facts straight. I have a 2005 650 V-2 that I put 1400 hard miles on last year without one problem. I have not touched the clutches and have all the original axles. The only thing I have replaced is the oil. I have rode every type of terrain from deep mud to the rough trails on the Piaute trail in Utah so go somewhere else to bash the Cats. I have been through thick oak brush and tall sage brush and my plastic is scratched all to he!! and not one crack. Any time you want to bring that flatland Prairie down here to the high country of Utah, I will be glad to show you around.

 

Wow...quite the negative review. You must do some HARD HARD riding. Id be comfortable in saying that I Ive ridden my cat an average of 190 miles a month. Miles, not Kilometers. And Im very comfortable in saying that I ride pretty hard by most peoples standards. When Im not in Elk Country (bowtec I think you know what Im referring to) and that is rough, I'm looking for challenging things to put my wheeler through. I can say that Ive run the gamut with my machine and the times I SHOULD have broken something (there have been a few), I didnt. Ive replaced nothing but oil.

Oh...and as for the steep hills. That really makes me wonder about your Cat experience, and your riding style. I have yet to find anybody who can go somewhere on their machine that I cant go on my cat. Ive ridden with Honda's, Polaris, and 1 Kawi. Mud bottoms, creeks, rivers, rocks, down hill, up hill, side hill, you name it. In fact I've taken mine places others wouldnt take their machines. Not necesarily because their machine couldnt handle it per se, but because they just wouldnt do it. Rider or machine? Do Cats sit a bit higher than some. Sure. But not so high that they will tip for no reason on a reasonable incline. Key words.... FOR NO REASON...REASONABLE.

Anyway, dont abuse your bike, ride with some common sense, and WITHIN your abilities, and your cat will take you whereever you want to go, and it will do it with style. Wait for your buddies to catch up, and enjoy the view. =-)

 

i put 2800 miles on my 03 500i cat and i found when going up hills the rear end squats and the front end is so light that it pops up and thats when it would flip.
and as for getting my facts straight there as straight as i see them from riding with two other guys who have had cats 1 guy traded his 04 650 in on a new kawi and the other guy has an 05 650 and we ride alot to geather so im just saying what i have seen with ny own and my friends cats and i said 100 miles a month not kilometers.
when i traded my cat in on a rubicon and put 2500 miles on it in 10 months and my kawi i already have 4400 kilometers (2700 miles)on it in 15 months so i ride at least 100 miles a month i was just being conservative.
so im not bsing if thats what you think.
i dont waste my time on BS im just saying what i have seen with cats if you dont like it to bad.
if you want a list of things i replaced on my cat i will be glad to list them for you and im sure my buddy bcbogger will give you a list of things he had replaced on his and our buddys 05 650 cat as well.
like i said we do bush bashing and thats hard on any quads it just harder on some then others.
my buddys cat seems to brake the most out of all the quads we ride with.
sorry if its not what you want to hear.
and why bash cats on the kawi site thay would just agree.
and besides im not bashing im just stating FACTS.

 

Every brand has had machines that have had a few problems. You can look on the Kawi site and see just as many, such as A-Arms falling off because they can't get parts for the factory recall on the suspension. The durability of the Cat's far out weigh the minor problems they've had. If you don't like Cats's thats your right just like I think the Kawi's are the ugliest quads on the market and would be the last one I would buy.

 

too me every brand has a model that has issues that gives it a bad name but most models of each brand are fine. For cats the model with the most problems have been the V2. Not that all v2's have problems, that just what here the most about.

 

I would like to say that I do really like my cat except for the plastic i ride hard and work my bike hard. Its 10 months old and has 2800 kms on it . Its higher but thats one reason I bought it for the ground clearance its really rocky around here and I can go over alot of stuff others go around. I did have an axel and a wheel bearing replaced under warr. and my dealer seems to listen to me if I have any questions or problems.So all in all i am happy

 

I'm beginning to see now. You take and I quote your own words "my 03 500i cat and i found when going up hills the rear end squats and the front end is so light that it pops up and thats when it would flip." and you aren't bright enough to back out of the throttle when the front end comes up?, causing the machine to go over backwards and it's the machines fault. Forest Gump said it best "Stupid is as stupid does!"

 

I'm with Bear on this one. My 400i and I have been up some hills that made me just plain nervous and other guys not attempt, and I've never had mine go over backward. Maybe try leaning up over the handle bars. Seems to work for me. And your back end squatted? Did you have your shocks set right?

In all seriousness though, I hope you're ok. Going over backward like that would put a good ole fashioned hurting on most people.