I have always been partial to the Artic Cat ATV, I guess because I am the owner of a 1998 580 Pantera which I am totally happy with.

I cannot believe the amount of "cat fighting" that is going on over at the Polaris forum about the 700 and other atvs that have never been driven yet, by the vast majority of the atv forum participants.

Personally I cannot wait to get my test drive fingers on a 500I and let it rip! Sorry for the lament but I did have to go to a forum where sanity prevails and vent! Keep up the good work and the logical reviews!

 

Welcome to the world of Sanity.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Thor-
You're always welcome over here in the land of the "sane"-or should I say-more relaxed, laid back group of fellow atv'ers. Like yourself, I too am eagerly awaiting a test drive on the new 500i series, though as we don't even have the regular '02 models yet, it may be a while. Personally though, I prefer a strait axle, due to all the hard work, towing and hauling I do. I would however like to see my Dad trade his '00 'Cat in for a new '02 "i" model-I think he would benefit rather nicely from the new IRS, and as his machine doesn't see any real work anyway, it would be a good trade. Besides, I might be able to persuade him into "borrowing" it for trail riding when I'm not working! heh heh heh [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

When the going gets ugly, you can always shut down and go for a ride, or just come on over this way, we'd be glad to have ya!

Best of Luck,

Mike

 

Thor,

I stopped going over there. I can't say that I blame you. If it ever got like that over here I would have to find something else to do. Check the Honda forum and read about the new Ricon. That thing won't be out for another 8 monthes and it is crazy over there already.

What is your take on the ever increasing price of these quads? The new Honda might be priced around $8500. Could we be pricing our hobby out of the reach of most would be quad owners or will there be enough middle of the road but let's face it far less advanced quads for people to ride? Maybe it's just me but I can't afford the $6800-8500 before tax quads.

Did you get the EBS working on your Magnum? I was picking up an air filter for my friends 325 expedition the other day and there was a magnum with the same problem on his. He had a bad module or something. Hope it is still rocking along for ya.

Dakota R/T

 

What is your take on the ever increasing price of these quads? The new Honda might be priced around $8500.

I think that I read that thread and I think that one is speculation or some marketing maven perhaps trying to get a reading on a "trial ballon" Regarding $7000 plus, I do not see the market being able to bear those prices. Here in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan ATVs do not sell unless heavily discounted. But... there are other areas of the country where the dealers stick together and discount very little. {BTW I gave $5300 for my Magnum when it was brand new.}


Did you get the EBS working on your Magnum? I was picking up an air filter for my friends 325 expedition the other day and there was a magnum with the same problem on his. He had a bad module or something. Hope it is still rocking along for ya.

My EBS problems were solved by the installation of a new drive belt. The old belt had worn down to 1.125 which is the servicable limit.

This wear had raised the engagement point probably two or three hundred rpm and was causing an annoyance.

My earlier clutch problems occured with less than 500 miles on the machine. When in the mud in high gear the secondary clutch did not seem to downshift quickly enough to put the clutch in the proper gear. As the machine aged, the secondary clutch buttons relaxed a bit, loosened up and started to allow the clutch to back-shift just fine. So that I believe was just a break in issue.

Regarding the "audible clunk" after using reverse, shifting into forward and accelerating? I have learned to live with it. The clunk is caused by the secondary clutch rollers moving from the back side of the helix (engine braking) to the forward side of the helix (forward motion). The noise is unavoidable and actually causes no harm.

************************************************** *************************

Other EBS issues:

Clutch Creep - I have personally not had this problem but know of a couple of people who have. The earliest models of the HO in 2001 were among the most effected by this. Production models before 8-15-00. Since that time Polaris has changed the specifications on two washers and one spacer within the primary clutch. Polaris has also decreased the belt width of the drive belt from 1.188" to 1.160 as standard specification.

The clutches that creep do so because the alignment of these early clutches was so critical that the drive belt could drag along the side of the inside front sheave and cause the machine to move forward in the idling position. But... a couple of spacer washers installed behind the secondary clutch could usually cure this condition.

The belt creeping issue can be cured in less than 30 minutes with a couple of washers that cost 99 cents apiece if the problem is not caused by a defective sprag gear within the primary clutch.

 

Thor:
Tell me about it. One thing I like about the A/C forum is how everyone more or less just tries to give the best information they can, and not go on and on either praising something that only 50 people have seen (and no one rode yet) or bashing someone or something they know very little about.

 

You are right about this forum, I own 3 Arctic Cats, but I would read this forum for information even if I owned something else.

 

Man I haft to agree here. I use to try to read some of the other forums and got sick of the insanity and also ran out of time. The moderator of this forum must have a pretty easy job. I can say, since school started again it seems to be a little better though.
If it weren’t for this forum I would probably be riding something else. I hadn’t even heard of Artic Cat yet.