You are wrong, my 98 500 out ran a 2001 Rubi in a flat out drag race, I beet him as much as the 500ho beet me, by at least 2 bikes it was about a 300 yard drag race. I have plenty of wittiness, we did this when we were guiding for the Rocky Mountain Jamboree, we had about 30 people watching us race, they all got a big kick out of it, he had been bragging all day about how fast his Rubi was, Don't underestimate an AC. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

Ha ha LOL!! that's pretty funny!!
I don't even particularily like the RUbicon, but I KNOW that it will out run an AC 500 with EASE!
If, by some miracle, you're telling the truth, and not talking about some wet dream you had, then that was one sick Rubicon that you raced.
Get real, even an Arctic Cat dealer won't try and convince anyone that an AC is fast or quick.

 

My money is on the Rubicon. I've had a 500 and its a good quad, but its not going to out accelerate a Rubi. It would barely beat my cousin's 454 and the Rubicon would beat it by a couple quad lenghts over 100 yards. The AC500 might on a certain day with certain drivers, but not on the level.

 

You guys may laugh, but I too have seen this same result. It's not magic how it's done, just common sense. If you have the AC jetted for altitude like the Rocky Mtn ATV festival and Rubi is jetted for sea level the AC will beat it everyway from sunday until you rejet the Rubi correctly.

Simple as that.

 

Now i've heard that the AC 500 5-speed is much quicker than the AC 500 auto. What would the race results be with the rubi and an AC 500 manual, up hill and on flat ground?

 

I rode last weekend with a Rubicon, we hit the open haul roads several times through out the day. It is allways a race with the guys that I ride with. I passed the Rubicon several times and he never passed me. I'm not saying that he was running wide open, because I don't know if he was or not. I do know that my other 02 AC will out run a Rubicon with both quads having 27" tires, I have done this before. The Rubi will win in a drag race, but not by much with a manual AC 500. The 500a is considerably slower than the Manual, I have had both. The auto will be slightly ahead until the manual hits 3rd gear then it is all over for the auto. The Rubi is fast but it doesn't pull larger tires as good as some of the other quads. From what I have seen the 450 will spin the big mud tires better than the Rubicon.
I'm not meaning to bash the Rubi, I love the tranny. I would buy it before any of the newer big bore quads. Just because of the transmission.

 

It's qiute possible that with larger tires the Rubicon will loose alot of it's oomph. I've never ridden with a bigfooted Rubi, but I can imagine that the computer wouldn't like the change in gearing.

 

The rubicon I raced with beat the 454, but not by much. Still, it would always beat it. The 454 was just slightly slower than my AC500. I would only pull away after we got to about 40, and then just by the slightest margin. I have no idea about tires and altitude. The Rubi I raced had 25" 589's on it.

 

The guy I raced on the rubicon is from around here so he was jetted right his bike had about 1200 mil. on it so he knew what he was doing, I just flat out beet him, my cat has over 5000 mil. both stock bikes we both work as guides for the jamboree it was as fare as it can get, I just flat out ran him,
Why is that so hard to believe? the only way you should say anything different is if you have seen these 2 bikes race.
Not one other person has said they have ever seen or even been part of these 2 types of bikes racing so how can you debate what I am telling you.
Your strong belief of the Honda is great but don't under estimate the Cat. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

 

I guess my only question is, WHO CARES? I don't mean to be rude, but this is kinda like the old my dad can beat up your dad arguement. Arctic Cat's are good machines, Hondas are good machines, Yamaha's are good machines, etc.., etc..., etc... Who cares what you ride, as long as you ride?

I have a Rubicon, and I knew I'd sacrifice certain things when I bought it. Problem is, in my opinion, there is no perfect quad. I simply bought the one I figured would suit my wants and needs the best. I don't care for belt drive autos, and I wanted a machine with a fairly low center of gravity. I have yet to find a situation in which my Rubicon didn't perform to my expectations. If I had enough money to own and maintain two machines I'd also have an Arctic Cat 500 IRS manual shift, but I don't.

I guess my point is, if top speed is your main concern, you bought the wrong type of machine. You should've bought a Raptor, 400EX, Warrior, DS 650, etc... Doesn't Arctic Cat really shine in the slow technical stuff? I guess the Grizzly 660, or Kawasaki 650 bridge the gap between "sport" and "utility"; however, they don't appeal to me.

Happy Trails.