Is there a reason for the rear shocks being mounted so low? The top shock mount is lower than the top of the rear tires!! My only guess is that it decreases the amount of body roll.

 

wow, i can'y read them all at once!

 

Hehe sorry i wish i knew. But nice to see the amazing amount of people here from Nova Scotia!

 

edit, oops

 

I am perplexed my self Rincon??!! I posted looking for rider opinions on any of the '03 ACs and nobody seems to be interested in giving up any info.

Either the machines have problems, nobody has an '03, or the people are to busy riding to respond.

I wish I could answer your question. I would be willing to bet that you are right, though, about the body roll. I would imagine that it makes the suspension a little more stable.

 

We have two 2003 400i cats and have over 800 miles on them with no problems at all. Both cats handle everything we thrown at them.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Thanks. I am leaning more towards the 500i, 5 Speed. They still have heel toe shifters, right?
They're $1000 + cheaper than a sp500, so i could buy 589's and C-series rims, and it would still be cheaper!

The Product Finder in Amherst, N.S. has left over sp500's ('02) with a winch, 6 months no intrest, no payments, and teh first service is free, for $8199.

What is a good Cdn price for a 500i, foot shift? (or American)

 

I also have an 03 400 manual. I put 27" Buggs on it day one and love it. Not a speed demon, but sure muds well.

 

I was down to SP500 or 500i, and got the cat for three reasons:

1. slightly better suspension: gc, travel, etc...
2. Available manual transmission
3. Price (was $400 cheaper)

In a nutshell, I found that the SP500 had more power, cat had a little better suspension, and since I use mine for farm work, I liked the absence of a lot of glitzy electronics. I hauled in around a ton of firewood with mine today, four wagon loads of oak. Man, this machine is handy to have!

Ended up paying USD$5800 for mine, I've heard of 500i's being sold for this elsewhere, but you have to look. Mine has the heel/toe shifter. You can get the regular style shifter, but once you get used to the Cat shifter, you kinda like it. Especially nice if you have big boots on.

Beats me why the shocks are mounted the way they are. Could have something to do with no sway bar, another nice Cat feature. Lets each wheel fully articulate, so I guess they had to increase spring rates a bit to compensate. I've heard of more than one person disconnecting the sway bar on a Grizzly to get better rock crawling.

--John

My cat photos

 

Thanks for the input. Now that you mention it, the heel/toe shifter would work better with big boots, and i either wear big boots, or hip wadders.

Do you have the '03 AC? what bike has compareable power to the 500i? Anything else would be appreciated.