Yup seen it today. Looks comfy. Seen a real nice looking lime green 400, w/winch and 589s. Looked sharp all nice and shiny. Wouldnt be shiny for long if i had it.

 

The 2up just looks too long. The rear seat would be really ugly if your ridin by yourself.

On the flip side, would that longer wheelbase be better in the nasty holes? Lots of cooler room!!

 

Someone earlier had posted that the gear ratios were different on the auto versus the manual. Asfar as speed goes the 2003 ispretty good. Mine will pull hard to 50MPH and then it will eventually hit 60MPH. I have seen on another site that the 2003 Cat/Vinson motor is 34HP [22HP]at the wheels. If this is true the HP is close to what a 660 Raptor puts out. Ican say forcertain that these machines are not slow, and in fact will be faster than half of the other bikes in thisengine class [ 450CC-500CC ] don't forget that this engine is running a much higher compression ratio and a different cam as well as a larger carb for 03. The engine is identcal to the Vinson 500 which I am told is a screamer, the reason the cat is a little more subdued is that the bike is 30 to 40 lbs heavier than the theVinson.

Cheers Jim

 

30 or 40 pounds is not going to kill the bike that much, the reason the 500 is not a screamer is due to gear ratio. It is not geared for speed although it does have some.

The autos are higher geared than the manuals. The manual have a better pulling ability as far as ftlbs of torque.

 

JKB:

The 500 Vinson may make that kind of power but its not close to the Raptor at all. The raptor makes about 34-36 HP at the wheels.

CatKrazy:

What makes these Arctic Cats slower is that they weigh more so it feels like they are slower, they put less power to the ground because of the drivetrain. The IRS does suck up more power than a solid axle machine so it may make 20hp or something. Also like you said, gearing, it is geared lower so it will affect the speed and acceleration.

 

i read that the arctic cat 500 has 34 ft pounds of tq at 3500 rpm's now it did not say if that was the auto or std but thats prety good.as for speed mine will hit 55 with no probs and 60 if i hold it long enuff, but who needs to go that fast anyway, the places i ride you dont have that long of strait aways to do those kind of speed's. as for the autos there about the same but they have belt drive witch can break and leave u stuck on the side of the trail and nobody wants that although autos seem very populer around here. on the plus side------ manual --- has a drive shaft no belts to break or service 2 you can pick a gear and leave it there for mud boging or hill climbing or trail rideing --down sides are you have to shift all the time minor. autos plus side no gears to shift ----- down sides. belt drive so if you ride hard you should carry a spare belt and enuff tools to change the belt when it breaks. or if the belt gets wet it will squeel untill it dry's out or breaks.eather way you go it will be fun nun the less

 

Forget about the arcitc cat. I've had a 2000 model for a couple of years. About a month ago I got an new Kawasaki Prairie 650 -- this machine is just awesome. It blows the arctic cat away! You can get a 2002 Kawasaki for the same price as an arctic cat 500.

 

I love poeple coming in here talking smack.

Whats funny is if we were a fly on the wall and could hear how many times the p 650 gets towed and pulled from the mud by others.

Dude dont even try to compare the two bikes. Yes your bike will out run mine, but yours will not even turn the tires i have on my 500 in the mud, trust me. i watched some jack a$$ get so mad the other day , he was trying to get us to wreck his bike for him so he could file it on his inssurance!! LOL. we pulled him so much we finnaly told he we were gone, and we took off. It was hot and muggy and eveytime we tried to go from point A to point B he would get hung in between. it took us and hour to go 2 miles because of him. He had the exact same tires as me! And the bike would not turn them in the deep stuff.
so i must say congrats!!! you bought your self a winner!!! Now go back to the kawi forum

 

Mud blaster

the belts on the ACs do not slip they have tounge and groove type of teeth on them. They also have a draining sytem in it to keep the water out. Abd two if you get water in the belt housing you get water in your carb.

 

BB if 40 punds makes the bike slower than that means i can remove my winch and everything will be fine right? wrong! The bike is not built for speed, and untill you do a test and put it on a computer you will not know what soaks up the power on these bikes. The FIS on these cats do not suck up any power. If anything it does nothing at all.

Think about what you are saying.\

Think about a HUMMER! Think about the rincon. Why is everyone going to the FIS? ITS BETTER!

I ride with every common bike nown to man. i see how each bike reacts to sifferent stuff. we all attempt the same things. i can provide you a list of things we do to test these bikes. alot of the times speed is need to give you momentum. other times good ole low end torqe and ground clearance brings you to the top of the food chain