As I've mentioned I am looking for sport atv's for myself and my wife. Mine has to be able to comfortably fit a 6'5" rider. The challenge has been finding something that will fit her small 5'0" frame comfortably yet be able to keep up with a larger machine. We only have two name brand (not including chinese) atv dealers within a reasonable driving distance; a Honda dealer and Polaris/Can-Am dealer. So, I've been looking at the Honda 400ex or Polaris Predator for myself. I've also been heavily leaning towards a 250cc machine for her such as the Honda 250ex or Can-Am DS250. She has sat on the DS250 and Polaris Phoenix but was concerned about whether or not she would be able to handle them. I've read the suggestions, here and elsewhere, to test ride the quads we're interested in. But, here is the frustration: The Polaris/Can-Am dealer won't allow any test rides and the Honda dealer was very unfriendly and wouldn't even acknowledge I was in their nearly-empty store. These are our first atv's. Is this sort of thing normal? I can't imagine spending several thousand dollars on machines that we can't even test out to see if they actually fit. Any other suggestions?

 

You're going to have to drive a little to find other dealers. Many dealers have test areas behind the dealership that they will allow you to do a test ride on. Not the best or most realistic but at least it can give you a feel for the bike on dirt. Other than that, either try to find a friend with something similar that you can borrow to test ride or find a rental place to test ride. I've heard of a few dealers who have loaned out an ATV for a day or two but those are usually cases of a friend of the dealer or a repeat customer where the dealer is pretty sure that he'll make a sale. Not the best system but you can't blame dealers for not wanting youto test their rides out in the woods - makes a brand new ATV a used ATV in a hurry if you choose not to buy.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: jaybeecon55

You're going to have to drive a little to find other dealers. Many dealers have test areas behind the dealership that they will allow you to do a test ride on. Not the best or most realistic but at least it can give you a feel for the bike on dirt. Other than that, either try to find a friend with something similar that you can borrow to test ride or find a rental place to test ride. I've heard of a few dealers who have loaned out an ATV for a day or two but those are usually cases of a friend of the dealer or a repeat customer where the dealer is pretty sure that he'll make a sale. Not the best system but you can't blame dealers for not wanting youto test their rides out in the woods - makes a brand new ATV a used ATV in a hurry if you choose not to buy.</end quote></div>

It's understandable that a dealer wouldn't allow anyone to take the machine off of the lot. I wouldn't expect them to. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Unfortunately, the only people I know well enough to borrow their quads all have utility models, not what we're interested in...though the Grizzly 660 was fun!

Being a newbie and based on previous advise, several have suggested that we test ride at the dealer to find the make and model that fits. So, to me it sounded like test rides were a common thing. But, the general response (from the only dealer that acknowledged we were in their store) was something like "We don't do test rides. Trust us, you should be fine." The other dealer never acknowledged me as a customer even after I greeted two different employees. I appeared to have the look of a newbie and they seemed only interested in the experienced regular riders that came in shortly after me.

Maybe I had the wrong expectations about what the dealer experience would be like, or maybe I will have to check other dealers, further away. I hope there are stores that welcome new riders.

 

Well heres my recommendation. For you: Outlaw 525 with IRS and KTM motor. Extremely quick smooth riding quad.
For your wife:My wife is a smaller gal and she rides a 300ex. Nice quad and shes not to scared of it. She wont even get on mine.
As for the dealer thing, welcome to buying ATV's. Parking lots are murder on quad tires. The best bet is to find someone with a similar quad but if you cant, do what I do. Tell the people straight up, I am going to buy a quad, let me drive it or I will go somewhere else to spend the money. You might be surprised what a little persuasive speech can do.

 

I got a DS250 for my wife. She seems to like it, but it just seems to be way underpowered. Bought it to replace the Trail Blazer 250 she had, and the Blazer seems to be better in every way IMO.

The dealer I went to let me ride a ds around their building.

But a lot of the dealers have the models on the floor completely dry, so I could see where they couldn't be taken for a ride.

 

Thanks for the input gablett and Scooter. Sitting on each of them, I liked the feel of both the Predator and Outlaw for my size. The Outlaw felt marginally bigger and I liked the feel of the hydraulic clutch, but I'm concerned that it may be a bit overkill for a first quad. I've also read some things about oil leaks so reliability would be a concern. Gablett, What are your experiences?

The DS250 seemed nice for her. I can see where power and weight could be a concern, though. Looking at the specs it's 20 lbs. heavier than the Predator with half the displacement. Scooter, does the DS250 ride like it's heavy? We also looked at the Trailblazer 250 and it felt too big and wide around the midsection for her to ride comfortably.

Thanks!

 

I dont know where you heard about oil leaks from. It might be about the predator 500 or outlaw 500. Those both have polaris motors made by Dinli I believe. The Outlaw 525 is KTM powered. Made in Austria by the number 1 dirt bike manufacturer in the world. They have won every sort of dirt bike competition for the past like 40 years, every year. The engine does not get more reliable. I have had absolutely no problem with mine, except holding on. The power and tourque this thing has are second to none, literally. You will not be disappointed. But if you buy high performance, it comes with high performance maintanence. Oil changes should be done about every 10-15 hours of hard riding, and if you get the oil KTM recommends, its 15 bucks a liter and you need 2 liters. It has 2 oil filters which are 5 a peice. So its not maintanence free, but the engine in bullet proof. Im sure you wont have any problems with it. Just look up the KTM 525 EXC, thats the engine that is in the outlaw 525.