Hello Everyone,


I need help deciding on which one of these rides to get ??

 

Both are good machines, i don't have either but i have a friend who has the new grizz and i personaly would pick that out of the two grizz alittle slow outa the gate (compaired to my praire) but at 45 and up it is a mean machine. I think you will be happy with either. enjoy

 

Is there anyone else out there that can give me some good solid advice on these two bikes ?

Thanks for the reply locopie !! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I don't know if I can help, but I will tell you what I have seen and experienced. I use to own a Prairie 650, and I just bought a 2003 Grizzly 660 Limited Edition. I always ride with a good friend who has a Polaris SP700. I don't know about the SP600, but the SP700 should be very similar. The SP700 is a very good machine, and we are both able to go anywhere that we desire. Comparing the Grizzly 660 to the SP700 is very easy, as they are so much alike. They both have independent suspensions that give great rides and lots of comfort. The Grizzly has almost a half-inch more suspension travel in front than the SP700. This is probably not enough of a difference to ever notice while riding. The rear suspension travel is the same. They both have more than enough power, although the Grizzly does feel a little sportier, probably due to its 140 lb weight advantage. They both have 11.8 inches of ground clearance. The SP700 will tow more than the Grizzly. The SP700 is rated to tow 1500 lbs, while the Grizzly is only rated to tow 1212 lbs. I have seen my friends SP700 tow a pick-up out of a ditch before. I have followed him everywhere and he has followed me everywhere, and I don?t think that either one can go anywhere that the other can't. The main difference that I have seen while riding both of them is the engine breaking and four-wheel drive system. Due to the way the Polaris four-wheel drive system is designed, it will not provide four-wheel engine breaking while in four-wheel drive. This is because that even when four-wheel drive is selected on the Polaris, the front wheels are not engaged until the back wheels begin to slip. Don't get me wrong, this four wheel drive system works very well, and keeps the steering nice and light, but since the front wheels are not engaged when in four wheel drive and descending down a hill, all engine breaking is directed to the rear wheels. This can cause the rear wheels to lock up and the quad to get a little squirmy on steep down hills. Another difference in the two quads that further aggravates this situation is the single lever breaking on the Polaris. Again, on the steep down hills, if he applies breaks in that situation, the back wheels are even more likely to lock up, causing the SP700 to try to get a little side ways on the way down. I watch this happen every time we ride, and I just smile and shake my head. The Grizzly on the other hand provides four-wheel engine breaking while in four-wheel drive and allows the Grizzly to come down steep grades with a world of confidence. It will literally crawl down the steepest hills with out even having to touch the break, and it will not try to lock the tires and get side ways like the SP700. The only other real difference is that the Grizzly has separate front and rear brake controls, which allow you to choose which end you want to apply breaks in tricky situations like the one mentioned above. If the Polaris had this feature, it would help alleviate the problem of locking up the rear wheels on steep descents and help keep the quad straight and under control. Finally, the Grizzly does have the locking front differential, which is debatable as to how much of an advantage it really is over the SP700 front diff. Ultimately, these two machines are very similar, and know one can say that one is better than the other. They are both awesome quads, and either one will do anything that you ask it to. If you don?t think that the engine breaking to only the rear wheels and the single lever breaking will bother you, then you must simply buy which ever machine you think looks the nicest. Also consider the quality of service that is provided by the dealer; always buy from the better dealer. One last thing to consider. The Polaris SP700 has been dyno'd at 30.2 hp at the rear wheels. The Grizzly 660 has been dyno'd at 29.8 hp at the rear wheels and weighs 140 lbs less than the SP700. My point here is that the SP600 will be less powerful than the Grizzly and quite a bit heavier. The SP700 and Grizzly 660 are very closely matched power wise, but there will be a bigger difference in performance between the SP600 and the Grizzly 660. Well, I hope I haven't boarded you with this long post, but I am very familiar with both quads and wanted to give you a fair comparison. They are both great quads and you won't be disappointed with either one. By the one that you think that you like the best, I know that you are more partial to one than the other. Buy that one, and don't look back. Good luck.

 

Area51,

Thanks for your honest opinion of both machines. I would agree, if I had it in the budget I might very well get both of them. Unfortunately, I dont so I must pick one soon so that I can take advantage of the interest free financing for 6 months.

<U>Anyone else want to give me their take on these quads?</U>

 

Area51,

I appreciated your post regarding the differences between Grizzly 660 and Sportsman 700. It was very informative. I noticed that you mentioned you used to own a Prairie, but just recently bought a Grizzly. I am gearing up to buy my first atv (I'm new to this forum as well), and I think I have it narrowed down to either a Grizzly 660 or a Prairie 650. Why did you go from a Prairie to the Grizzly? I am also in the Las Vegas area, and am curious to know which dealers you have dealt with. I have visited most of them atleast once. I am quite surprised that every dealer I've been to has said that they don't allow test drives. I will have a hard time parting with $7,000 + without a test ride. I like the fact that the Prairie has the v-twin over the single cylinder Grizzly, but on the other hand, it seems to me that the IRS is an advantage over the straight axle on the Kawasaki. Without being able to test ride any of them, I'm at a loss as to determine which way to go. I am interested to hear your analysis between the two, since you have owned each. Also, have the dealers been willing to negotiate much from the M.S.R.P.? I've got to admit that the Grizzly LE is a badass looking bike! Thanks for your input.

Rip

 

Hi Rip, welcome to the forum. Prairie 650 versus Grizzly 660, this is a touchy subject [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I will try to describe the differences between the two as I saw them, and how they affect my opinion on these two quads. But again, these are only my opinions based on my needs. Yours and others may be different.

First let me say that these are both awesome quads, but there are differences, and these deference's will effect your overall enjoyment of the quad. I don't know what features are most important to you, but at least I am very familiar with the area that you will be riding in, and how these two quads work in this terrain. Ok, enough of my disclaimers and my feeble attempts to protect myself from the fallout of this post [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

First of all I bought the Prairie 650 because I read all the reviews in the magazines, all the shootouts that always picked it as the winner. They talked about how quick the Prairie 650 accelerated, how well it handled, and that it had a smooth ride. I liked the look of the Grizzly much better, and actually thought the Prairie 650 was ugly, but I wanted to buy the best performing quad, not the best looking. Anyway, as mentioned above, I ride allot with a friend who has a SP700 which has independent suspension. Riding behind him on the Prairie showed me the difference between independent suspension and the solid axel of the Prairie. He could just cruise over the rocky stuff, while I had to slow down to a crawl on the Prairie to keep from getting shaken to death. Also allot of the time I would wined up hitting rocks on the bottom of the Prairie that he would clear with lots of room. This is very important here in Vegas; almost everywhere you ride you will have to deal with rocks, so really take this into consideration when you do buy. Ground clearance is very important. So what I am trying to get at here is that the factors that the reviewers place on deciding which quad is best will very rarely always apply to your situation, and that is what happened to me. The reasons that they picked the Prairie 650 as the winner don't really apply to my riding style and area.

Ok things that I like about the Prairie 650 first. I love the V-twin engine. It is very smooth and very powerful. It sounds great and on the cool factor it rates very high for being the only V-Twin in a quad. I like the way it accelerates; it is very quick from 0-40. Above 40 though, the ignition is set to retard itself and the acceleration starts to drop off fairly quickly, allowing it to slowly work its way up to 66 mph top speed. I also like the dual piston breaks up front providing very good stopping power, although despite all the praise for the sealed rear disk break, I felt that it was a little numb feeling. Well I think that is about it for my 650 likes.

What I don't like about the Prairie 650. I really don't like the way this quad looks. I think Kawasaki really needs to hire some different people in the design department. The plastic bodywork on the Prairie 650 is kind of cheap. The pieces don't fit together very well, and allot of the plastic is kind of on the thin side. The seat seamed a little on the firm side and this was aggravated by the firm ride. The ground clearance is to low, and this is a big draw back in the Vegas area. And lastly, the belt drive transmission is not a good design in my opinion. Mine started to squeal at 450 miles. I read all the post on this forum and have asked lots of questions concerning this issue and it seams to be fairly common to the Prairie 650. Evidently, if you don't mind doing frequent adjustments then this is not a problem. But my friends SP700 had 2500 miles on it with out any belt noise and no adjustments, so to me this was not acceptable for the Prairie 650. I didn't want to have to be dealing with the belt on a regular basis. Your tolerance to this may be greater than mine. Also, the under seat storage compartment on the Prairie was very small, and has a snap on lid that wouldn't stay on most of the time. I would take off the seat only to find that it was missing but thankfully it hadn't feel off the bike while riding.

Despite all this, I still believe that Prairie 650 is a great bike. I am just really nit picking here, and these are all little things that may not bother you or another Prairie 650 owner as much as it bothered me.

As far as the Grizzly goes, I have not found anything that I don't like about it yet. But in all fairness, I haven't had it for nearly as long as I had the Prairie. But nonetheless I am very please with the Grizzly. The Grizzly looks awesome, the plastic body parts and fit and finish are top notch. Yamaha has really paid attention to detail. The power is really strong on the Grizzly, if I hadn't read that the Prairie would beat it in a drag race I wouldn't be able to tell. You have to line them up side by side to see the difference in acceleration. It does not idle as smoothly as the Prairie 650 does though, and it has noticeable handlebar shake when idling. Once underway, the vibrations of the big 660 seam to disappear, and this is not an issue while riding. The ground clearance is allot better on the Grizzly and the ride is much softer. Also the under seat storage compartment on the Grizzly is allot bigger, and you don't have to fool around with a snap on lid, as the seat acts as the lid when the seat is put into place. About the only thing that I can say that I'm not crazy about on the Grizzly is the air filter. Yamaha uses the same set up where the air box lid holds the air filter in place and it is not the most confident feeling set up. Also, I noticed after the first 3.5-hour ride that my factory foam filter was splitting at the seam. I took this down to the Yamaha shop and they replaced it with out question, but I would still recommend looking into an after market filter such as Twin Air. Also, Yamaha uses a CVT system that keeps the belt under constant tension, which is said to last a lot longer and be more reliable.

Despite all my little complaints about the Prairie 650 please don't take it the wrong way. It is a great bike. Just ask anyone who has or still does own one. All the things that I mentioned about it are little nit pick things for the most part, and they are only my opinion and viewpoint. I'm sure that allot of other people would not agree with me about things such as the looks and fit and finish of the plastic and more. What I'm trying to say is, that for me the Grizzly is a better fit. It gives me more of the things that I like. You have to decide on what things are most important to you. Look over both quads carefully. Set on them and reach for controls and see how natural they feel to you. And if you're like me, you already like one of them more than the other, so just go ahead and go with your gut feeling. Don't buy the one that someone else says is better, that is the mistake that I made. You have to buy the one that you like best and that will work for you. I'm sure there are allot of things that I haven't covered, but I'm not able to think of all the differences here in one setting.

As far as dealerships go, I have bought from several in town. Motor Cycle City, World Motor Cycle, and Las Vegas Motor Sports and none of them will let you test-drive them. I hear what you're saying about the $7,000 and no test drive, it does make it difficult. You will probably be able to get a better deal on the Prairie 650, I know I did. I was able to get it for $6,400 out the door last February at Motor Cycle City. They said they lost money on it, but I find that hard to believe, otherwise why would they sale it? My Grizzly was a different story though. They didn't want to budge at all since it was the only Limited Edition that they had or had seen. They did say that they would come down a little on the regular Grizzly's though, but the better deal will always be on the Prairie, something worth considering.

In the end, you will be happy with either one I'm sure, like I said, they are both great quads, it just boils down to which one is the better fit for you and your riding style.

Let me know if I can answer any more question for you, or if you have any specific questions that I didn't address. I would be happy to help in any way that I can. Send me a Private message or e-mail me, I believe that my e-mail address is available in my profile. I'm always happy to talk about quads.

Good luck on your purchase and let me know which one you buy.

 

There is one other thing that I wanted to clarify in my opinions between the Grizzly and the Prairie. I don't want what I said taken the wrong way. Just because I didn't like something about the Prairie 650, doesn't mean that others will feel the same way. For example: I said that I didn't like the way that the Prairie looks, other people might like it's looks just fine. I said that I thought that the ride was a little firm; other people might like it that way, saying that they feel the firmer ride provides sportier handling. I said that the Prairie sets to low and doesn't have enough ground clearance with its solid axel. Other might say that they like the solid axel as it lets them slide the quad easier and that the lower stance gives it a lower center of gravity for off camber ridding. So my point is, while I like the features of the Grizzly better, for my type of riding, that doesn't mean that it is better. It is just better for me. They are both great quads, you just have to look at both sides of every feature of both quads. What might be a negative for one rider may be viewed as a positive for another. Anyway, I hope this helps.

 

WOW it is great to hear some honest comparrison between machines instead of bashing brand names.

 

Willow22,

I would agree with you about the comparisons in rides rather than bashing makes. Everyone has their favorite for their own reasons and this is the kind of posts that need to spread throughout the entire forum. I appreciate all the good posts and hopefully there will be more to come in the following days.

Area51.....a special thanks for your detailed explanations since I am soon to go get the 600 Twin but have to build my shed in my backyard since this will the home and shelter to my new quad.

<U>I do have one quick question for everyone?</U> What kind of locks, cables, combinations thereof work best for you all or do you all even have a problem with theives ?? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img].......please let me know !!!