Picked up my 800 yesterday in LA and took it up into the Mendocino mountains today for about a 4.5 hour ride.

I'll be honest, when I first fired it up last night, I was a bit disappointed, expected it to sound like my DS650 LOL.
I guess from all the hype I've been hearing I figured if I just tapped the gas this thing would bolt out of my hands, first few times I was pretty gentle with it and again, not exactly disappointed but was kinda wondering what all the fuss was about. Third time I punched the gas, OMG, almost flipped the damn thing over on me, nuff said about that.

I've ridden a few different machines, Raptor, YFZ, Bruin, DS650, Rincon, and another Outlander but a 330. I'd say I'm moderately experienced riding for 2.5 years. The last year I've put about 50 hrs on my Rincon, so thats my benchmark for basing my experience on the Outlander, I've ridden the DS too but apples and oranges in this case.

The very first things I noticed were how managable the power was and just how nimble this machine is. Our first ride consisted of about a 2 mile vertical mountain access trail, fairly steep but not suicidal, this trail takes us to all the other trails, its really the only trail out of our staging area for ATV's. I was being a bit gentle at first because being so steep and rough I didn't wanna jolt and hit the gas too hard and lose control, the power is very smooth. On dirt roads I opened it up quite a bit but was never able to have enough road to go WOT, probably a good thing too.

Handling was very nice, not quite as soft as the Rincon but much less body roll, handling was a breeze. I was able to do power slides with no problem, this can be tricky on the Rincon. I stayed away from any real jumping, hit a few whoops and caught a bit of air a few other times but thats not really what this quad is made for IMO, it felt like it could do it just fine but I want to keep this thing around for a while, 640 lbs plus myself is too much.

Half the trails we were on were no joke, cross between moderate and advanced. We accidently ended up on motorcycle only trails, fortunately they were JUST wide enough for me to creep through and I was able to negotiate some pretty sharp turns without stopping, not as easily as my buddy on his YFZ450 but I'd have probably had to stop on my Rincon to negotiate a few of these turns. I hit the bottom of one trail at a dry creek bed pretty hard, was relying on the engine brake a bit too much and was going a bit fast, almost jammed my shoulder but the quad took the dip pretty well, I was fortunate, I might still be sore tomorrow though.

I had an 04, 330 Outlander I sold earlier this year, so I was already pretty familiar with the machine in general. Not sure if it was the tires or improved suspension but the 800 actually feels lighter then the 330 did even though it's 40 lbs heavier. The wheel base is about an inch shorter then the Rincon, not sure how much this plays into the body roll, different tires totally as well so thats probably a factor as well. It still feels a bit heavy in the front, but most 4WD do, thats why I didn't want the winch.

Quirks? Speedo is in KM's and it actually revs with my RPM's, at idle(1250 rpm's) it sits at 10 MPH. Going to have this checked when I have it serviced. I removed the racks so had to rig the front and rear lids, drilled small holes in the "hinges" and used small yellow plastic zip ties to secure to the machine, this works fine but gonna try to think of a few other ideas. Noisy sucker, R2D2 lives. Shifter feels better but still has that feel and still gotta rev it or rock it into park from reverse occasionaly, every other ATV I've ever ridden has shifted as smooth as silk, why can't BRP improve on this design? Is there a clock? I'll have to check the manual, would be kinda nice, my Rincon has one.

Overall?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I think the only thing that could top this would be the forthcoming Renegade. After getting warmed up I was tossing this thing around pretty good, I simply can't do that with the Rincon. I never got close to WOT and we had some pretty good runs on some dirt roads, since the speedo is tweaked, I'm not sure how fast i was going, I can only say I probably got to about 3/4 WOT, and NOT because of the owners manual, not enough straight road. What surprised me the most was how agile and nimble this machine feel for coming in over 600lbs. When it comes time to replace the tires I think I'm going to go with the same tires/wheels on the Renegade, I think this will help the handling even more.

I'm probably going to take it over to the rock quarry here tomorrow for a little while, there are some pretty impressive "mini" mountiains of gravel with some nice "bowls" to ride around and through, sure is tough on the tires though.

If you are considering getting one of these machines, DO IT!! It has fulfilled all my expectations.

 

sounds good i want one

 

My dad just bought a Outlander 800 max xt and we talked him into going out trail riding with us when he got back with it. He did and he loves it, And I will have to say I am very impressed. I still like my Preddy better but for other reasons. But I spun those tires and wow. You can even whip the rearend around. That is definately a nice bike, real smooth very fun to ride. I can't wait for him to come to the dunes with us and see how it does in the sand.

 

Raidermike,
Were you up by Upper Lake in Lake County? Just wondering as its about 30 minutes from where I live.
Scott

 

I was up in Stonyford, north of clearlake, west of Williams. I've also ridden Cow Mountain and maybe Pilsbury one day.