Okay so about 3 years ago I had a 350 Warrior and yes it was fun but got boring to me, so I got rid of it. Now I'm wanting to get back into riding and wanting to know what the best quad is (performance wise) for what I do. The Warrior I had did great on trails and stuff but lacked the power I wanted. And on the roads or long straight aways lacked the top end speed. I never ride in sand, im from TN so I ride on mostly dirt trails and a little bit rocky trails and fields and on the roads. What would be the best quad to suit my needs?

 

Ya looking at 2WD...4WD...not a real "best quad" in my opinion...all have there strengths and weaknesses. Depends on what you want to do with them and expect them to do. I am a Polaris guy. They suit me and the parts are readily available and a dealer was close (he has since closed up tho) I have 4 polaris's in the barn and have owned 7 of them so far. Cannot say anything bad about other brands tho. Again, it depends on what YOU want, and how much money you have to spend.

 

You probably want to look at something with at least 500 ccs if you want a full size quad, I know the 450 cc sports quads are fast as hell though. Which brand, however is like asking which is the best PU truck, though, haha. It took some work to get my AC 500 to top out at a gps 55 mph, though I have heavy 30" Mudzillas. Other than top speed, it's still quick enough for me...

 

Yamaha Raptor 700 has a high top end speed. For the life of me I can't remember how fast. All the 450 class sport quads are quick with a pretty high top end too. If you're looking into a sport utility with lots of power there are a few choices. Can-Am Renegade or Outlander 800 and 1000 are ridiculously fast and powerful. Polaris Scrambler or Sportsman 850 and 1000. I have a Outlander Max with a 650. I've gotten it up to 68 a couple times before I ran out of smooth, wide trails where I could see a good distance ahead. The Renegade doesn't come with any racks. The Scrambler has a small rack on the back and an area on the front where you can tie down gear. The Outlander and Sportsman have racks for gear.

Big differences between sport quads and utility/sport quads are weight, 4wd, and ground clearance.

 

If you want a sport quad the Raptor 700 is a good choice.

 

Raptor 700 will run about 75-80 mph stock. Less maintenance than the 450 cc race quads. The Honda 700xx would be a good choice too with similar power and good reliability.

 

You never stated if your looking for new or used.
Budget???
This could clarify your options.

 

Well I guess I am getting old, why in the hell does anyone want to go 60 mph+ on an atv? If anything at all goes wrong, your a$$ is grass! My SxS does about 50 and that is way to fast for offroading.....if something breaks, or a tire blows out.....all over but the shout. My sons had sport quads in their younger days and was constantly getting hurt from to much speed, I just thank GOD that it was nothing serious but their machines took abuse.
I used to have a Praire 300, it was not the fastest quad out there, but there was no place I couldn't go and get to. Rarely did my boys beat me at the end of a long haul because I had to stop and get them unstuck with their sport quads. I may not get there first....but I always get there!

 

The only quad I ever had that wasn't fast enough was a TrailBlazer 250. My 500 will go about 55 and that's scary to me. My worry about going fast is a tie rod breaking or something like that happening. After all the stumps I've hit it could have weakened something. I actually broke a tie rod while going fairly slow when I plowed into the bank on the side a narrow trail.

 

I assume he hasn't gotten rid of his "need for speed" yet. I still like to go fast for short intervals from time to time. Its just that where I ride, you simply don't have the chance to do that very often anyway. Maybe for a few seconds and then you have to get hard on the brakes or you're flying over the bars or crashing into a tree. I almost flipped my Grizzly into a creek yesterday at one mph. Went down a trail I wasn't too familar with and got to a part where it got really washed out and narrow and off camber. I'm thinking, i can make this. I get off and try to manhandle it through the short section, basically about 50 ft, and just couldn't make it. I then proceeded to back out of it and it got tense for a couple minutes. I finally managed to get back to the level part of the trail but if a cricket had landed on it, it would have flipped and tumbled about 20 ft down into the creek. I think the most challenging part was it was so narrow and slick that I couldn't even get good footing to control the machine from the ground. It just kept trying to get away from me, couldn't keep the bars pointed straight. My new winch was no help as there was no tree close enough to use. I"ll remember never to go down that one ever again. It used to be an much easier trail but erosion has made that part basically impassable.