I am thinking about buying a Rubi and I needs any and every opinion on this bike. Thanks in advance.

 

My father has the Rubicon and I love it. We had a Polaris Magnum 425 and it sucked compared to the Rubi.

Things I like:
1. The tranny is a great work tranny(no beltas to slip or wear out)
2. Solid Axle (some like the IRS but to me they just mean more maintenace and aless stable feel)
3. Good ground clearence
4. Honda reliabilty
5. Much better looking than a KVF or Yamaha
6.Drum Brakes (again some hate that but we run it in the winter and in the slush on the lakes and never a problem. Plus Disk brakes wear out faster cause sand and dirt get in them)

Dislikes:
1.Price
2. Lack of 2wd/4wd option

All in all this the Ultimate Utilty ATV from point of view. it has good power (not a wheelie machine) super reliabilty, most advanced Tranny in the business and Liquad cooled. Solid axle so no CVBoots to rip and replace in the rear.

I love it

 

I have had one for 2 years, and I love it. Not one problem yet. The power is ok. The brakes....this thing rarely needs them. The engine brake holds you back going down most hills to the point you have to give it gas. The tranny is what I love most. It work so smooth. I would recommend it highly, but it depends on what you want to do. The suspention is not for fast trail riding.

 

Our Rubicon has been very good to us. Over 3200 miles so far and not a single problem. The transmission is what sets the Rubicon apart from all other ATV's. There is nothing like it on the market and until Honda decides to duplicate it or come up with something else (like the 04 Rancher 400 AT) there never will be. The best way to describe the Rubicon's transmission is it is a "fully automatic 5-speed manual trans". This ATV was built for the mountains.

When we were looking for an ATV, sales men would try to get us to look at the Rubicon and we thought the "push-button" trans was a gimmick, it was too boxy, and who wanted an ATV that was in 4-wheel drive all the time? We were just about to make a decision between a Sportsman and a Kodiak and the salesman said, just take it for a spin, so we did.

The results; we took home a new Rubicon, Honda Red of course. The transmission is what changed our mind. Wide open throttle and at a touch of a button it shifts into the next "gear" quicker than you can blink an eye and smoother than a baby’s butt. It works great and the more we ride it the more we like it. The boxy appearance provides great mud protection. At the end of the day we look great and our friends are covered in mud. And after 3200 miles, I could care less that it is in 4-wd all the time, but I am not into sliding around corners, we are more into mountain climbing and this does it well.

If you are after the fastest or the smoothest you will have to keep looking. If you want a very capable ATV that just gets funner, stop looking.

 

My rubi runs great with 3700 miles on her, she starts like new every time. Price wasn't bad, I paid $5700 for it two years ago. I did change the brakes to disc cause the drums are not the best for hard mudding, I would reccomend this bike to anyone unless you want a bike with IRS for the smoothest of ride, but that will most likely cost a bit more. "Not a wheelie machine" yea right. With or without the pipe and stuff I could wheelie this bike with 27" tires, it does come up faster with the pipe though. It would really be a sweet bike with the traxloc too.

 

02 Rubicon, 1300 miles

Small ratteling noise that after reading some of the members posts tonight I think is a exhaustd shield. A little cold blooded in the mornings. No other problems.

This is my 8th bike over the years and I can genuinely say I enjoy owning and riding this bike. Period.

 

This quad has to be one of the best there is. One of my buddies has on and it gets USED. He builds fence and that thing has over 30xxx miles on it yeah 30xxx no typo and is still running hard, hes went threw tires but thats it. still stock and all. He has a lil red trailer he pulls behind it at times and he had it full of corner posts wich wiegh about o 35 pounds i will say and then to top that he had rolls of barb wire that weigh cloose to 70 pounds so the total wieght was up around 1600 pounds and went on a mud road and the tires on the trailer stoped spinning and he pulled it through that road up hill and down!!!! With the stock tires, hadnt even broke it in yet, hell that thing just got beat to hell when he first got it. lol go for it wont be disipointed, o and yeah u can wheelie with it!!

 

4000 miles and broke the tranny, it may be due to a faulty oil pump on early 01 models since that was the first year they were out. It was really great until now.

 

I usually ride with 2 other guys and they both have rubi's. The first time I drove one I had to drive it for about 1/2 and hour. First off, you have to go in and get the warn 424 kit on it!!!!! One of them has the kit and the other doesn't but it makes all the difference in the world when you want to have fun.

The transmission is buttery smooth. If you ever ride with 2 people you will love this quad. Load it up and it rides even smoother and faster in the trials. I have a sports bike and they both can stay with me when I am riding extremely hard and they have 2 people on board. D1 lets you pin the gas and then you let off for corners and the engine brake kicks in like a mule. You will out ride all the others with no shifting. If you like to shift then you don;t even have to let off the gas....just punch buttons.

If I could afford the $13,000CAD I would be drving one of these machines. The 01 model were total duds but they are fine after the motor and tranny was replaced. We have given both of these machines hard running. The 01 is just the beater that we put through everything....I love them

 

I bought my red rubi back in 00' to haul out elk, back my boat in the shop and haul gravel AND to hang with what mite my friends buy in the future, well its 2003 and I can hang with my friends Z400 in both the dunes and trails if I push it hard enough... plus i have a hunting quad...... actually my friends who ride Z400's took my rubi out on the sand and were quite impressed of the sportyness and soft ride of the rubi, they call it a fast coutch.
Joe