TexMud,
I have the same problem after rolling mine down a mountain in AR. $1600 worth of damage. I think twice now.

Greg

 

For Greg and the rest who are having trouble with the mind block on hills don't worry it will come back to you. I recently turned my 500 on its side coming up a hill that was nothing but rocks and gullys. It was due to the worn out tires that came with my Sportsman the other day since I got my 26x12x12 tires on I went there and went right up, don't think the rollover on its side wasn't on my mind...and Snow what happened the second time you set on the Sportsman did you shrink or did you start off on a smaller bike and decided you could handle a bigger one after you mastered the small one hehehe.

 

rancher: Don't worry about it, we all know that the Polaris owners would of had a cow if the Ruby would of won. It would of been due to advertising dollars or some other excuse. Oh, don't forget the best one i heard from a Polaris owner. It was because DW stunk and can't pick a good ATV if they wanted, kind of statement. The point is who cares what the mags say. Us Honda owners know why we lost, Polaris always gets the benifit of the doubt in reviews. They got to be giving under the table dollars away, that is the only way i can explain it. (to all, this is a SIMPLE joke!!! Just thought it was funny everyone gets all worked up over a MAG. review. Good atving to everyone, later)


Scott

 

CM,

That would be cool if the "rags" uh, I mean "mags" would ask some of us "average" rider types to give these quads a test ride. I believe you are correct the guys doing the shoot out are sport riders not utility riders.

Even if the Rubicon would have won, I would still take with a grain of salt what the magazines publish. The bottom line is what you see on the trails. Now thats the real proof.

 

Umm, no. Disk brakes work well in dry riding conditions, that's it. As soon as you get some mud or water on the disks, you better hope you don't need to stop in a hurry, because they just slip. Sealed drum brakes work awesome in all conditions.

Don't think I know what I'm talking about?? I've rode my old '93 300 4x4 (sealed drums) through every mud hole and creek I can find, and the brakes work just as well afterward as they did before. How well do they work? Well, I can stand it on it's front tires on the pavement, I think that's plenty of braking power.

On the other hand, when I rode my friend's '00 Wolverine (disk brakes) through a mud puddle, the brakes only worked half as well. And even when dry, it had nowhere near the braking power of my 300.

Disk brakes are good for conditions where constant hard braking is needed, like NASCAR, because they cool off much faster than Drums. They can also (usually) apply more braking force than drums, but on an ATV that weighs less than 600 lbs, drum brakes are plenty.

 

Hate to beat this to death but rode with that 450 foreman in MOAB,there wasn't any place that we went.We had to help him few times as limited slip let him down but that was the fun of it all.We all used our winches more than once,he was good rider and was impressed with our 500SP's,said he could see the ride and ground clearance was better,some places he would try to follow our path and would hang up on rocks.He would just find his own path and what ever fit his machine.There never was any mine is better than yours,he was the one to comment on our machines,as I say we didn't go any place he didn't.I go back there with him or anyone else on what ever machine any time,I picked up some stuff from him and would hope he gained some stuff from me.You can gain much by watching another rider.CM

 

I just want to say that the Sportsman should really be in a class of its own. It was the only machine with independent rear suspension. Now if you compare the Rubicon to the other machines in it's class, (Magnum 500, Suzuki Quadmaster, etc.) it won. I think that the other manufacturers should realize that the only way the Sportsman is going down is to make a machine with IRS!

 

Chickenman,
I agree with you. The biggest reason (in my opinion) that this is the case is that the stock Honda tires are almost worthless compared to Polaris's. A Honda 450 with a little bigger tire and more aggressive tread is a whole new machine.
Ya get it off the ground a little more and the limited slip isn't as much of a factor with the much better traction.

Don't get me wrong, I am very aware that the sp is an awesome machine, But I have seen many a Honda and Kawi with good tires go where stock sp's can't.

Of course when putting the better tires on the sp too, now we are having fun!

see you on the trails!

 

UNCLE
Agree back at cha,but I never thought the 500SP stock tires were real good.I put KENDA BEAR CLAWS on my 95 425 Magnum,boy them are some awsome tires.As soon as the stock tires get wore down on the new ones we'll be running bearclaws on them.You hit the nail on the head tires carry alot of weight as to what you can or can't do,TRACTION is the name of the game.CM

 

It was a 500 shootout. The grizzly wasn't invited.