I am a new owner but been riding ATV's and bikes for years. Ive owned motorcycles in the past and was never a Speed demon.

My freind know for years and a experienced atv owner and riderowns a Sport bike but always takes my utility quad and likes to drive it the entire time we are riding. He has a sport bike thing does not even have reverse cause its a "racing model" he just paid $8000 for his quad. He always talks about going to do jumps but of coruse we ride two times a month and we have no idea what the hell we are doing when jumping a bicylce let alone a 500lb ATV.

I tried to talk him into a utility but he said he likes to "race" so we usually end up going on flat,open terrain driving in circles basically cause he gets stuck on trails and cant back up. Of course we really dont ride much in genreal becuase he gets tired of driving in circles.
We cant ride new trails cause he has a clutch & no reverese so its a pain and we always get stuck. Its hell to operate on trails at moderate to slow speeds since it stalls out the clutch.

I you prefer to be outdoors and relaxing, Easy to ride, relaxed seating posture ,easy shifting , trail riding, and not going extremly fast get a Utility quad. Utilty quads also have full floorboards so you wont get as muddy when playing in the mud.

If you like shifting with manual clutches ( some models have auto clutch), wheelies, jumping (try a 2 to4 foot jump fullspeed on a bicylce first if you never jumped anything) going fast, get a sport model. Sport models dont have full fenders and floor boards so you will always get muddy or wet if you ride in the water or mud.

Not trying to down anyone paticular type of quad but theMoral of the story Buy something you are going to ride and be practical when buying. Know what type of rider you are before making purchase. Knowing your riding style is hard to do unless you can rent or borrow a quad so start there.

Ask people who own quads if they like them and pick a quad suitable for the type of riding you plan on doing.

 

Interesting, because I am in the process of selling off my utilities and switching to dirt bikes for technical trail riding in the mountains. My opinion is that huge, heavy (top heavy) utes are just plain DANGEROUS! We are going to see lots of folks getting hurt on these monsters, and there is going to be a backlash against these like there was against the 3-wheelers in the early days. You get into trouble on a dirt bike, and all you have to do is harmlessly lay it down........it isn't going to roll over and crush your chest!

The average rider doesn't need a 700 pound "farm work tractor" for trail riding anyway. The real answer is to lighten up the "sport/utes" and give them more sporty handling characteristics. The Yamaha Wolverine is a step in the right direction, but they still left it to heavy, and saddled it with a sissy foo foo automatic transmission.

But for the desert, I will always be on a sport quad. It's a place where utilities are kind of out of there element and dirt bikes just have to much trouble wallowing around in the soft stuff. Remember folks, a sport quad going fast is safer than a utility going slow in terrain where you might roll it over!

 

All we have are sport quads and we do a lot of trail riding.
If you know how to handle your sport quad and use the clutch properly a sport quad can be just as effective on a trail as a ute. The exception being the big mud holes.
Your buddy needs how to ride better if he can't handle the trails on his sport quad. With or without reverse.

 

You think that 4wd utility atv's are dangerous? They are as dangerous as the person that's driving them. A dirt bike is a lethal machine in the wrong hands!
Where we ride, a collision with a tree on a dirt bike is more likely to hurt or kill than a collision with the same tree on a utility atv.
Anything you drive, be it a car, truck, atv(sport or ute), dirt bike, street bike.....heck...anything that is powered needs to be respected for what it is and what it's designed for and not pushed beyond it's limitations.

I have always said and still say...to each his own. But please just respect whatever you decide to drive.

 

In my paticular case (not all ) the sport bike is not suited for the paticular rider. His riding ability combined with the type of riding he wants to do is not properly matched. Of course all machines regardless are dangerous.

Now im trying not to be biased agaisnt utility vs. Sport. Im really trying to get accross make an educated decision when buying or else you could make a great finncial mistake. If you never jumped a quad but fantisize about it then try jumping a bicycle to see if you have the Guts to jump a quad etc..

If I lived in a desert and open riding enviroment I would choose a sport model probally but I dont which is what im trying to get accross.

 

My main point, which nobody seemed to have caught onto is that MANUFACTURERS ARE BUILDING THE WRONG KIND OF UTILITY QUAD! Wouldn't you be safer and a better rider on a 450 pound 4X4 machine vs a lard a$$ top heavy 700+ pound monster??? Take a Yamaha Wolverine and strap a dirt bike to it, and there you have the same weight as a big bore Polaris or A Cat! True, some folks need a tractor, but most don't. About time the manufacturers designed 4X4's for the rest of us. But for now, if you need a 4X4 you have to pick from what they are offering..........

Around here, it seems like the huge big bore utilities appeal mostly to frail senior citizens. This is a group which is least able to handle the wieght and power of a big machine, and the most likely to get hurt badly in a rollover. I guess they choose them because they figure the 4X4 will get them out if they get into a bad situation. What they don't realize is that they aren't going to be able to muscle around the heavy machine when it does get really stuck. And a winch is no help if you don't have anything to hook it to!

goodoleboy-Sounds like maybe you live in country where a 4X4 is probably necessary??? In my local mountains and the Sierras, the same thing is true if you insist on riding a quad. But, I can slip a dirt bike between the rocks better (and more safely) than I can go over those rocks with a quad!

 

i don't know about california, but I have lived in Alaska and now Minnesota and a heavey 4x4 utility is a must. Can't plow a driveway with a dirtbike, and weight is needed to get traction for that. Same for hunting, I hauled a moose out of the wilderness almost 2 full miles, took two trips on the ATV, with over 400lbs on the racks each time. I needed every bit of ground clearance for that, and even had to go through a creek. There is no way a smaller size ATV could have done that, even if my TRX had 4x4, it would have been stuck for good just getting out to the moose, and it could never of handeled the weight of the animal.

There are just so many different uses for ATV, it is a good thing there are so many choices. People do get hurt/killed on any motor vehical.

 

reconranger makes a good point. I go out on mudbogs almost every weekend and I drive a 2001 blaster, bear claws in the back and holeshots in the front, the engine is far from stock it's around a 350 now. when me and my bros go out (they both have 400ex) to the bogs the big utes laugh at us untill they see each of us make it threw easyer then half of them, we paid 1/4 what they all did for something safer.

 

atvstevo,

I dont know what you are smokin but in any mudbog there is NO WAY a 2wd sport quad would out perform a 4x4 in the mud. I am in a club and have been mudding for about 15 yrs and a 2wd just dont cut it in the mud or on rocks period!!! I dont care how much power you have. Either that or your mudbogs have about 6" of mud.

 

it helps alot when your quad is light anough that is almost floats [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] and i smoke pot.