ive had alot of bike, and what i know is that honda is the only one that can hold up. i have 8200 miles on my foreman 400, if you ask me a cvt is crap and is just a way to make the quad cheap, you cant compare the cvt to a hondamatic, and even my friends with cvts say that, i dont care what some internet report says tlc

 

If you baby and massage and are religious with service anything will last. My buddy managed to kill a 2003 Grizley 660 with less then 40,000 km on the bike. It was serviced regularly but used very often and very hard and was outside 100% of the time. The motor puked a crank a couple years ago, then toasted a piston last year, this year the timing chain tensioner went, and now the crank is toast again. Not to mention the 4wd motor failed twice and is currently not working again.

So thats a bike that is known to be pretty good, the poor Polaris's around here dont stand a chance...and have failed/broken down.

 

did you say 40,000 km

 

Seconded.

My neighbors polaris is routinely broken. She often mentions how if she had to do it over, she would be riding a Honda.

I was SOOO close to buying the attractively priced Polaris Sportsman, but it was my Uncle who convinced me to go Honda. Best, decision ever.

Im sure there are people who like their Polaris. But I doubt they ride like I do. I just don't see how one would last, having seen one be utterly destroyed by my neighbor who is less than half as ambitious as I am on the trails.

 

the only sportsman i would consider would be the 850 xp, thats a nice machine

 

All brand ego's aside... I beat the hell out of my 05 SP500HOfor 4 years, and only ever needed to do scheduled maintenance and a couple of headlamps. I can only hope my 850XP can hold up that well. Honda's are near bulletproof, but not my shot of bourbon. And before I get flamed for posting ignorantly, I have driven almost all the medium and big bore quads out there, and think the Rincon is a heck of a nice quad, and the Rubicon ain't bad either.

 

The foreman is a bit stiff for my tastes though

 

Yup, I said 40,000 km. Previous to that he had a 2 year old Honda Foreman 450s that racked up 48,000 km in 2 years!!! That thing was driven daily, driven hard, put away wet, year round with only regular maintenance (which probably wasnt enough given the mileage!) and wheel bearings having been replaced. The only reason hy sold it was because the Grizz was faster, and smoother. Given that they were both treated hard the poor grizz didnt hold up as well.

 

48,000 Km in 2 years?! That's insane for that short of time, daily commute to work? My dad knew a guy that had a Foreman that got his license taken away and had to drive his Foreman to work for a few years or so and that last time he talked to him, 4 or so years ago, he had over 40,000 miles on it.

 

wow, i have 7000 miles on my foreman 400 and thought that was alot, but its beat to hell now, at one time it could beat my recon 250 by 2 - 3 lengths, now the recon blows by it, it still pulls a trailer well though