Which is it? Better handling, top speed, comfort, quicker take off, etc.

 

Well in my opinion the Recon is better at almost everything.
The bear accoring to our tests has a slightly higher top speed.
The Recon is quicker through the first 3 gears due to how low the Bears 1st gear is but then the Bear starts to overtake it(this is before the mods to the Recon though).
The Recon feels more stable in turns, the Bear to me feels tippy.
Reverse is a really bad design in the Bear. I do not like reaching down by the engine to shift into reverse. I find it ackward and there have been times that the lever is underwater which makes it not fun to hunt for.
The new Bear does have disc brakes in the front now, but I am very happy with the drums in the Recon.
The Rear brake is in a strange place on the Bear. Several times we have lodged sticks in the control cables which locks up the back wheels. The cables are not well protected at all on the Bear. The design on the Recon is much better.
The Recon has been in more wrecks then the Bear and more severe ones, but the Recons plastic is still not broken, whereas the Bear has had the front fender shattered and several large crackes in the rear.
We ran the machines in a head on collision (not quite what we were wanting to do) and the Bear had much more damage done to it.
The Bear does have the built in trailer hitch which is nice because it provides a good place to hook the winch to to pull it out when it gets stuck (the Dirt Devils help keep that from happening though)
The Bear has an adjustible preload rear shock which is nice, but it doesn't change the handling that much.
On the trail you are always switching gears on the Bear, whereas the Recon can run around in third over almost everything.
The Bear is by no means a bad machine though, I would take it over anything else except the Recon in that class. But to me the Recon does everything just a little bit better then a Bear.

 

Packn,
Take it from Ursus he couldnt have summed it up any better. It came down to the Btracker and the Recon for me 2 weeks ago when I posted the same message as you did. 8 out of 10 people replied that the Recon was a bit better so I finally drove them one right after the other and clearly the Recon was better for my wife and I. If you read the messages in this forum and drive them for your self at a local dealer, than im sure you will probably pick the Recon. Let us know. Goodluck!

 

Packn,
I am a diehard Recon fan. I enjoy the handling and the speed of the Recon in it's class. I was gonna get a 4x4 but after talking to some guys in the lot at the dealership, they talked me out of it by saying that I would have more "fun" on the Recon. I see that you are in the same town as me. We should get together and ride sometime.

 

I have a Beartracker and it is good machine, It is a little bigger than the recon but try to test drive both.You can't go wrong with a beartracker though i'm trying to get a 300ex