You still have to consider your weight as well, 200 lbs for myself. So then it becomes 840 lbs vs 1000 lbs. More power will be affected less by the weight of the rider, considering I weigh basically 1/4(or more) what the machine weighs.

 

honestly- the whole power to weight ratio is a fictitious premise- it'salways better to have the most powerful engine you could possibly haveregardless of weight- the relevance comes down to how well the efi map allowsthe rider to use that power.

- it's not shooting a chipmunk with a .223 (all or nothing) ....the ecm mapshow the throttle responds to the user. my rotax 1000 may have gobs of power& torque, but the ecm programming makes it usable and user friendly in thetrails- rider's ability trumps many other aspects as well-

so- that being said- you'd want the most powerful engine currently made(rotax 1000) with the right efi programming to make it useable.

from a reliability point of view; rotax has been building high performanceengines a lot longer than honda- and I've never seen a dead rotax- in my life.

 

You can't just say that power/weight is fictional when in reality, it's the most important ratio when trying to determine speed and acceleration. Power and weight cancel each-other out. The heavier an object, the more power it takes to move it. Ever put the same bikes head to head with a heavy set guy on one? I bet the smaller guy take it every time. It's why a 190hp civic is faster than a 350hp silverado. A srt10 ram isn't as fast as a viper right?

As far as reliability and company history, how many atv,atc and dirtbike races did can am win in the 70s, 80s,90s and into the 21st century? the ds650 is the only bike that comes to mind (Rotax) but it was getting dominated by the 250r,450r and the 700xx. I've seen quite a few blown up DS', Just go on craigslist

The 1000 is a great bike but Can Am has not even come close to designing a frame that can make use of the power and it will never happen as long as they keep focusing on more power. In total a outlander 1000xt weighs close to 900 pounds. Honda will never get into that war but they can build something to surpass the 650/800 outlanders. If Honda did make a xx/xr powered 4x4, it would probably be in the 650lbs range and have a automatic/esp dual clutch 5 speed transmission. Honda probably already sells more Rincons than can am does outlanders, imagine how many people would buy that?

 

Power to weight ratios are part of the equation, along with clutching, final gear ratios, and even the size of the tires. Just adding to the debate.

 

From riding experience here in New England in the past 20 years I've seen the pendulum swing from Honda, to Polaris, and now am starting to see more Can-Ams on the scene. In the 500 class nobody has outsold Polaris. What is good for all of us is the competition that makes the companies continually have to update their machines and features. Personally, I love it. I like Honda. I just hope they get with the times and catch up and even pass. They've got the R + D teams to do it but it seems they're not too serious about regaining the market share they used to have.

 

Do you happen to have a sales chart moose? I've heard that Honda still owns the market share in terms of ATVs but polaris is annihilating in SxS sales. I think they sell 3 utvs to every sportsman now. I didn't mean for that to sound like a diss against can am. I love can am and I'm glade they stepped up to the plate in the performance 4x4 market, I just wish they spent more time fine tuning.

 

The heavier the machines get, the less 100 or so lbs matters so yeah the machine with the most power even if it is the heaviest will perform the best and now that's the Can-ams. Power to weight matters more on the lighter machines and dirt bikes where an extra 30 lbs might be the difference in being faster or not. Clutching helps too, putting a clutch kit in a cvt transmission can really wake some of the machines up and helps when you put bigger tires on to compensate.

 

It's not 30 pounds we are talking about though, it's 200- 250. For machines under a thousand pounds, That's a lot of weight to overcome. But who cares about drag racing them anyway. What would you rather have in the trail or even in a woods race, the 55hp 650lbs quad or the 72hp 850lbs one? That was more along the point I was really making.

 

In reality, they're all heavy. The 700 lb Rincon(That's about what it actually weighs with a full tank of gas) vs the 850 lb outlander. Is it going to be any easier to handle, maybe a little but its not going to be a noticeable difference as you're not going to be able to muscle around either machine. But you will notice less power as you try a steep hill climb or get in some really thick mud and have difficulty making it. Or simply find a nice open part of the trail in the woods and stab the throttle to up the pace a bit. Power steering helps make heavier utility quads much easier to handle as well. Its a moot point anyway, Honda refuses to put a potent engine in any of their utility quads.

 

I don't care what engine, but untill Honda ditchs the shifting auto tranny and utilizes a CVT, I'm not buying another honda utility.