Oh yeah and why not buy a yamaha? I have heard so many good things about the big bear and I dont think I have seen any recalls not to put the rancher down because honda is still and will always be my favorite company cause of my 200s that is older then me and runs...

 

i would pick the bigbear over the rancher. bigbears are brutes! both are as reliable as the other. more cc, ground clearance, 2wd/4wd, comon, bigbear is a good choice. so is the rancher though.

please consider the wolverine.

 

well my brother and sister both have big bears. they are great bikes but they do have too low of a top speed. my other brother has a 2wd rancherES it is a very fun bike to ride. It accelerates much quicker and the top speed on my bro's rancher is about 58 and the big bear is only ABOUT 40 maybe 45 if you push it. the electic shift takes a little getting used to but it shifts very fast which is good. If it were me I would get the rancher because it is a HONDA and a funner ride. but that is just my opinion

steve

 

I actually own a 2001 Big Bear and a 2002 Rancher ES. I was in the same position about a year and a half ago. I had to decide between the rancher or the big bear. After testing both of the quads, I finally picked the big bear due to its larger gas tank, larger engine, larger tires, PRICE,and the fact that it said yamaha on it (for some reason I never really liked Honda). I regret not waiting for the 2002 big bear which has a spedo and oncommand 4x4. The Big Bear is a very nimble bike and is great for mudding. It has far surpassed my expectations. The Big Bear has very quick acceleration and is not a slouch by no means. I've gotten it up to almost 50. I have never had any problems with it so far, except that the frame is a little bent from rolling it a couple times. Its probably the most reliable machine on the market.

After one of my ATV's got totalled a couple months ago, I was in the market for another ATV. Now it was between the Rancher ES and the Eiger 400 4x4. After extensive researh i decided to get the Eiger. The dealer that was selling the 2002 Eigers for $3999 sold out of them, and were not going to get anymore in. I had to settle for the rancher ES, which I got for the same price as the Eiger. I have not regretted my decision though. The rancher is lighter, better handling, has an LCD display, and has Electric Shifting. It is a very fun and realiable machine, although I wished it had a push button 2wd/4wd.

Between the Rancher and the Big Bear, I would choose the Rancher because it is a better overall performer. It is geared slightly taller than the big bear, and is more for recreation. Its suspension is also more forgiving. The Rancher ES is much funner to drive than the big bear. The big bear is more for working(but can also play), going in thick mud, and going on technical trails. The big bear feels a lot more solid, has much more low end power, and is more reliable than the rancher though..............

 

Ya I need someone that can go threw thick mud and be beating and still start up..even though I am only 16 I still put my little honda 200s threw alot I remember one time I lost it under water I was going kinda fast it and threw me over the handle bars and the water was kind of deep then a few seconds later it started floating!

 

The bigbear 400 or 96kodiak which are the same thing are 2 of the most reliable bikes in the industry. You cant kill them. The new yamaha designs are questionable and i dont like them. But you can be sure that the old 386cc engine is awsome.

Im not sure about this one but i belive the 96kodiak i had could out pull my 660 grissly.

One reason i would not recommend the bike is because it tops out to slow, accels to slow and always reving high. I blew the motor at 10000km only due to the fact that it didnt have a 6 gear and i was always over reving to keep up to my friends. Top speed is around 60km but you could hit 70 or even 80 but the engine is just SCreaming.

I wouldnt even compare this bike with a honda. Drum brakes, Hard to shift into reverse, Digital LCD. Its a bike for city park crews not real riders.

Go get the Bombardier Outlander. Its the best bike for what your looking for.

 

CONSIDER THE WOLVERINE

 

I bought a 2002 4X4 ES for my daughters to ride. Everyone keeps getting down on the drum brakes. The Rancher has two separate braking systems. The front are hydraulic and the rear are cable actuated, one cable from the handle bar lever and the other is a separate cable from the foot brake. With this ATV being in four wheel drive all the time this is the SAFEST BRAKING SYSTEM ON ANY ATV! Went riding Sunday with friends that have EBS? on their ATV's. Came to an extremely steep hill, loose rocks and dust about 2 inches deep. I came down the hill in first gear without touching the brakes, they slid down the hill with their back wheels locked up, white knuckles, and their eyes wide open.
Back to the main topic. The Rancher is fun to ride. It has gone everywhere I have pointed it. It is the ES 4X4, reverse is very easy, maybe the manual shift is hard to get into reverse. The Rancher is easy to ride, runs great, is stable, will go 85 miles on a tank of gas (on the average). I have no complaints about the Rancher at all.

 

dude, wheelinforlife, dont go around running your mouth about things you don't know. I ride with a group of like 14 people, and we all have different, very used machines. THe newest ones other than my dads and mine are early 90s models. Hondas do last a long time, my 125 went through my brother and then me and was an 85. My Suzuki QuadRunner was a 83 and had like 4300 miles on it and it still ran good. My friends Big Bear that he took out hunting 2 or 3 times a month since he bought it in '92 still runs good. Just about every company produces reliable machines, especially Yamaha and Honda, they're like the giants in the industry. The only difference I've noticed in reliability between the two, is that Yamaha's start a lot better in the winter than Hondas, because they have their experience with snowmachines.

 

60km/hr is pretty slow. There's a big difference between mph and kph. I flipped the speedo on my 660 over to metric the other night and had it going like 106km/hr. Nothing to brag on, but it was cool to see it on the display.