Well Bob to start in answering some of your questions yes the AC is still a good bike seems you need to do a search and look up all the post I have made on the various forums. Yes I did give polaris riders a hard time with various post and I still agree with what all the post I wrote but if you will notice at the bottom of all the ones where I was giving Polaris riders H#LL I would always mention and I quote "EVEN WITH THE TROUBLE ON BREAKDOWN AND MAINTENANCE OF THE POLARIS THEY ARE STILL THE BEST AT MUDDING AND CLIMBING" end of quote. Most of my post in the forums was debating the reliability of the Polaris which was the older models 95 to 97, I still agree with this and most of the Polaris owners will also agree with this. After talking to various owners of the newer bikes I came to realize that Polaris was becoming more reliable with its new bikes.

Now to the issue of the auto have you rode an auto or even rode with one, I always find it hard to believe that people say they can't find the adequate power with an auto, well look under your thumb and press real hard, no it doesn't have the instant power like a standard transmission but soon mine will with 40mm carb some springs in the clutch and a k&N air filter. The sportsman will raise the front wheel off the ground now just by rapidly punching the gas, no it won't do a wheely but if I wanted one to do that I would have bought a sport bike. And to the issue you can't understand how auto owners say "It is always in the right gear" what is so complicated about going up a hill be it steep or not so steep to simply give it more gas or less. I assure you it is a lot less complicated than going up a steep hill in to small of a gear and spinning or going up a hill in to high of gear and it bogging down and loosing momentum...then where are you...well you are sitting on a steep hill with all your momentum lost holding your brake, trying to change to a lower gear wondering if it is going to flip if you try to back off??? Been there done that, as far as the belt issue I have been in water up to the bottom of the tank with no slippage and if it did slip a sure fix to this is to take off the belt housing as posted in one of the post of the forum and seal it with some putty now thats real complicated isn't it. Also I still admit the AC 500 is a more stable bike in the hills here due to the sportsmans height and I have expressed this even after buying the sportsman as I said before you need to check the post here is an example of some of the post you made the remark as if I favorite the Cat...well you make up your mind and anybody who reads this can:

if they were to correct the reliability problems and replace some of the cheap parts like the clutch cover I would likely have a sp500 in my drive

I really wanted to go with the polaris but with the reliability issues and the use of cheap parts like the clutch cover I just couldn't go this way polaris is heading in the right direction as far as the superior riding atv but I feel the quality isn't there

please polaris improve your quality so I can buy ANOTHER American made atv...

Now do these post sound like I am favoring the cat i always admitted the Polaris was the best in the field in mud or climbing I was just afraid Polaris hadn't brought its reliability up to par.


And to answer your remark Bill the sportsman does suck creating a vacuum so you may have a chance following where a bike that has TRUE 4 WHEEL DRIVE will go...nuff said

 

If ya smell what Atving is cookin'.....its probably his belt. Just kidding. Seriously I've had more experience with belt driven cvts than 90% of the people in here, a 1975 Chapperal 95 dirt bike was the first one I've ever owned on anything other than a sled, and the last. I've been riding sleds since 1973. I've also ridden Polaris atvs with belts, and I'm not impressed. By the way, If Polaris owners can constantly bash Hondas on the three wheel drive issue, the belt is surely fair game. One other thing, from what I've seen here and elswhere, the Honda 450 is the #1 choice for a Modified mud machine. I bet thats because no self respecting mudder would be caught with a belt in the really deep stuff.

 

When I brought my quad I worried the most about the belt. It was my only concern. After onwing the quad and puttig 500 miles on it I can say I was worried about nothing. Now if I could say the same about the tie rod ends. THe newest set (set #3!) is holding up a lot better though!

Glenn.
Y2K Sportsman 500

 

"THE POLARIS IS LOCKED FRONT END WHETHER IN 2WD OR 4WD STEERING DIFFERENCE ISNT ANY BETTER IN 2WD."

BEAST450:

Based upon your quote it is apparent that you have never even driven a 4WD Polaris and all of your information regarding same is heresay.

 

Greetings,

Just to add my two cents on the original question...

After owning a 450ES for two years, I just added a Recon to my stable. Aside from the fact that I'm sick of the whole battery drain thing, I find real advantages to having a foot shifter. I really like being able to hold something in my left hand when running errands around the farm -- with the ES you need both hands all the time. The ES has been unreliable in very cold weather. And I like being able to hold on tight to the handle bars while shifting, with the ES you have to move your hands around a little someimes to make the shift. I had originally thought the foot shift would be hard to learn for a new rider, but now I'm a firm proponent of using my feet.

 

DRRod
How cold has it been there?
It gets mighty cold up here in Canada and I have yet to have any more problems with the ES then I do with a manual shift. The manual shifter will need to thaw out too if it freezes up. Besides, it is a good idea to let any machine warm up in cold weather before you use it and use a proper shut down procedure when in lots of snow, to prevent problems. It will save alot of headaches and money in the long run ie. frozen cvc boots, brakes, cables, etc. This is just called preventive maintanance. The ES works good for us Northeners in the winter because its hard to use a foot shifter when you have big winter boots on.

Jeff

 

Greetings,

Coldest I've ridden in was nine degrees -- I'm sure not all that cold for Canadians. But even after warm-up and a few hours of use, the readout on the instrument pod would scramble about once a minute. Also it would stick in one gear at a time and I had to keep using the manual shift wrench. While I don't have any technical data to go on, I suspect the problem was the low battery -- given the repeated drain plus the cold, I just don't it had the power to drive the shift mechanism correctly. So maybe its not fair to blame the whole system jsut because of the battery charge problem, but the battery is part of the system and a manual wouldn't have had the same problem.

If you have any experience with chargers or jump starting in the cold, please take a look at my questions in the Honda forum.

Also, the heavy boot thing is a good point I hadn't considered. Glad I have one of each to fall back on. :-)

 

We all enjoy a different point of veiw sometimes. It makes life interesting. Will check out your other post.

Jeff

 

SORRY BUD DROVE POLARIS SCRAMBLERS BAD HANDLING NO DIFFERENCE IN STEERING BOTH WHEELS LOCKED ESPECIALLY ON FAST RIDE. KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE.

 

Beast450,

You really should spend some time figuring out how the Polaris AWD system works before you hit us with your uninformed wisdom. You are dead wrong. The front hubs on the Polaris freewheel and are not locked together unless the AWD kicks in. When the AWD is not on, you are driving a RWD machine with (independently) freespinning front wheels.

Folks, interesting debate. I think many have hit the nail on the head. It all comes down to rider preference. We have a Honda 350 4-Trax and a Polaris Sportsman 500. Personally, the automatic is #1 - maybe its age, but I have better things to do than shift. Can't say as we have come across a situation where we have had to say "the manual is better here" or "grab the automatic it will work better here". Rider preference.

DJ