Went for a winter ride yesterday. There were about 20 ATV's including two brand new 500 cc ATVs. They were bought Friday night for the ride Saturday, neither one of them had over 5 miles on them when they unloaded then from the trailer.
Not much snow this year, the most we encountered was about 12 inches and maybe a little more in the drifts. First stop is a frozen rivers about 4 miles from the trucks.

By the time we got to the river, 4 inches of snow, one of the new ATV's engines started knocking real bad and was towed bach to the trucks. Felt bad for the owner, we all know that could happen to anybody.

By the end of the day, a 36 mile ride was all, a total of two were towed back, one engine on the brand new one and a belt broke on one with 800 miles on it. Two drove back at a very slow pace making a huge anout of noise, one engine and the other one we were not sure.

All four ATV were less than 4 years old and everyone of them had less than 1000 miles on them. 25% failure rate of that manufacture.

I will keep my Honda.

 

OUCH!

I am proud to say neither one of my ATVs has let me down yet.

Farmr

 

That is the reason my garage is full of Hondas!! On the other hand, the reason there is one Suzuki in there, is that Honda didn't step up to the plate and give us a new high performance machine.

Were the owners of the new machines doing proper break-in riding?? On a new bike, I put in at least 20 hrs of break-in before I would dare go out on a cross-country ride!!

 

I do believe everyone else broke theirs in the right way. Just the one, but he is young.

 

I bought my 2000 400EX used in 2001, for $3,800

I haven't put a penny into it yet, except to change the oil

it's stock, and it's never broke down.... it's been crashed into a Wolverine, just bent the front bumper alittle...
it's been driven under the water.... had to drain the airbox
it's been rolled down a hill twice....
I've jumped it I don't know how many times
It's in the mud all the time
been in the snow when it's 20 degrees outside
been up and down the beach, including the salt water, when it was in the 90's...
it's been to W.Va. more than once where we ride 70 miles per day for a week in all types of conditions and terrain
it's pulled other atvs, logs, etc.
it's just plain bullet-proof... and fun....
and I'm no light guy either, I weigh about 200lbs.

if I were to buy a NEW quad right now.... it would probably be a Raptor, because of the power.... and I'd throw a pipe and wheel-spacers on it.... but I'm happy with the 400EX