The Honda will win the shoot outs they almost always do. But I like my Sportsman so I will keep it. But it will up the ante on all of the other manufactors to play catch up.

 

The Rubicon should set the stage for the other manufactures. It's inovative and, for a while after it's release, it should be the king of the hill.

 

If it had a system where all 4 wheels pulled I would agree with that until honda puts a switch on for 2 to 4 wheel drive so a locker can be added they will be stuck where the rest of the limited slips are, at the bottom...I must admit though the new transmission idea does sound good now if they can just put the rest of it with it.

Here is how I think it will stack up:

Quality of Ride: Polaris
Power/Engine:Yamaha and Artic Cat
Ease of use: Polaris
4 wheel drive: Polaris
Ergonomics: Honda
Trannyefinetly Honda
Speed/Fun: Polaris and Artic Cat Grizz seemed a
little bulky to me
Brakes: Polaris and Artic Cat
Comfortefinetly Polaris nobody makes a seat this
big
Durability: Honda
Price: Polaris and Yamaha due to the special edition Honda is claiming

 

atving, I noticed you always bring up the 3wd issue. Is it that big of a deal where you ride? Is it still a big issue when people add good tires? Because in my case, there are no clear victors in the mud or climbing or in the snow or anywhere I can think of other than driver skill and a good set of tires. Everyone gets stuck and everyone gets pulled out and everyone has a heck of a good time doing it. Yes I do drive Honda 450s and Sportmans on a regular basis. The Honda with stock tires pailed in comparasin to the Sportmans stock tires for traction. now with 27" aggressive tires on some of the machines, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference at all between performance of Polaris and Honda. The Honda 450 with 27" Blackwaters kicks the crap out of the Sportmans with stock tires and vise Versa.(yes I have been on the Honda with only 3 wheels spinning, but if you turn the handle bars side to side and shift your weight, you can usually work your way through but if I had a Honda and drove in mud ALL the time, I would definately add a locker) I'll give you this, we don't have that many hills to climb to see the big difference in that area. Is this why you hate the limited slips so much? Do you ride with any Honda guys with good tires? If I ever buy a Honda 4x4, the first thing I would do was get rid of the stock tires. Or any 4x4 for that matter. Good tires make all the difference in the world. I know this is getting pretty long but I will give you one example. Two nights ago, I was out driving with my neighbor. He has a stock Sportman 500. I was driving my dads 450es with 27" Blackwaters. We were driving through the swamp and there was a deep stretch of mud about 20 feet long and then a big ditch like hole. My neighbor wanted to see if he could make it through the hole so he would take a run at it. 3 times in a row he got stuck and I winched him out 3 times. He couldn't get much of a run because he was having a hard time getting up speed because he was spinning tires on the approach. I however was able to walk through the approach on the Honda without spinning a wheel and drove right through the hole without a problem. Your thoughts atving?????

 

i don't think the mag and sp have problems fouling plugs. they're four stoke....

 

Unclefester,

Good post. One machine may be better than another but there are also some variables to consider.

One-any modifications to make it better or faster such as tires.

Two-Rider skill. You could have the best ATV in the world with a newbie riding it & it would get smoked by a veteran rider.

 

Yes the hills do make the difference if not for that the 3 wheel drive with some nice tires might do but I would miss the other creature comforts of the Polaris especially the ride...I also have an Artic Cat with semi independant suspension which gives you a better ride than the teeth chattering ride of some other bikes with solid axles but its to each his own...I am kinda spoiled I just don't think I could go back to a solid axle bike. Yes I have seen incidents here where if I wasn't on the Polaris I would have been going backward while trying to climb some of these hills, yes I am very experience rider been riding since I was 12 and believe it or not started out on an ATC 70 Honda. Truthfully the reason I bought the Polaris is that I found out I couldn't go on the Artic Cat where I could on the Polaris...the only thing that stopped me from buying a Polaris in the beginning was a reliability issue which I soon acknowledged was on the older type Polaris...If the hills were not an issue and there were another bike with all the features maybe the 4 wheel drive wouldn't be an issue...

 

cartman308, My nebor has a 99 SP 500 and it fouled a plug while feeding cattle in 1 foot of sloppy snow on a 35 degree day, we were rideing slow, But it still fouled. Most likley a rare occurance, I love the machine as its ride quality is by far the best..not ment to bash anything, just my 2 cents... Oh I see people (atving) rateing Polaris brakes as best?? I never was impressed with the rear brake system on the older models, Hope they have improved. (maybe I should take the SP out for a ride abouve 10MPH

 

Not trying to be a smart a** here but there is some nit-pickin going on in here about these 4x4's. Especially with the plug fouling issue, the bike itself is not the problem, just the jetting. The bike was designed to run a certain way from the factory, which they can't cover everything. It's like anything you buy, it's not perfect. I personally have never ridden or even seen a 4x4 being driven, everybody I ride with has sport or race bikes. I have a quadracer and I have the carb jetted perfectly, I can lug it down and drive it like a 4 stroke without fouling plugs. Now if the jetting was off, I would be pulling plugs all day. Another thing is this, how can you compare a bike that isn;t even out yet, with something that is? Wishful thinking? I like Honda's, and have nothing against them. I owned two of them and never had problems besides regular maintanance. Like i said though, I have never ridden a 4x4, so I don;t know alot about the way they ride. But, 4 wheels turning instead of 3 sounds like it is better in getting traction, as long as the motor has enough cajones to turn them. I would have to say, put a good rider on anything, and he will do more on it then a less experienced rider can, bottom line.

 

I've been riding plenty enough on many different makes and models, and about 70% of the time, the 3wd vs 4wd doesn't make much difference. However, it is the other 30% that really takes the cake. Once, this friend of mine on his Honda 450 S got stuck in this hole. Doing everything possible to get back out or go through with no success, somebody pulled him out. Not trying to be a smarta$$, but I wanted to see if the hole was really bad and if I would get stuck in it as well. I have a sp500 with stock everything, and I never spun a tire. It wasn't due to power, but in this particular instance, it was solely due to true 4wd. Just a couple of weekends ago, a friend on a Yamaha 350 Big Bear with 26" tri-claws all around got stuck in this hole and finally backed out and went another way. I went to see if I could go through the hole (sp500 with stock tires), and it was no problem. We both just smiled. The true 4wd and extra ground clearance really makes a difference in that 30% of the time. We all know that there's just about no better feeling than making it through something that a fellow rider couldn't make it through no matter how he tried. These times I'm talking about, I didn't get my momentum going or do anything special. I just eased through. We all get stuck at some time or another, and that's why I prefer to keep my stock tires on the bike. Mud tires make a difference at a price; the cost of the tires and the quality of the ride when you're not in the mud.