Saw a guy on a Honda broken down on the side of the trail. Broken A-arm. Turns out the guy is a Honda dealer who sold bikes to a few of the guys in our group. About an hour later one of our guys lost the nut that holds the swingarm on! OUCH! Brand new Rancher. We found the lost nut in a puddle and about an hour later we were rolling again but his swingarm bearings were making an awful noise. So we left him at the nearest bar while we finished the poker run. Funny thing is how all the Honda guys gave me such a hard time when I bought a Kawi. So much for legendary Honda reliability.

 

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I know your feeling...I ride with a group of yamaha diehards and they were all over me for buying a kawi-sucky as it is known among them instead of the beloved Griz. That lasted until they swallowed their pride and rode it...that and a few things they have seen it do :-). Now they just tell me "Yea, that Prairie is a pretty good quad".

On the Honda however, was at a motocross race and seen a rider turf it on top of pretty big table top. Bike endo'd about 5 times and the flipped sideway about 3-4 more times before coming to rest. Rider was dragged off...but one of his buddies jumped on the honda motocross bike...two kicks and drove it off...now it is a motorcycle...but that is pretty tough or pretty lucky.

 

I was one of the first ones to buy the Prairie 650 in my area. In the first six months, I got a lots of farcical reaction from friends of the Honda Loyalist Regime concerning the Prairie I had aquired. Today, they all, except one, own a Prairie 650 and 700. The only one that hasn't purchased a Prairie got a Sportsman 700efi, and regrets his choice apon the lack of sportiveness due to the weight on his machine (especially when we play on the racetrack were it is hard to control in corners and on landing even undersized jumps, but in the trail and off-roading, even though not has quick, Sp700efi does find). But today, all of them were able to quit the Honda Loyalist Regime with no regret, knowing that not even a Honda Rincon would bring them that same satisfaction smile they get after riding their Prairies. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about.

 

I personally was going to buy a Honda rincon. Until I rode one the transmission was the final straw, too weird and not good for a quad. I might have tried to live with the power but not the trany. I just hope that when Kawasaki releases their independant the do the syspension as well or better than the honda. That combined with the V-Twin would totally rock.