Seems to me that the REAL sport /utes are the hybrid bikes like the V-Force. From the ute side it gets shaft drive and high ground clearance. From the sport side, 2wd for lighter weight and sportier handling. It's 100 lbs. to heavy to be a sport bike, but 100 lbs. to light to be a utility.

I would lump the 250EX and Z250 in here too.

 

Well...I would think a sport/utility bike would need the capability to haul a little cargo as well. So...really the only two sport/utility bikes out there are the Wolverine and the Scrambler (some would argue the P650 as well). The wolverine is right about 477 pounds while the V-force is 518 pounds (Just a little weight comparison)

I think the line that needs to be drawn is the the one between sport and high performance quads. Of the newer 2wd "sport" quads I'd say that the 400EX, Raptor, DS650, Z/KFX/DVX400, Banshee, C-Dale, Gas Gas, YFZ450, predator, and V-force are the high performance quads. The sport quad class holds the Warrior, 300EX, 250EX, Z250, Mojave, Blaster, Lakota, 2WD Scrambler, etc...

Having shaft drive shouldn't automatically take you out of the sport class. I rode a wolverine for 4 years and put many an a$$-whoop'n on sport/high performance quad riders out in the woods...even beat a couple of them up some small hills in the dunes.

 

Chad-Your list of performance vs sport bikes is EXACTLY the same list you see in all the magazines, so nothing new there. In addition, I would put the smaller displacement autoclutch bikes (250 and lower) into an "intermediate" category (ie. bikes for older kids or beginner adults), something some of the magazines have already suggested. The Wolverine is certainly a success at combining light weight with 4wd!! It is certainly more sport than ute, and is probably in a class by itself (but can't they make the thing a little more attractive?).

I am using WEIGHT as the primary classifying factor here. My point was that a "real" full size sport/ute is a 2wd machine, of intermediate weight between the true sport bikes (400 lbs max), and the heavy 4wd utilities (600 lbs. and up). The V-Force fits right in here! What the manufacturers are now calling "sport/utes", are really just the same old BIG HEAVY utes we have been getting for years, but just with better suspension.

The distinction between sport and ute isn't real clear even in other areas. I rode a Warrior for years, and now have a 2wd Rancher. I would say the Rancher is every bit as "sporty" as Warrior was (one mag compared the Rancher to the 300EX, which was going a little far I think, but I can bust out some pretty good air on the Rancher!). The Rancher has the advantage of higher ground clearance, and the Warrior the advantage of better suspension. What I am trying to illustrate, is that the boundaries are not always well defined.

 

The ultimate "sport/ute" is the Polaris Scrambler. It's a touch on the heavy side stock but some weight can be removed.

It's a 2wd sport ride that can trail ride with the best of them.

It's a 4wd ute ride that can almost anywhere a total ute can go.

It can do moderate hauling and plowing.

The Wolverine is lighter (and underpowered) but it's full time 4wd....

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Yeah, the lines between categories aren't always well defined. I would classify your Scrambler a little more toward the ute end just because of its weight. If you say you can clear a 20' double jump, well I'll give you a little more credit on the sport side.

The 2wd/4wd selectable thing is another aspect of the manufacturers attempts to sporty up those big heavy utes. But, if it weighs 600 lbs., it will always be a ute!

 

A sport/ute I would have to say would be the scrambler...however I would almost say the the Prarie is also...like stated earlier it is hard define what a utility is and what a sport is. I know many people would not classify the v force a sport machine. The weight shaft and it being an auto would pretty much make up most peoples minds that it is not a sport...this makes me pi$$ed because I would almost gaurentee none of them have ever riden or seen one riden before...

friesen

 

Friesen-I am in the market for another 4X4, so I am just thinking out loud here. In researching the different bikes, I have to say that I am appaled by the weight of these things! (Even the Ranchers I already own are way to heavy for 350's, but the Rancher is kind of a "budget" bike, so lightening it up would mean a higher price tag.) The manufacturers just keep piling stuff on these machines, making them even bigger, and even heavier. Hence my system of classifying bikes by weight.

The new standard for sport bikes is now 350 lbs. (the YFZ), so the rift between sport and ute grows even larger, rather than smaller. And, it puts the really heavy sport bikes (V-force and DS), further out there too.

 

reconranger- I see where you are coming from. However if looks like a sport rides like a sport, handles like a sport, jumps like a sport....ect ect ect...It must be a sport. The weight issue is more of a mind trick. with the weigth comes the tremendouse power that is deliverd through the big bore engines.

 

haha im gunna have to say that if someone has a scrambler of course there going to say like its the best sport ut out there all i can say is that wolvys are nice they could use some handles but if you but a warn 424 kit on it it works fine and dandy so ill go with the crowd and say my quad is the best sport utititly hahaha


ohh yeah and whoever said that a v force is sport ut then they are idiots its like 4 mile an hour slower then a raptor no ut can get close to that without moddin it and the v force i rode most deffintly was not a sport ut it was a sport and a good sport indeed

 

Scrambler all the Way!!

Nothing can come closer to a sport/Ute!!

That's why I bought one!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]