What are your opinions on everyone trying to blend Utility aspects into sport quads......I for one hate this....dont get me wrong some of them look sick as hell but im a firm believer that a sport quad should be a sport quad and a utility should be a utility....opinions?

 

Been on some sport quads and utility quads like my Sportsman X2. On one end you have tossable fun that is a blast on trails, fire roads, and sand. But you have very limited ground clearance, no racks to bring a lot of gear on long rides, and a quad that isn't so good in large rocky climbs, deep snow and mud. On the extreme end of utilities like the X2 you have great ground clearance, lots of storage for gear, and a quad that's good in snow, rocky climbs, ruts, and mud. Not as fun in the tight trails, not as nimble, and you need a higher cc engine to have fun in the sand.

For me, where you ride determines what you ride for the most part. We had 2wd sport quads and needed to pull them out of the mud pretty often. And there were too many rutted hills with rocks strewn in them to get the 2wds up. Some of them are even a challenge for 4wds. Couple all this with snow riding opportunities here in New England and a 4x4 is the way to go for most riding situations.

To the original question, I think the Can-Am Renegade is by far the "sportiest" utility type quad (4wd, IRS, and automatic transmission). It's pretty tossable and nimble handling without the drawbacks of the typical sport quad's low ground clearance, with problems dealing with mud, and snow. It's a great mix, and with the 800 and 1000 cc engines, a match for just about any stock machine out there in the sand. Just my .02 worth from rocky, muddy, snowy, New England riding experience.

 

In addition to what moose said-

can't imagine why you'd hate it- or even give much negitive thought to it


there's a huge marker for the "sport utility" atv and for sport quads that will handle a trail well.
sport quads are useless in any moderate trail- especially around here in new-england. chain & sprockets would snap & break way too easy, the SRA and sport chassis would put you in the hospital after a few dozen miles of white mountain trails and the gc on a sportie is horrible unless you ride on flat trails or sand pits.

why should 4x4 riders be condemned to riding some under powdered featureless farmer-joe honda foreman? and likewise, why should some sport rider be condemned to a SRA with a sprocket 3" off the ground?
Perhaps the 4x4 rider wants the nimbleness of a sportie and the ruggedness of a utility and perhaps the sport rider would like a little more gc and a more comfortable ride?

I'm not really sure I even understand your question-
how is the sporty aquiring features like a utility? I don't see it.

The only atv's I can think of that blur the line between the sport quad and the utility atv is the wolverine, honda xx, scrambler, renegade and the outlaw (the outlaw and honda xx being the only dedicated sport with an IRS as far as I know- and they both rock) There will always be dedicated "sport only" quads.

Using the same premise of your statement- why would any car manufacturer build a sports car with AWD? (like subaru) or why would any truck manufacturer build a truck with carlike features (like the chevy el camino, subaru baja or even the honda ridgeline...) there should just be 2x4 cars and 4x4 trucks.

it's called evolution- everything evolves because there are people who want to design "out-of-the-box" things. You should embrace the change and new engineering that keeps this sport moving forward.

anyway- I have a feeling you'd change your point of view after riding a renegade 800.

 

Take the plastic off of a Renegade and Outlander and its racks off and you can,t tell them apart there pretty well the same machine. 2012 Can-Am Outlander™ 1000 EFI ATVs

It would be like polaris putting sporty Scrambler plastic on a XP 850 or Yamaha putting Wolverine/Raptor plastic on a Grizzly 700.

 

well- that's kind of an understatement... aside from the basic measurements the outty & rene are different on many levels from electrical to the clutching to the ergo's.

the steering arms, suspension & front end is different on the renegade vs. outlander (I've had'em both apart installing winches)- even though they use the same injectors, the efi fuel maps are different on each machine, exhaust pipe & muffler,foot wells, tires and gages. I've owned many, many outlanders and a couple of renegades and have been through it all with the dealer during ecm updates. basic measurements of the chasis, wheelbase and the mechanicl aspects of the motor may be the same- but there are many other differences.

There's also a major difference between the (for example) 2008 scrambler 500ho and the 2008 sportsman 500ho- I know this for a fact from trying to swap parts to my neighbors 08 sp 500 from my 08 scrammy 500- the front end, rear end & even the engine/tranny is different- fromt the electrical to the clutch to the ecm... comparing a scrambler to an xp is like comparing a model T to a caddy sts. nothing is even remotely the same anywhere, except that both are awd and come with 4 tires and burn gasoline

I don't know about the wolvy vs grizzly very much- but those two atv's are very different, from the chassis to the motor- the wolvy is sra vs the grizz's irs for starters... and you can't compare a raptor to a grizzly- that's like comparing a scrambler to an xp.

again- just stating firsthand, hands-on experience with the above models.

 

this polaris was the only thing i "blended". worked great for us!

 

KFX 700 is what pops into my mind. Fear that all sportys will become automatics, start getting utilitie makeovers.....


But thatll probably never happen.

Im not much on mixed quads myself...

 

have you tried a big bore cvt yet? they really are quite amazing and smooth- especially the 600+cc cvt's. I'd never go back to a clutch- you have cvt's pulling the wheels off the ground on 900lb machines effortlessly- and get that same 900lb atv from 0 - 60 in seconds simply by stuffing the throttle- cvt's are used on sleds pushing tripple the hp of an atv...
I think your point of view is kinda close minded - just saying

btw- there are many sports cars being made now with cvt transmissions. I think you're gonna see a lot more of them in the near future.

 

That rzr ive been riding is a bit what your taking about... that thing is gaukey! There'll be a drop off i'll have to go down, as part of the trail it curves with deep ruts on the inside.... the rzr has to back up to make some of the curves! My 400ex flies! Ill have a video soon, ordered a camera mount for the rzr cage.

Besides.. those quads run into a lot of $$, don't need one when my sporty flies through the trails!

 

no- not a rzr

an atv.

you're sporty won't get you far around here- not without a winch.
and you'd be eating a lot of mud behind my outty 800


I see you're searching for a new avatar pic... might i suggest this one?