Either quad will make an excellant choice,however,do you want to shift or not?The Magnum is certainly the quicker of the two quads and rides better.It has a better AWD system than the Honda.The Honda is air cooled,the Magnum is liquid cooled.The Honda has drum style brakes,the Magnum has disk style brakes.Some will argue about the Polaris reputation for reliability?It's your call,best of luck on your new quad.===Bill

 

i wouldn't worry about the belt too much. I just replaced the belt on my trail boss this year, it lasted 14 years, now thats nothing to complain about.. For a 15 year old machine, teh reliabilty is pretty good. I've had to spend a bit on it, but most of these things were moreless normal wear items, specially after 15 years. I'll tell ya one thing, its the best riding 85 i know of! (the 2" of travel on my buds 85 honda trx 200 kinda sucks, lol)

 

Shouldn't you be out riding today Bill?

heheheh

Regarding slippage, I parked my Magnum in a lake for 20 minutes on Monday to wash it off and no belt slippage was evident the water was over the running boards and half way up to the recoil starter.

 

Thor,
I went riding yesterday.I needed today to get the family ready for Cedar Point in Ohio tommorrow morning.I'll be back in time for this wk ends riding though.===Bill

 

I own a 2000 polaris sp 500 it is basically the same as the magnum except for a few things.
1. the rear suspension is a straight axle on the mag vs. independent on the sp. so you will have more ground clearence on the sp
2.the fuel tank is 3.75 gallons on the mag, sp is 5.25
3. the air intake is way up on the gas tank on the sp on the mag it is under the gas tank.
4. the sp has a different more aggressive tread then the mag.
you asked about problems the only one i have had is to repalce the the cooling fan and thermo sensor. It has a thousand miles about 700 hard miles. does great in the mud. my dad owns a honda 200 it is indestructable. good luck on your machine