This is the kind of riding we do up here http://www.atvconnection.com/editor/...dbury/ride.htm there are no gas stations around and even a bike with a 100 mile range needs to bring lots of extra gas along to get back to the trucks.The Ruby with that small tank would need all its rack space for gas cans and forget about anything else.Sport bikes are not a large seller here because there are no racks for extra gas at all unless you stay on the logging roads (dull) and the wife follows in the car with a trunk full of gas.

PS Can,t believe they did not metion the black flies throughout there trip.

 

I don't know what the Ruby gets for gas mileage, but if it's anything like what the 450 gets, it will go just as long or longer than the Sportsman 500. Hondas seem to be extremely easy on gas. My 300EX, with it's 2.2 gallon gas tank, can go as far on a trailride as the Sportsman 500's I ride with! We'll all go the same distance, and when we gas up at the pump we'll see which uses more, and every time the 450 Foreman has used about a gallon less gas than the Sportsman. So how big the tank is doesn't necessarily mean it has a longer range. A lot of the gas usage depends on how we ride. With the machines with gears we can put them in a higher gear and "cruise" with the engine running low rpm, saving on gas. That's not possible on an automatic.

 

So how many hours would that be on a full tank of gas for the Sp500? and the Ruby??

My quad is awsome on gas...All the Honda quads are good on gas.

 

All 500cc are the same on gas (20mpg) it's not like Honda found the Magic way of getting great gas mileage out of a 500cc motor. The 350 Rancher gets 25mpg so the 500 Ruby can not match that.

 

What ever Tim1, My Rubicon goes just as far as my Rancher. Of course you would know, you own both.

 

Your 499cc gets the same mileage as a 339cc ? Nice try.If that true some laws of physics are being boken.

 

Just because a larger engined quad gets better gas mileage does not mean "laws of physics are being broken". LMAF! Sometimes it happens. For example, a 4.0 liter Jeep TJ gets as good, or better, gas mileage than a 2.5L TJ.

Just because both quads have 500-class engines does not mean that they will have comparible gas-mileage, that is just a plain ignorant assumption. I don't even want to get into all the variables that would effect the fuel consumption of quads, or any machines for that matter. It get complex very fast if any detail is used.

Simplified, the variables could look something like this... Honda has a quad roughly 100lbs lighter than the Polaris, with a engine/transmission system alot more efficient, that is one obvious reason that the engineers can get away with a smaller fuel reserve. This is Honda, they don't just throw anything together without thoroughly designing and testing it.

 

AlaskaTRX: Explaining anything to a Honda basher is like explaining why the sun comes up in the morning. Tim1 is just trying to find SOMETHING wrong with the RUBY. Besides who cares TIM. You don't own one, so what is it to you? By the way, nice pics on the article where you live. Nice riding it looks like, Hope they brought plenty of gas since they weren't driving a Polaris.

 

Well fellows I really don't think Tim1 was Honda bashing just looks like Honda would have put a bigger tank on the new Ruby with them knowing how riders today ride in many remote areas. I know my Sportsman with the over 5 gallon tank has got a pretty good coverage in miles, heck I quit even pack around a 2.5 gallon reserve due to I never used it.

 

I have both a 450ES and a 350ES. The Rancher gets better mileage .... slightly. On a long ride where we were just cruising dirt roads (no mudding, no hill climbing, no wading streams ergo ideal for mileage) the 450 got about 40 mpg (Cdn) and the Rancher about 42.

Just my $.02 worth.

Temp