I would never purchase a ATV based upon the opinions of a bunch of kids and writers who get paid advertising bucks. Trust your friends and what they have, not what you read in some magazine.

 

Not to get too far of topic, but I wonder how much affect the constant trashing from DW had on cannondale atv's going under. The people at the mags have a lot of buyer input, especially among those who are new or unexperienced. Seems I remember one sport quad test where they said something like " even thought the cannondale was faster and better handling, the win goes to the 400 quadsport." (paraphrasing)

 

my dealer just got the sp800 and for the honest opinion this quad has alot of power, i seen a guy buy one today and he test drove it and about flipped it cuz it went into a wheelie. All the 05's have so much good features and the weight isnt that much of a problem. Put those tires and rims on another quad and they would come pretty close to the weight of polaris, just my .02 cents.

 

like i said most of the changes have to do with the engine. the others u mentioned all sportsmans have this year, so yes the "800" (760) woulda still lost[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I picked mine up today and the reason they left it out was there would be no contest. if the 700 did well in the shootout the 800 would have dominated the power is insane.

 

Thanks Dave!

 

the changes specificly for the 800 are

bigger, thicker, more durrable belt
Ceramic coated Dual Exaust
Aluminum Mag Wheels
EFI updates

and thats all i can remember, if someone sees something i miss, add on please, people arnt educated enough about the machine and they keep bashing it.

 

I "think" the clutch is different too. The air intake is different than my 05 700EFI too, it goes up a little higher and makes its way right under the "16 and up sticker". There are most likely MANY changes, but I would need a serivce manual to pick them all out...

 

I agree that DW should have included the SP800. However, it's premature to say that it would have dominated the power contest. If I were a betting man, I would put my money squarely on the BF in that department. I'm not saying that the BF is a better quad, just faster.

 

There are things in the article that just don't make sense and are contradictory.

Also, the Sportsman constantly gets negative marks for things that Polaris has done by design.
For example:

1. Heavy weight = By design and could be changed, but Polaris wants it that way for a reason.

2. Smooth acceleration rather than a hard hit off the line = By design and could be changed, but Polaris wants it that way to be rider friendly for the whole family and easier to handle over varied terrain for all skill levels. Again, this is by design. Polaris could make all the models flip you if they wanted to.

3. Front and rear brakes in one lever = By design and could be changed, but Polaris wants it that way to be rider friendly for the whole family and easier to handle over varied terrain for all skill levels. Again, this is by design.

4. On demand 4x4 = By design and could be changed, but Polaris wants it that way to be rider friendly for the whole family and easier to handle over varied terrain for all skill levels. Again, this is by design.
I get tired of stopping to shift in and out of 4x4 with my quads. This is a good thing.

5. High Handlebars = By design and could be changed, but Polaris wants it that way to be rider friendly for the whole family and easier to handle over varied terrain for all skill levels. Again, this is by design. They could lower them. I think the higher handle bars makes it less sporty, but easier to ride overall (just opinion).


The magazines acknowledge:
1. The ride is superior.
2. The handling is better than expected for a heavy machine.
3. The single brake lever is helpful.
4. The smoothe acceleration is a good benefit.
5. The on demand 4x4 is very convenient.

Yet over and over when the "Conclusion" of the shootouts comes, Polaris is marked down for these things. This makes no sense.

The things mentioned above make the sportsman a user friendly and easy to drive quad for most skill levels in most terrain. To me that makes it a superior quad.

Also, Polaris seems to be updating the design and refinement every year. I don't know if other companies do this as much.

I can't comment on reliability because although I've driven many Polaris quads, I've never owned one. I can say that they don't seem to have any more issues than the other companies. So, reliablity is a moot issue here.

(edit) The other thing is that these quads are very rarely tested on issues of work or utility. They constantly rate them based on issues of sportiness. This makes no sense for the class of quad that the sportsman is in. One of the mags did a sled test a few years ago. The sportsman won.