If you put your finger on the lower side edges of this panel, it pull right off. Make sure the bottom tabs go into their slots. Mine goes in real tight, no way will it fall off..................

 

GE4x4....what do you think of the KQ 700 compared to your new SP 800? My old 2002 SP 700 has me thinking I'll never go Polaris again but maybe i just got a lemon?
tnx,
Justin

 

Here is GE4x4 shoot out.........



Well today I finally got a chance to take both on a good ride. I picked up my brother and headed for the trail. My KQ is stock except for the 25" Maxxis All-trac tires and had about 85 miles on it. The SP800 is totally stock with 10 miles on it. We get to the trail head and we decided that I would take the 800 and my bro on the KQ. My brother races sport quads so running a utility is new to him. But it didn't take him long to adjust. Well I hit the trail with my KQ right behind me. The trail system is very GNCC like, a mix of everything like rocks, hills, very tight area's, fast spots and some nasty whoop area's. The loop we did was about 15 miles long. Now to the shootout.

We hit the trail and within a minute we came to a staight but whooped out section. I just flew down it and the 800 soaked up everything. The throotle response was instant and responsive so I was able to just hit the gas to get over the whoops. Felt awesome. Then we got into the tight woods area were you could go pretty good, but a lot of turning in and out of the trees. The 800 felt very planted and steered very precise. The 800 was able to carve through the woods very nice. Then if a obstacle came up, a blip of the gas with a slight pull would lift the front right over it. The biggest thing I like about the 800 is when coming out of a corner. The 800 would stay planted to the ground so you could nail the gas sooner and just rocket out of the corner with that great low end torque. Another great thing was, I barely had to use my brakes. The EBS on the 800 was so good, I could go further into the corner, let off on the gas and it would slow down enough where I could turn without the brakes. I could concentrate more on riding then when to brake because the 800 was braking for me. My brother could never catch me through the 15 miles, but this could be due to him not being use to a utility. We got to a couple of fast area, but was very slushy and icy so could not do any top speed runs. We did do a couple of drags, but that will be later. Now we get back to the truck and sit for about 5 min and take a leak, then we switched rides. Now my KQ review.


We hit the trail again, with my brother on the 800 going first. The first thing I noticed right off the bat between the two was, how light the KQ steering is. It was allmost like the tires were barely on the ground. However this made the front end more twitchy going down the trail, thus it felt I had to hold on a little tighter. I got a lot more feed back through the bars then I did with the 800. We got to the wooped out section and I hit it as fast as I did with the 800. The KQ just didn't have that low end hit to lift the front when I wanted it to, so the woops made me a little bouncy. The front shocks were just to soft for very aggresive riding, but got through it. My brother in front of me just flew through them. We get into the woods and the KQ handled great. A little light in the front on some corners so I had to make sure I was allmost straight before I nailed the gas or I would of been in the woods, but did quite well. I was right on my brothers tail. He couldn't loose me, but I was doing my best to keep up. On some fast corners this is where the 800 shined and the KQ shows it's limit. The KQ would dive and be a little tippy on a fast off camber corner, where the 800 felt very planted. But over all the KQ did very well, and with some new front shocks it would do even better. The thing I didn't like about the KQ is it's throttle response. It was there, but just didn't give you that feel of raw power as the 800 did. The power is there, it's just a tamer version of it. So between the two, I felt more comfortable and confident on the 800 over the KQ. We get back to the truck for another quick break then back out on the trail. We swithched rides again. This time I told my brother to see if he could keep up. Not a chance. Within a mile I could not even see him behind me and it took him a couple of minute's to get to me after I stoped at the 3 mile mark. Well we decided to take the short route back to the truck and decided to try a couple of drags. The trail wasn't the greatest due to snow and slush, but we gave it a try. The first one I got him good off the line and never looked back. He said once I got in front of him I was roosting slush all over him. Then we saw what looked to be like dirt and tried it again. This time he was just behind me and it felt like I was just spinning and not going anywhere fast. So I was only able to beat him by a half lenth. Then we turned around and tried it again. He launced me bad. He was like 2 lenths in front of me before I really got going from the spinning. He beat me by a mile. Then he started laughing because he had it in 4 wheel drive. So we really could not see how they would do in dragging. The conditions just weren't good enough. So we loaded them up and went home. But we stopped at the gas station to see what the gas useage was. Both were full before we started and we put on 35 miles of very fast trail riding. WOT a lot. The KQ took 2.15 gal and the 800 took 3.0 gal. I myself nailed the gas a lot more on the 800 then the KQ because of the feel of the power. My brother said the same. So after all of this, I asked my brother if he was going to race with one of these in the GNCC series, which would he pick. His answer. The SP800 was a very clear answer. He didn't even say it was close, or it's a tuff choice. 800 all the way. I asked why. He said the power was much better, it handeled just as good, but he felt more confedent on the 800. The shocks were to soft on the KQ and the steering was twitchy. He said it did well, but he had more fun on the 800. This too was my outcome. I felt much more confedent on the 800. It had the power, steering, suspension, and most of all, the fun factor. I had a total blast on the 800. Looks like the 800 will be my 05 GNCC Utility Stock quad.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Cob, January 01, 2005 05:13 PM