Picked up the new machine Sat. and hurried home to get my wife. Started raining. "Sorry" she says, "I am not riding in the rain." Hmmmm, unloaded the new machine and park in the garage. Tomorrow, I think. Yeah, tomorrow is the day. Sunday, bright and sunny. Kavu, perfect. Went to work. Oh yeah, I work weekends,(rats). Finally I am at Juniper Forest, no trees within 50 miles. Bumpy twisty sandy trails with some standing water tossed in. Perfect.
My first impression was how smooth the machine traveled. My atv riding is limited. 250 ex Honda, Honda Recon and Yamaha Raptor. This is my first 4X4 atv. Machine is easy to start and quickly settles into an idle of 1170 rpm. I am still unsure how to use the electronic instrument cluster and it is after 3:00 pm. Sun sets at 4:00. I ride through various sand conditions. Trails and up and down little and big hills. With 4 wheel drive selected I go up and down and feel the pulling of the four wheel engagement. Easy, just point and ride. Side hills? Piece of cake. Very little body english needed, compared to the 2 wheel only machines. The machine seems strong but not compared the the punch of the Raptor. 45 minutes later and 11 miles it is dark. Real good headlights. Noticed the the two lower beams go off with high beam selected. That surprised me. Rear work lights are very nice.
I am 6' tall and weight 200 lbs. The weather was 40 with light wind. I was very mindful of overheating and over working a new machine. I varied my speed between 12 and 30 mph. Occasional jumps to 35 a little more. As I climbed hill I was constantly revving and releasing the throttle. Varying my speed constantly. My gauges worked perfect and I had absolutely no problems. I was also keen on rpm slowing to a stall when stopping. Motor idle smooth everytime. I only rode 11 miles.
Monday I returned to Juniper with more confidence and wanting to assure myself that this machine was both sound and functional. I realize every new machine needs breaking in. So I proceede to break it in. Yippeeeee, man this thing is fun. Come on sand dunes try and keep me down. Very stable and mild mannered. Decent pulling power but never enough. Ran the machine in 4 wheel low and putted up and over little hills 10 or 15 feet high. Just idled over them. Compression or down hill braking is generous and tractable.(Grandma could do this).
It was sooo easy and smooth the I was wishing for rocks and boulders. I am curious just how extreme these all wheel drives can be. I know, get too cocky and get bruised. I was amazed at how effortless the beast is driving. With all wheel engaged the front tire would engage and disengage with out my knowing it. Steering was never hard. The front tires engage only when the rear tire slip. Going up steep 100" sand hills the X2 was always happy to continue straight up or meander around in S turns or make a 180 and return to the bottom. I rode through a lot of whoops and bumps today, always present in high traffic areas in sand riding
riding and always felt the machine was ready to take more. The X2 is tougher than I am. I rode 30 miles in two and a half hours and only a little tired. I would have been exhausted riding the same trails on my Raptor. The 4x4 in just more forgiving. I am lookig forward to taking my wife and daughters riding on this. My big fear is the girls voting me off the X2 and taking off without Moi.
Oh yes, to all the people who said the longer machines would not handle tight technical turns.
Yeah right. Go to the mountains and look at all the snowmobiles with track length longer than your normal SUV. Tell them they are too long for sport riding and they will pass you and leave you in the snow dust. WIth a small blip of the throttle in two wheel drive and your direction is altered 90 degrees or more. Easy for all. I would love to drive a Arctic Cat 500 for comparison.
I am a dyed in the wool AC fan. I wear my AC snow suit riding the X2. I think it would be fun to ride and report on the two machines.
To you guys having problems with your Polaris machines, I hope this indicates that Polaris has solved your problems. I promise to relate and problems this machine encounters. Except I refuse to admit that I broke the rear window of my pickup the first time I loaded this machine. Stupid me failed to realize the brakes are different from the Raptor. The right hand has no brake lever and the nose extends further than a sport bike, plus I had to have a winch, even longer still and heated grips. Good luck on your sleds and happy trails. jlewis

 

i had to laugh when i read about your rear window. ALMOST did that myself! LOL!

great detailed write up. the X2 sounds like a nice match for you.

your idle seems a little high though at 1170. my dealer said the 500EFI should be at 1140. does yours have hard shifting or clunk hard into gear or roll on it's own while in gear on a flat surface?

~MT

 

its the machines fault, it didnt know!

 

Hehehe, yeah, the rear window thing is common. (ouch!) Glad to hear you like your new machine!

To cure the high / low headlight problem you can add a 3 Headlight mod easily. And within a couple weeks a kit will be available to turn your “work lights” into automatic back-up lights. You can find both here.

 

No clunking anywhere. The belt engagement is smooth. Of course! The "NEW" machine didn't see the back window. And I look forward to all 3 lights working together. Do you guys think the magneto can handle the current of all 3 lights? Thanks jlewis

 

Mtpockets, because of the grueling problems your have endured, I asked my dealer many question about clunking and dying at low rpm, heating problems and a host of other possible surprises. I will have them check my idle speed. At 1170 it is very smooth and the seems content. jlewis

 

Jlewes, Nice comments, Hope you can take some pixs and post them, What color did you get?
I have thought about one for my type of use. But my Red 05 500 HO has serve my trail riding pretty well compared to my 03 Kodiak 450. I would be interested on how the turf mode works around the yard and such. Since my does kinda tear the grass when turning too sharpe. Well enjoy the ride and also hope the wife will too!!

Mac

 

Redrhino, my daughters Recon is red and though only a few years old the color is badly scuffed and faded. I went with black and silver because of this. I hope it lasts. Turf-saver
why don't all quads have this. No inside tire spin and the turning radius is much less. I only use Turf saver on grass. The manuel warns against using it on the trails. jlewis

 

i know of one plexiglass window in my family. damn those winches

 

Stupid windows that can't duck!