Hate to say it, and confuse you more but I Love my EBS. It supposely does take a little off top end but who cares, how often do you go wide open! I like it because unless you are running hard you seldom half to use brakes, you just slowly come to a smooth stop. But to be honest if you are going down a very steep incline you must apply a little throtle or your rear wheels will lock up and slide....but for me, the way I ride , I wouldn't have one without it..You can always add a winch later but not EBS( well maybe you could, I'm no mechanic but If you could I guess it would be expensive). And if you hated it you could do away with it.... "Ride and Decide"

 

my thought would be go take them for a ride, one with and one without.
i like my ebs, but i have yet to take it down any steep hills.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses... I'm going with the non-EBS '07 for a few basic reasons: Never had it before, so, won't miss it. As tregtom mentioned, I would hate to have this "work" on a simple slope (like the ramp from a truck/trailer) when you least expect it and pull the wheels on you. Bigpapa sold it for me though: "But to be honest if you are going down a very steep incline you must apply a little throtle or your rear wheels will lock up and slide." This right here goes against my basic instincts of trying to slow down...I have to give it the gas? Here in R.I. my "biggest hill" is no more than 812 feet anyway...most of you guys have driveways steeper than that [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] And just a follow-up to stendori: I thought the '06 EFI was a Deluxe based on the Deluxe features for the '07 (e.g. work lights; EBS; red painted swing arms/springs on a green/black model). I can't recall if the dealer was advertising it as a "Deluxe"...my mistake...

Thanks again everyone. It's nice to get a variety of feedback on something like this...

 

they didnt make a delux until this year. as far as ebs, i have it and my wife doesnt and there is a "huge" differnce between them. as you have read people do have differnt opinions as wheather they like them. excluding the sports.450 (non EBS) ive enjoyed having it for the simple reason it saves on my brake pads and when you do go down hill they do help. now that being said we have a very speed area in which we ride and yes the ebs will lock up the rear wheels if your not paying attenion but like bigpappa said there is a nack to aviod it. it does take a little getting use to. now on this same hill w/ my wife driving her 450 she has a hard time as well not locking her wheels up just from the brake pressure to prevent siding but i have a easier time of controlling my decent vs her. it is true if you never had it you wont miss it. but dont let everyone esle scare you away from getting the ebs until you try it your self.

 

I would have to give EBS the nod. You can get a winch later. I think the EBS is just like learning to ride. You have to figure out what the machine is going to do in certain situations, and compensate. As Stendori states, it does save on brakes, and I have not been in too many situations where it was a detriment. Also as Stendori states, you can lock your brakes up and slide. I have had to hit the throttle on some steep descents to straighten out, but again it is learning the machine. Most descents I have to give throttle just to go a bit faster. But have never been out of control because of the EBS. For me, it has a lot more benefits than drawbacks.

 

from reading all this and other threads - I recall something my sportsman does: on my 450 when I am going pretty fast down a slight hill (approx 30mph or so) and let the gas off abrubtly it starts to slow (without using brakes) then sometimes is the slope is strong enough and I am going fast enough, I hear a weird whining niose and it seems to slow down at a faster rate - almost like I just downshifted a car too soon. If I bilp the throttle, it goes away. Is this EBS? I didnt think I had it and the dealer said it didnt when I bought it. OR is this just soemthing else? It'e the first sportsman I ever rode - so I dont know

It doesnt do it all the time - depends on how fast I am going - I think it even did it on flat ground once when I was going really fast and cut the throttle.

I never thought much of it before until all this talk

 

I took my machine elk hunting in Montana this past fall (2006). My brake calipers completely froze open after a couple days of fjording a river and parking my machine overnight. Without EBS, there's no way I would've been able to continue to use my machine to get up and back down the mountain everyday.

There were a couple descents where the EBS wasn't enough... Those were a little interesting.

 

I have a 2006 500HO. with EBS. I like it alot. It works great on hills ect.

My dealer threw it in with the package, he put on the paperowrk that it cost me like 150.00 That was for the shipping of the old unit back to polaris and instlling the new ebs. I had to do it right when the machine was new or it would have cost more.

As far as the winch.. Where I ride I need one.. We winter ride and someone or myself always gets stuck in the snow. You can but one aftermarket also and save yourself a few bucks...

The first time you really need a winch and dont have one you will wish you did.

If it was me here.. Depending on your $ situation.
Id go for the 2007 with the winch and tell him to give you the ebs in place of the rear box.

Actually doing it over again, id skip the 500 and go with a 800 [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

The 500 is nice but vs the 800 in power. I may be going for a 800 downt he road. I do like the recoil backup on the 500. And the 500 is a good machine. I have 800 miles on mine and zero problems. I just wish it has some more grunt. Possibly a heelclicker may help...

 

brutus450, your 450 does not have ebs. what your hearing and feeling is the normal engine breaking all engines have. it will have a little effect until the clutch disengauges the belt and then you will "free wheel" until you either stop or will need to use the brakes. once the belt doesnt have pressure from the clutch squeezing it then there is no longer any engine braking as where the ebs has it al the time. hopefully you can understand my bad explaination of how it works.

 

as always - Stendori to the rescue! - I knew you would tell me what was goin on. Thats why I didnt really think much of it to begin (I thought it was just normal sounds) with but then after reading some stuff it made me think. I thought that is what you were going to say and I thank you for confirming it was normal and its not EBS.

And yes - your explanation is perfect

Have a good one