Had my first chance to run my SP500 against some of the compitition last weekend and witnessed a very concerning dual crash. Myself and 2 H**#* foremans were running down an armadillo at the Red River Cycle Park near Munster TX. When the armadillo jumped off into a ravine loaded with brush we all hit the brakes and low and behold both foremans flipped forward dumping both riders and one actually flipped all the way over ontop of the rider. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt except for their Pride. What gives with both bikes doing this? My Sportsman stopped fine. Needless to say by the time the end of the day came all the Yamahas and honda were eating my dust.

Steve

When the 3 of you attempted to stop, each of you was occupying a slightly different piece of terrain. The terrain that the Hondas were on was most likely more conducive to flipping than the ground which your Sportsman was on.

In 2000 miles I found the Honda 450s to be a very stable machine. (More so than the Sportsman 500 especially when hills were involved)

Are you saying that the brakes on a Honda are so good that they will flip you over the handlebars?

Eating dust is the price that is paid for reliability.

One thoeory:
Panic stop, you yank the brake lever (front brake) and stomp the foot pedal (rear brake). The front wheels lock up, so you take a little tension off the front brake, the front wheels start to roll & you have control, even with the rear locked up, because the front hubs in your Polaris allow the wheels to spin faster than the axle driving them.

Same scenario - Honda: The front wheels are locked solid to the rear, so releasing the front brake does no good as long as the rear is held. If the front tires have enough traction, the rear end may come up.

The disadvantage of the Polaris system is lack of 4 wheel engine braking.

There must have been some good traction to do that, as Foreman's are notoriously low to the ground with a low center of gravity. However, an ATV is much easier to flip if the bars get canted as opposed to keeping them pointed straight ahead. Were the guys trying to turn at all or straight line stopping?

We were all side by side same terrain. The riders said that they pulled both front and back brakes at the same time.

Polaris one handle all four brakes. So esentially I was doing the same thing putting on all 4 brakes.

One of the riders claimed that this had happened to him before while on his foreman so I'm not really sure why it happened, but it sure was a Kodak moment. Couldn't have planned the flips any better.

As far as rough terrain (hills) go, the hondas were always at the back of the pack. with the Yamahas (Kodiaks 4X4) following close behind. I do admit that some of the riders weren't that experienced, in this type of terrain but my Polaris seemed to float over most everything while the other guys were being beat up pretty good.

In my opinion, you just can't beat the IRS of the polaris in rough rocky terrain. It is the cadillac of ATV's

" the price you pay for reliability?" was stated earlier above.

I ventured to the Honda board, and low and behold there was disscussion abou....GASP....unreliable Hondas.

Lets see, starting problems under 40 degrees, cracking swing arms on 400ex...

I thought they were so reliable?

Boss70,

Man you are right about those unreliable HOnda's. I guess you haven't checked the Polaris forums for problems........Oh wait this is the Polaris forum.

It is amazing to me to hear all the yep on reliablity. All quads have some problem in some way. It all depends on the person who is riding the quad. Would you say getting 4yrs out of a 2 stroke engine Reliable? an no it was not putted around the yard has been being used for racing for the last 3 1/2 years+ 1 1/2 year riding trail where it was not treated good. I have seen Hondas an Yamahas have there fair share for problems the one nice thing I know is when I break a part is is alot cheaper to fix then on theres. Talk about part maker up wow. I will stick with my unreliable Polaris TB 95 An my 98 Scrambler 400 4X4. I have had no problem with the scrambler either that was not rider error.


95 Trail Blazer MX 265lbs with DG pipe+nerfs .020 off head 34mm carb dougles rims Fox rear shock pic's at Lurches site
98 scrambler 400 4X4 fox struts=rear shock

I should have explained better. What I meant was if you both stomped the foot brake & yanked the hand brake, the Honda will lock the front wheels thru the driveline, even if you let go of the hand brake, wheras the Polaris won't.

Yes, the Hondas have a reputation for reliability, but I have a challenge for Honda drivers. Follow a guy on a Sportsman across the same terrain at the SAME SPEED as he does, and then compare both repair bills and chiropractor bills, and see who is really ahead in 10 years.

Ok, you were chasing armadillos right?
Your Foreman riding friends obviously fell victim to an animal rights activist trap!

Why didnt the SP flip you ask? Heres the answer...
Polaris installs "anti-animal rights activist trap" hardware on all their quads, therefore you were spared the pain and embarrassment of crashing. This is the reason Polaris quads are so heavy.

PS....theyve been developing "anti-land closing politician" hardware for years but its still in testing. I think it was being tested in Florida....