Evasiveone, Congrats to your daughter and on her impressive stats! It's great to see girls in this sport. My husband and I have encouraged both our boys to race but no takers yet. They are happy to puts around locally for now.

As for my son, his riding style is actually impressive. (Yes, I'm a proud, biased parent) We started him out on a new Suzuki Quadmaster 50 and he followed us around on that for two years. No problems with him riding the brakes or anything else with this quad. It's a cool little machine. He then wanted to try two wheels so we purchased a Honda CRF50, used with about 20 hours on it, which he rode for two more years. Never a problem with anything on the Honda including the drum brakes. We are riding the same trails with the Outlaw 90 that we did with Suzuki 50 and the Honda 50 so I'm stumped.

I did receive a call yesterday from Sarah at Polaris in regards to my email. Her response to all my questions was "see your local dealer". She did ask if we were keeping the quad clean. We do hose off our machines after every ride, mostly to keep the dirt out of the garage, but this IS an ATV we are talking about. Dirt, mud and water are part of the deal. Don't know why this issue keeps coming up.

I dropped off the Outlaw at our local dealer this morning. The mechanic is going to try an after market brake with a harder compound which is also half the price of a Polaris brake. I'm wondering if there is some kind of drag happening here. Are the brakes adjusted too tight? Don't know for sure. I will wait to see what the mechanic has to say this time around.

My other complaint is the chain guard. Its a flimsy piece of metal and I've already replaced it once and it needs replacing again. I can't find any type of body armor for the Outlaw 90's. Any suggestions? TY!

 

I really hope you don't have some drag on your brakes causing a rub, I had that happen on my scrambler and it ended up lighting the machine on FIRE! Bad news bears. Had to push the machine into a stream to get it put out before it hit any gas lines or anything. The 90 doesn't go nearly as fast though so I could see it not reaching that point.

 

After several phone calls and two trips to the dealer we have found out the brakes on the Outlaw 90 and Sportsman 90 are not factory sealed and there is no way to seal them per Polaris tech support. Dirt, water and mud can and does get inside and will wear down the brakes quickly and in our case the brakes stopped working completely on two occasions. Once with the original brakes and then two weeks later with a set of replacement brakes.

Another customer with a Sportsman 90 showed up a week after we did with the same problem. His son ran right into the back of his ATV because he could not stop. So it seems we are not the only ones experiencing this problem.

Our Outlaw 90 has been at the dealers for weeks now because even the dealer feels it is a safety issue. Polaris on the other hand says there is no reason to file a Safety Claim because they have not received any other complaints concerning the brakes on these models.

The mechanic at our dealership is going to try Polaris tech support one more time to see what can be done but it looks like we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I can't let my son ride this ATV knowing the brakes can fail at any time and knowing it happened to someone else and that this is not an isolated incident.

Parents, for the safety of your children, beware when purchasing one of these models. If you are going to keep your children on your lawn and in your yard to ride, I'm sure the brakes will be fine but if you are going on trails, in water and mud, the brakes are not factory sealed and can and will fail.

 

Not to start a big rukkus here but have you checked your sons right foot or hand while he s riding, most kids will ride a brake because of caution, this is habit forming for most kids to ride the brakes, and then when they brake they brake hard and not gradual, I caught my 15 year riding the brake and explained it to her the next minute she is riding the Quad with the brakes locked --locked up tight and not moving on the front she was just sliding the front wheels and broke a rear cv joint and had to small ditches dug from the front wheels being locked, I told hereif she ever touches that parking brake again ill not let her ride again and the cell phone, computer time, I-pod time, navarato video time will all be taken away , she hadn touched the parkng brake since.

 

yeah i use to think polarises were junk cause all i ever own were hondas but my sisters husband got one and i rode it and fell in love so now needless to say i own one

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: glad2cu

After several phone calls and two trips to the dealer we have found out the brakes on the Outlaw 90 and Sportsman 90 are not factory sealed and there is no way to seal them per Polaris tech support. Dirt, water and mud can and does get inside and will wear down the brakes quickly and in our case the brakes stopped working completely on two occasions. Once with the original brakes and then two weeks later with a set of replacement brakes.



</end quote></div>


No factory brakes on any mini quad are factory sealed by any maker.

The thing that has me scratching my head is a set of cable actuated brakes have to be adjusted several times throughout the life of the brake pad. If you are never adjusting the brake cable tension then the brakes wear down a little and if the brake cable is not tightened they simply will not pull tight till the brake cable is adjusted again. If your brakes are truly wearing completely out in just 1 ride without adjusting the cable tension, there is another underlying problem.

 

We adjusted the brakes twice on the original set. When the brakes quit working completely we took it to the dealer and he said we needed new brakes and that they were worn down from being filled with water and mud. The second set of brakes only lasted 6 rides and with one adjustment. Again the brakes were filled with water and mud. The dealer told us in order to keep the brakes clean, the wheels would have to be removed after every ride and the brakes cleaned out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!??

 

Well, this post probably won't be popular but it is based on my real life experience. I will start by saying I have owned 11 ATV's of which 6 have been Polaris. Last year I bought a 525 IRS demo from the Polaris regional sales manager in Sacramento. I should have known not to buy it when he told me not to tell any dealers because he undercut their price by $2000. So he tells me it was used as a demo at trasde shows and had under 10 hours on it and just had the 10 hour service. So I bought it took it home and rode it. It was very skittish and unstable, but fast as he put a direct mount K/N and JB jet kit on it. So I start looking carefully at the frame mounts and alignment and to my chagrin the frame is cracked and severely bent and 2 shocks were messed up. I called the Polaris Regional Sales Manager (seller) and told him about this and it looks like the quad was crashed. He denied, so I offered to send pictures to Polaris and he said don't do that, let me look at the pics. After I sent them and hounded him for weeks he finally says take it to Reno Polaris to inspect. They looked at it and confirmed what I thought. He agreed to replace the frame and shocks... 3 months later I get the quad back and go to St. Anthony's... and guess what happens, the left rear wheel and hub fell off at 40+ mph in Deadhorse bowl. My son was lucky enough to not get hurt. Turns out they forgot to put the darn cotter pins in the hub when they reassembled it. So my trip is ruined and I take it back to Polaris Reno and they claim that they aren't responsible for the $400+ to replace the boot and bearings. So I pay and get it back and a couple of rides later the left CV boot comes apart spewing grease and obviously not rideable again, another $100 in parts (I will fix it myself this time so it is right and the wheels stay on). So for the 11 months I have owned this quad I have been able to ride it approx. 5 months, it almost has cost me my son's life, it has cost me hundred's in repairs and immeasurable frustration. Keep in mind I was a loyal Polaris customer and never had any kind of negative experience with my other 10 quads. I believe Polaris has some integrity issues they need to address in their sales and dealer organization as well as they must slow down these new product introductions until the testing and re-engineering is complete.
Anyone want a good deal on a 07 Outlaw 525 IRS with limited hours? PM me, I want it gone.

 

We are in the same boat. I was just faxed the Polaris tech support report on our 90 outlaw brake issue and tech support states, "There have not been any updates to this. The big thing will be to keep mud and water out of this area."

I guess some kid will have to have a really bad accident before someone at Polaris realizes they have a problem.

We are getting no where fast. This is an ATV. It's supposed to go through mud and water and I should not have to fear for my child's safety each time he rides. And I should not have to clean out the brakes after every use.

Anyone want a good deal on an 08 Outlaw 90 MXR LE?

 

polaris does NOT build the pos it is purchased from AEON and polaris plastic is installed on chasis so if you have an issue, contact the builder of the machine. did you think maybe the brakes are being set up wrong by you or the dealer, perhaps being adjusted to tight. they should be tight enough to just skid the wheels with brake handle about a half inch from the handlebars, not so tight they skid the wheel after only moving lever half an inch. check that out.