Thats the only reason I sold my 800 and purchased a XP. I could not get used to the noises.

 

I did read up on them, I read tons of magazine articles, read through probably the last 2 months worth of posts in the polaris section and watched tons of videos on you-tube about how they ride against other machines.

But nothing I read mentioned anything about this drive train issue. Most people would comment on how nice the ride was comparing popo to cadillac. Nothing that jumped out- for the most part just that they are heavy machines and can be tricky climbing hills, undesirable single lever braking and clunky shifting.
I really like the sp800, just not this poor drivetrain design.

When I bought it- I did drive it around the guys yard for quite some time, but there were no strange sounds. He lived in a busy city so, wasn't like I had any trail access or a large area to try it out.

I may wait a year and try to finance an 850 xp- I'll give them another year to work out the kinks-

 

I hear ya.... I didn't read around enough and didn't listen to the "right" people when I bought my PoPo... lesson learned.

Yep, the 850 seems to be a nice machine for some folks, but there still are some things that need to be addressed (like the front suspension). The problem is, the only thing that Polaris did on the 2010's was cheapen them up a little... that's not a good sign for the future.

 

I guess we should all go out and buy Suzuki...


John

 

I don't think that was DCT's point at all, he is just pointing out the fact of a this paticular machine and in this case it is a XP. All machines have faults and I do mean all such as the King Quad has twitchy steering at high speeds, the Yamaha Grizz has a seat that is to short for fast sport riding ALL Japanese bike come from the factory with crap tires, Polaris machines are heavy and drink fuel honorably. The point to this is nothing is perfect we as consumers need to find a machine that works best for us as a individual. All machines are expense and for the amount you pay for a bike these days it darn well better hold up to some abuse and have a company that stands behind it!

 

Well we can argue all day about the best machine...It's like debating Ford, Chevy, and Dodge against each other...My point is that I agree all machines have faults it just seems that lately there seems to be an awful lot of bashing of Polaris..Call it what you want...I own a Ford pickup but you won't see me on Chevy or Dodge forums telling them all the problems they have....Just not right...Not trying to be confrontational...It is what it is...

John

 

Never said that... never mentioned Suzuki in this thread. As a matter of fact, I said that the 850 is a good machine for some folks.

Not trying to be confrontational... but some folks need to read more... and look at Avatar's less.

FYI, I was a moderator on a couple of F150 sites a few years back. A lot of guys complained when they had issues (or complaints)... and rightfully so, as the guy did that started this thread. A lot of guys loved their machines and wouldn't buy anything else. Some guys bought other machines and stayed on the forums, and had a blast busting the other guys... and getting busted.

 

Beer,

Have you pumped them with grease lately? Might be a sign that the U-joints are bone dry.

 

We had an old Yamaha Moto 4 that hated to start on the warmest days.

Our Warriors have both had starter relays fail, and one of them had the starter rebuilt twice. One also refuses to shift into third gear at times, and on the other, it difficult to get in and out of reverse. And the muffler has melted a hole in the airbox on one because the cheap heat-reflective tape-like stuff has worn off.

On the other hand, our neighbors swear by their Yamaha snowmobiles -- for joy of riding and reliability. And they've been through most of them -- Polaris, Kawasaki, Arctic Cat, Ski Doo -- and they love Yamaha, absolutely hate Polaris.

We have a 2001 Kawasaki Lakota Sport that has been almost flawless and has an extremely smooth-running, reliable engine.

On the other hand, we have a Kawasaki generator that, currently, refuses to start and is very difficult to service.

So, I guess it really depends on the product category as well.

 

Jap stuff is generally of very high quality. They've taken the German quality model and bumped it up in sheer volume. I just bought an Onkyo receiver for our home theater. It is an amazing unit for under 1K....huge wattage and hdmi inputs that can't be matched. Hard to name a Japanese product that's poorly engineered / built. -To think it was a wasteland 60 years ago. They're a smart bunch.