another question.....
i spent all last week toolin around on a SP335 and a Grizz600 (huntin buddies atv's).
the grizz smoked the SP335 in acceleration(duh) but it couldn't go anywhere the sp335 wouldn't follow. the sp335 rode better but seem a little underpowered (especially against the Grizz)
now my question
how does the sp500 compare to the Grizz in the power department (and any other areas)?
is the sp500 tranny as whiny as the Grizz (i don't see how it could be)?
i know the sp500 will ride better
thanx again for the help :)

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since you have ridden GRIZZ best way is to ride 500sp yourself, you'll get as many opinions as answers here.No way you can compare 335 with griz and do it justice.

Good point cob. The power is the only major difference between the sportsmans, but it is a very BIG difference.

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Andy Bassham *(1999 Arctic Cat 500 4x4, 1989 Honda 300)*

I have wanted to write this for sometime now, so here goes. During this past summer a buddy of mine landed himself a new 98 Grizzly, I'm not sure how that happened but that's not important anyway. We decided to go camping for the weekend near the foothills of Alberta. As he was doubling with his son we just putsed around at low speeds for most of the time. Anyway while riding side-by-side back to camp on a gravel road one night at about 20 mph to my surprise he pinned his Griz. Not wanting to eat major dust I pinned my SP500 EBS. Quite frankly I expected to fall further behind but was hoping to stay close enough not to eat his dust. By the time I reacted I had fallen behind about a quad length. To my surprise I soon started to gain on him. To avoid pulling ahead of him and have them eat my dust (not wanting to embarrass him with his son) I backed off the throttle. Later back at camp while suppin a beer around the campfire I asked him if he was running flat-out. He confirmed that he was then quickly said speed was not important. To this day he does not know I had to back off the throttle to stay back with him.
So to answer your question, yes the SP500 is a better performing machine than a 98 Griz. At least that is my experience.
Lets give 3 for Polaris Hip, Hip Harrah. Maybe that's going too far. Getting carried away here.
Dave Formstone
SP500 EBS

The sportsman 500 is better in my opinion. I like the independent rear suspension but it does add a lot of weight and also it has better traction since it is not a limited slip but it really depends on what U want and how u ride. Also the 335 sportsman can not come close to holding its own against a Grizz.....it hardly has enough motor to carry its heavy weight around and i think it weighs up there somewhere around 600lbs but i could be wrong.

Big Bear. I'm glad to see someone on this site feel the same way I do about the 335. It does way up in the 600's. In fact it only ways about 30 or so pounds lighter than the 500. Before anyone rags me about that it wasn't a bash I didn't say anything bad about it. I do however wish they would somehow lighten the load on it up. It would help it out a lot.

A couple of weeks ago a big cattle raiser about 5 miles from my house had 200 head of cattle get out of his lot. We had atleast 5 atvs trying to get them and it took about 4 days to complete the task. I brought my 99 magnum to help out and ther was also a 98 grizzly there. There were times when we had to travel across plowed fields. The grizzly just plain couldn't keep up. It wasn't because of the power, it was the suspension! When I was just gliding across the rough terrain the griz was getting thrown and jolted around to a point where the driver couldn't control it and had to slow down. (If that is how it compares to a mag Its suspension wouldn't wven be close to a sp500.) We also came to a time when we both took off down the gravel road after a steer and I can tell you that THAT grizzly couldn't keep up. Maybe it has to do with that mine is a year newer? I don't know. All I know is what I saw.On a minor note I think that by far the biggest mistake Yamaha has made on a 4by4 is that they didn't make it liquid cooled. The one I have seen gets so hot after riding.......well it just isn't pretty.sorry I rambled.

Yes your right about the liquid cooled mistake. They should have especially on a 600 class bike. Any fool knows that it is going to get too hot if it isn't ridden fast so why didn't the designers of the Grizz make it that way. That may be a dumb question, but I feel that was one of Yamaha's dumbest moves right there.