Your very lucky.Did you allow them relatives to ride your quads with no experience under their belt?If so,shame on you.I've seen more people hurt on quads at my local riding area mostly due to inexperience.It really makes me sick.It is SOOOOOO avoidable with just a few hrs of the proper training.Polaris quads are no more durable than ANY other quad.I agree with FloodRunners statement of being lucky.Hey----best of luck in the future. BILL

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I did something similar (but not as severe) last weekend. We were riding up a 20' river bank and my front end came up and over 2' from the top and rolled end over end down the hill and landed upright STILL running(I of course bailed off before the rolls). The quad did not even have bent bars! I was very lucky! My quad a 93 trail boss 250 with Bearclaw rear tires.

 

Your very lucky.Did you allow them relatives to ride your quads with no experience under their belt?If so,shame on you.I've seen more people hurt on quads at my local riding area mostly due to inexperience.It really makes me sick.It is SOOOOOO avoidable with just a few hrs of the proper training.Polaris quads are no more durable than ANY other quad.I agree with FloodRunners statement of being lucky.Hey----best of luck in the future. BILL

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I was a very lucky person as well. The first weekend I rode my 2000 SP500 I trailered it to the riding area. It was strapped to the trailer with tie downs I used on my last quad (98 Warrior). Whne I got to the offroad area. One strap was broken completely and the other was unhooked from all the moving around after the breakage of the first one! Needless to say I quickly replaced both straps with heavy duty 2 inch rachet tie downs.

Would be nice to see your brand new unridden quad rolling behind you on the highway at speeds of 120+ kph.

Glenn.

 

I can feel for you had a brand new "7 miles" 96 sp500 that my grandson took over the hill from the hose at 10 or 15 miles an hour and hit tree at 30mph.Yes it makes you sick.About 2mos later looked in mirror and saw it do a back flip in the air.No it didn't start I couldn't find ignition it was buried in there somewhere.It had lit on head light pod and handle bars.All I could think of, as it was in air what the insurance company was going to say.Am glad to say i'm still with them even after having two 500sp stolen last year.Talk about a gluton for punishment,had been me I'd of dumped me after first time. THANKS PROGRESSIVE!!!!!

 

Yes, I provided them with the training video and instructed them to always use low gear in those tricky areas. They have been riding for over a year on atv's, they had been cautioned many times on the hazards of riding. I've even made up some horror stories to scare them. sometimes 20+ yr olds just don't understand situatuations as well as some. And yes, they are purchasing the busted up atv for full price. You have to realize they aren't my kids, I've been married to my wife for 1yr, trying to get along with the in-laws as much as possible. Maybe the $6200 they are paying will make them more careful in the future.
I guess we'll be shopping for a new one pretty quick. From the responses we might look at Honda also.

 

bkurth,I'd like to offer one more piece of advice if I may.I pay 109.00 per yr for 7000K of insurance on my 99 Sportsman.I have a 250$$ deductable.If you had Insurance,it would of covered them mis-haps.It also covers theft.Just something for you to think about in the future. BILL

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Kburth, that's good to hear that they have to pay for the damage. Well, it's not good, but you know what I mean. What kind of tie downs do ya'll use? I know the ratchet tie downs can hold more, but the ones where you just pull tight are a lot less hassle and I've never had one loosen or break, even when totally soaked. Also Kburth, you might want to wait for the 2001 machines to come out, cause there is gonna be a lot of bigger and better ones, just a suggestion though. I'm especially talking about Polaris and Honda.

 

I don't know if I want anything bigger than
a 500, it's already almost 700lbs. If the weight stays down I might consider it. And I don't want anything faster, since I myself don't feel too safe going over 60mph on a sportsman. I do think the rear suspension is a must since I don't do too much towing. I have insurance one one, the one that didn't get trashed (of course) I have a loan on it and the bank needs insurance.

 

to the person who asked what I'm going to do about the damage, well I'm actually looking forward to re-building the thing. I have a heated garage and it should be fun tearing the atv down and starting from scratch. I'm sure I'll have to spec out the frame, otherwise I'll have leaking cv's and such. I have all winter, and the boys that wrecked it might even learn a thing or two about mechanics.