June 26 is the day that the new king of the 500cc ATV's will be crowned. Arctic Cat is set to introduce a total new machine. New Plastic designed to keep mud and water off the rider. More speed. And a new fully independant rear suspension. It will have No, None, Zero grease zerks to worry about. The new Cat will be 2, 4, and 4wheel locked. It will retain the 4 wheel compression braking that is lacking on the Sportsman.

Watch Out and move over.

 

Sorry to say, but sportsman will win. It's the best ATV hands down, more power, better ground clearance (I'm almost sure of it) more passion put into enginering, ect. I'm not trying to start a wildfire of opinion here, I'm just stating that polaris sportsman 500HO will beat anything on the market, hands down!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

MADMAN,
i agree, the sportsman will be tough to beat! By the way, minehunter says the sportsman lacks compression braking. mine has engine braking (EBS). does he know what he's talk'in about or is he just trying to bash a sportsman?!?

 

I believe I stated it as 4 wheel engine braking. I don't believe the Polaris has that feature. If it does then there a lot of Broken Polaris' around because they don't have 4wd going down hill.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

MINEHUNTER,
the new 'cat' sounds like it has some great new features! though i wonder how they can eliminate all the grease zerks on the rear independent suspension and still concider it long-term reliable? i enjoy deep mud and water riding and i hose-off the machine after almost every ride. i give those zerks a shot of grease to PROTECT my investment!
to date, i LOVE my sportsman and wouldn't trade it for anything.(except for maybe a sportsman 700!LOL)

 

I agree, i dont know if a IRS that dident have greese zirks would be good. the greese forces out the mud and contanimates, if its "sealed" then they will get traped and ware on the joint.

greesing the zerks is not that big of job.

Artic Cat is kinda behind the times, they need a BIG bore to compete with the kawie 650, new Griz, and the sp700.

the Sp700 Will be the new King

later
jon

 

Greese zerks are more of a selling point to me than a sealed unit. I agree with everybody else comments that it's going to be a long time till Polaris losses that title. I'm not bashing Cat's. There trying to make improvments in their all ready sound line up of utility wheelers. Just curious are they ever going to come out with a sport machine? A nice ZR or Thunderquad would be a vast improvement in their limited line up. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

Why do they need a sport quad? Does it make your utility quad lineup look better if you have a two stroke rocket or 300 lb. corner carver? Is there not enough overlap in the ATV market yet?

 

What 700 would that be? I don't believe that Polaris has one. OH, OH, now I know it's a stealth machine. It has to be, because the # local Polaris dealers around here don't know anything about it. Just like the new stealth Yamaha 660 4wd.

As for grease zerks. How many do you find on say a Corvette or a Ferrari or even the frontend of your standard Ford 4wd pickup with Independant Suspesion. Now before you get all worked up about how they don't go through mud and all the other stuff. Just remember that it does rain, snow, and all the other stuff that found on the highways, salt, gravel, rough roads and Many thousands of miles of use and high speeds. They seem to hold up fine without being greased even every 10,000 miles. which would probably equate to about 500 on an ATV.

 

Everybody here knows I am very pro polaris,A customer of mine bought a kawi 650 last week and brought it over for my opinion well after a couple of hours I was impressed with the machine every thing worked as stated in the mags.The quad rode and handled better than any poloris I have ever owned It also outran a 400ex with pipe and jet kit in a drag race.The top speed was 63 mph on radar(brand new not broke in yet)not bad for a utility.The only advantage a sportsman HO has is ground clearance and I doubt that is enough for any body to crown it king for another year.The reason for the post is not to concede that the Kawi650 is the better machine but that hopefully Polaris Industries looks at what people are thinking and saying and maybe doing somhing about it.