skidkid,

Ah yes, I forgot about those "Wacky" Amish. We have them up here too. How in the world do they get to use our roads and not pay taxes? Gee I'd like to find that out.

 

I don't know about your Kawasaki, bayou220atv but my Sportsman has no problem reaching 65 mph. At the moment we have 2 local guys with 99 Sportsman 500's that are street legal (until there inspection is up), they go about 700 miles a weekend. You have to remember that Polaris machines operate at a high rpm to begin with (6500 is a 500 HO), I can keep a steady 55 at about 5300rpm. Interstates NO, but 2 lane blacktop I see no problem. Just to give an example on were these guys go, they leave from Allegheny National Forest, travel up Rt 66, take Rt 6 E, and ride the whole way to the Pennsylvania Little Grand Canyon! They love it and have not experienced any problems what so ever. Another reason the machine can keep a steady speed and maintain it is with the ITP Hard Surface Kit. There is quite a bit less rolling friction being made between the road and tires. If maintained thes motor are very capable of exceeding 20,000 miles, For instance KCS Energy a local oil lease has a 2001 Sportsman 500, in four months it had 6300 miles on it, five months later (just over a week ago) the odometer read 12,141 MILES!! Both times it was in here for service was only for a tune up. It is instances like that which keep me a believer of preventitive maintanence.

 

In Washington, the biggest benifit to having a street leagal atv, is you can ride it on the forest service roads! There are soooo many places I ride that I can only go so far because I have to run 2 miles down the forest road to get to another trailhead. Here the law is that "All vehilces on forest service roads must be street legal and the driver MUST be licsenced.

I Think Az. will licsence an atv you should Check with them.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]My 96 polaris sport 400 has been street legal since 96 and all you need is horn high and low beam head lights. And a mirror, working brake light.

 

I'd be happy to just be allowed to ride on the dirt roads around my cabin in Tionesta! With the new law being passed that states we must have a plate and liability insurance, the least the state could do is to allow me to ride my atv from camp to camp![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

Can you make a Sportsman400 street leagle down here In FL??
that would be cool.
About about that highway thing the faster quads like the Raptor, DS, Banshee, ect. they can stay at highway speeds very easely and the would be safer than motorcycles well at least more stable!
And when I get that 2002 Raptor That would make an awsome street quad. but you would have to mod it with to much stuff.

 

I think the biggest reason that DOT hasnt allowed this to be street legal is due to the dynamics of how a quad handles. The steering geometry and suspension are sensitive to the rider inputs. Imagine if you had to make an agressive manuver at high speeds on the tarmac with a quad. There would be a good chance you would loose control of it, especially bigger 4x4's that have a high center of gravity. Just my $.02

 

Sounds like New Jersey political poison is leaking in your direction. Hopefully you will never deal with what we deal with here.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

They would be far from "safer or more stable" than a motorcycle. I am not saying it shouldnt be allowed, I think on back roads its fine. But their is not a quad made that is safer or more stable on highway road than a bike!

 

I have done some talking with the people here in Topeka Kansas and they said no way will they let us make our quads street legal.