Can anybody tell me how much ground clearance a person will give up when they ride with 2 adults on a sportsman and how will it effect the overall performance, does it suffer?

 

All atv's are made for one person....the operator. If you buy it, get plenty of safety equipment.

 

My wife and I ride two up all the time. The girls each ride their own. Because of the added risks involved with a passenger we ride fairly slow compared to the other riders. Given to a guess I would say we average about 12mph on any given day. There is no "fun" waiting in the emergancy room for your injured spouse or child.

After a more aggressive ride through the rocky mountains in Montana I added the heavy duty springs (front and rear) and a High-lifter kit. With those, we maintain just better than normal single rider clearance and we don't bottom out in the rocks any more. Although we carry more than just another rider.

My wife disliked not having any back support so we added a tamarack rear trunk which provides the support and security she wanted and its a great place to keep all the food and beverages for the 4 of us on a days ride. The front trunk is for tools, straps and repairs. I also added a rear rack behind the rear bumper which is expanded metal for the muddy stuff and gas cans. To that I attached a 2nd winch as sometimes it is better to back out of a situation. A windshield has made the ride more enjoyable for both of us in the winter and I wouldnt take it off in the summer either. All told, with all the add-ons, supplies, tools and repair equipment, our bike weighs in at about a 1000 pounds without riders. I would put the two of us at 370 pounds. Less if you ask the Mrs.

We also added protective tape to the rear fenders as the passengers legs get muddy and that acts like sand paper to the fenders.

Good Luck

 

<< My wife and I ride two up all the time. The girls each ride their own. Because of the added risks involved with a passenger we ride fairly slow compared to the other riders. Given to a guess I would say we average about 12mph on any given day. There is no &quot;fun&quot; waiting in the emergancy room for your injured spouse or child.

After a more aggressive ride through the rocky mountains in Montana I added the heavy duty springs (front and rear) and a High-lifter kit. With those, we maintain just better than normal single rider clearance and we don't bottom out in the rocks any more. Although we carry more than just another rider.

My wife disliked not having any back support so we added a tamarack rear trunk which provides the support and security she wanted and its a great place to keep all the food and beverages for the 4 of us on a days ride. The front trunk is for tools, straps and repairs. I also added a rear rack behind the rear bumper which is expanded metal for the muddy stuff and gas cans. To that I attached a 2nd winch as sometimes it is better to back out of a situation. A windshield has made the ride more enjoyable for both of us in the winter and I wouldnt take it off in the summer either. All told, with all the add-ons, supplies, tools and repair equipment, our bike weighs in at about a 1000 pounds without riders. I would put the two of us at 370 pounds. Less if you ask the Mrs.

We also added protective tape to the rear fenders as the passengers legs get muddy and that acts like sand paper to the fenders.

Good Luck >>



holy sh**......why would u even put all that crap on ur quad just to ride 2 passenger......how can u have fun on rides that average 12mph with 2 adults on board......just get her another quad dude.....1000lbs. gah lee......i wouldnt have all that crap on a quad even if i was ridin by myself.....just my 2cents

 

Looks like someone missed the point. 12 MPH average isn't a bad &quot;all day&quot; speed. Not everyone needs speed to enjoy a day of riding, especially as a family.

Riding double, with the approved devices, is legal in Canada. I'm not sure how much clearance you would give up. The only thing that will suffer on a Sportsman is the gas mileage.

 

Kris -

Well, It depends on where you ride and with who I guess. In the mountains of Montana, north of Yellowstone for example, a 8 hour trip up a rugged mountain trail and then 8 hours to get back down - where there is no telephone or even a sign of other people while 32 miles from the trail head, we tend to carry a good deal of the mechanical and medical supplies to meet those contingencies thought most probable to occur. And 16+ hours with 4 people adds up to a pretty good size bag of groceries and water. Not to mention the additional fuel for the 3 bikes - required to make it back to the trail head. Preferring to error on the side of caution, having the necessary equipment along to survive an emergency overnight stay on the mountain top where there is still ice in the shadows and a snow squall could form is not out of bounds. There are several paths to take, depending on the flow of mountain snow steams or even the weather as there are places you do not want to be at during a thunderstorm. We carry 2 GPS’s in case one fails. There are no trail maps or trail markers.

In regards to the speed - going from 3,400 feet to 10,800 feet is an aggressive climb traversing rock slides where the smaller rocks are the size of basketballs and the larger are the size of the smaller quad. Crossing rushing mountain streams of ice water are frequent and take time and team work. And there is even more frequent towing where the 2WD 325 and 90 cc bikes can't get up the hill or through the mud and water - or side lashing to prevent rolling off of 500 foot drops. And going up is the easy part. The trip down is even more interesting as gravity frequently exceeds the braking ability so that winching and side lashing is again required to prevent runaway slides what would be unquestionably fatal. So how fast would you want to go? Did I mention the grizzly bears? Never mind…..


OK – so back here in the flat swamp lands of Minnesota we likely don’t need most of this “stuff”. But this is where we perfect our skills, test our equipment, road test ideas on how to mount or attach accessories and supplies and practice bail-out techniques for last second egress if all things go foul - in preparation for our next family mountain adventure.

We went on a night ride last fall with friends in the swampy areas of north central Minnesota, a 14 mile ride… it took 4 hours to get all 7 bikes through the pitch black trails – some of which were handle bar deep in mud. So at 2 in the morning we rode into camp exhausted but safe and all accounted for. We averaged just over 3 miles per hour. I think half of it by winch. The black bears here will only attack if you hit one or get between its cub and the mother. Those are times to consider a more accelerated response.

Oh we ride with some of the clubs here - and we enjoy doing it and the people involved. We run 40+mph through the woods and down marked atv trails with a sign every 50 yards and splash through puddles. Wow.

 

whodatindamud,
Are you by any chance a military man?
I would ride with you any day since I enjoy the slow rides and like your style (always ready).
Kris judging my your post I'm guessing you're somewhere between 15-18 years old.

 

Go by the Mfg. WARNING do not carry a passenger, if you mess up you don't have to go to funerals, except maybe your own.

 

They ride GREAT with two! My wife rode 100 miles through the mountains of Arkansas and the Sportsman was great with two. The independant suspension really helps as does the large seat which all Polaris models have.

 

I would think that of all the quads out there, the Polaris Magnum would be the best for two up riding, and the Sportsman wouldn't be far behind.
People often think that riding 2-up is against the law, but, in Ontario at least, there is no law against it whatsoever, whether the quad is &quot;proprely equiped&quot; or not.

I've had this argument many times on various forums, and it always suprises my how many people have been sucked in by the manufactures ploy to sell more quads.

Of course they're going to say that you can't ride with a passenger, they want to sell you two quads.

As for it being more dangerous, I guess it would be if you are just plain stupid.
If I'm riding double I'm much less likely to have an accident. With my wife on board I'm not going to be going flat out through the trails, I won't be climbing the big sand hills, I won't be taking jumps. In short, I won't be doing any of the things I normally consider fun and dangerous.

That doesn't mean I can't have fun though. Sometimes it's nice to go out for peaceful ride in the woods and enjoy the scenery.

And talking about safety, I can garuntee you that my wife is safer on back with me then she would be riding her own quad.