a lot of after market stuff to go where a polaris stock might go.sportman 500 11 inch gound clearace I might have to spend more for maintence, but I don't have to spend all that extra money to go where a sportsman will go.

 

Bill 450es,writes,show me a reliable test that shows disk brakes out performing ''CLEAN'' drum brakes in the mud,wet,steep hills and down hills?Well you answered that question yourself by saying ''clean'' drum brakes.After a very serious outting in the mud with drum style brakes,thats the whole problem,they DONT stay clean.The seals leak and therefore water and mud is allowed into the drums causing excessive brake wear and very poor stopping power.With this problem,it is neccessary to remove the drums for a TOTAL cleaning of the entire brake system.And you usually only get to do this proceedure about twice before the shoes need replacing.Ride the exact same terrain with disks and all you do is remove the tires, wash the pads and used compressed air to dry the disks,no need to remove drums.On some models,removing the drums a pain in the butt and very expensive.I owned two 4x4 King Quads with drum style brakes,and have seen NUMEROUS postings from other brand quad riders with the same mudding problems.Im never going to be riding with drum style brakes again.Keep the 4x4 out of the deep mud and you probably dont have this problem,but than,WHY OWN A 4x4?===BILL

00 Xplorer 4x4 400cc
If you want to come in second,''FOLLOW ME''

 

Bill C. Have you ever owned a honda? Do you have experience with their triple sealed hydrolic drums? If you did you would know how well sealed they are, unlike the brakes on your KQ. Secondly, if you compared the brakes on Honda utility machines with those on Polaris machines, the Hondas brakes will out perform the polaris' in every catagory. Is this because drums are better than discs? Of course not. Its more likely that the Polaris brakes just plain suck. No offence ment. It is because in most situations Discs are better, that most people don't like drums, but I would rather have good drums than poorly designed discs any day.

 

Hi
I have 2800 miles on my polaris 350L and I have never had any maintenance on brakes at all. Don't believe all that is written in magazines. I find the stopping power of the single lever hydraulic discs to be fantastic. Ray

 

Bob 4x4,I have never owned a Honda 4x4.But just because you have never owned something does not mean you have little knowledge of it;s short comings.Just look thru these Forums,alot of makes and models at one time or another bitching about the drums filling with mud/water after a good days mudding.Polaris disk brakes are not poorly designed,in fact the design is great.It is their factory pads that suck.Install aftermarket pads and you;ll see what im saying is true.I burned my front and rear pads off the 99 Sportsman in the first 100 miles.Put on aftermarket Severe Duty pads [they even cost alot less than factory Polaris pads] and your brake problems are history.

Triple sealed you say?Well on the KQs,the rear drum was more than triple sealed.The tire studs have rubber seals on every stud,the inner drum has a seal around it that rides the backing plate,there is also a o-ring seal on it,they even seal the inner drum with another drum and two more seals around it.It still leaks everytime.Im ok with you liking drum style brakes over disks,perhaps it could be that you dont ride in serious mud like I do.I once had this same conversation with Eric Baatz,he owns a KQ and has over 2000 miles on his KQ without replacing the brakes,come to find out that the quad stays out of the mud,maybe yours does to.There just is nothing you or anybody else can tell me about these sealed drums that I care to listen to,sorry,and that is not inteeded to disrespect you..I;ve seen and heard to many horror stories for my liking.If drum style brakes are so damn good,than why did 99.9% of the auto/truck makers switch to disks?Todays cars,trucks are subjected to water and road debree/snow/mud all the time.Put in simple terms,disks are all around better designed and much better performers than its counterparts in allmost every instance.====BILL

00 Xplorer 400cc 4x4
If you want to come in second ''FOLLOW ME''

 

Now if only Honda could make a bike like that.

 

I follow the pure enduro racing it is a cross country race throught streams ,mud and rought terrian and not one bike uses drums, not even Honda's XR which is made for this type of racing.

 

Show me a situation where disk outperform CLEAN drums? Where I ride, I don't have CLEAN brakes!

 

Bob4x4, have you ever owned a Polaris?

 

I'd like to know how the HE 'double hockey sticks' HLForeman got his Foreman to have 14 inches of ground clearance!!!! The quad has 7.7 inches stock. So where is the extra 6.3 coming from. Certainly not from adding 27 inch tires. That gives about an inch extra of ground clearance. So that leaves 5.3 inches to make up. How about the run down on how you did that HLForeman?!?!?

Glenn.

Y2K Polaris Sportsman 500