i have a 2000 quadrunner with aset of 27" mud bugs and aset of fender protectors. A K&npower kit thats about it for up grades dont seem to need a winch.For ever draging other bikes out of **** .i would like to know if any one else is having trouble with the flares on these bikes mine seam to get distroyed every time i go out. love the bike thought lots of power not quite fast enought thought.

 

jett, you know, I don't pay any attention to little noises coming from ANYTHING until it sounds DIFFERENT than another quad or other than what is normally heard from that machine be it a quad or a Caterpillar D-9 Dozer. You see, I am a Special Vehicles Mechanic for the Air Force (ASE Certified Heavy/Light Vehicles)and I think maybe you fellas are placing too much emphasis on little things on these quads that don't mean anything concrete as far as real problems which may arise. ALL MAJOR BRANDS of 4-wheelers are excellent quality machines and should give you excellent life expectancy given a few breakages now and then. They all have their little problems. Honda drum brakes work for awhile but water kills them quick. why not use discs? they work ok even in mud. Polaris is strong but belts get wet, don't put as much torque to the ground and don't hold up as well as Yamahas or Hondas. Suzukis 99's rear ends are breaking, and the quadmaster belt drives are crappy. again--less torque to the ground. Kawasaki--well, they can't seem to realize that to compete you gotta have a gear machine with some CC's. I guess the 650 coming up is their answer to that one! Yamahas--well, I can't say all that much bad about them cause they are great machines, but I'll say this--that grizzly is underpowered for a 600. Bombardier traxter---WAYYYY underpowered at lower RPM's but once wound up seems to do ok, but too heavy a machine for most uses. OK, I know that now I am on the **** list of everybody but let me say that EVERYTHING I have said here is from personal experience with my quads and all my friends who will readily agree about the flaws I brought up here. If you all are honest as well you will know that I speak the truth. I love all these machines for all their qualities and hate it that we all can't get together and design a machine with the speed and ride of a Sportsman 500 ho, the grunt of a 500 Suzuki, the reliability of a Honda Foreman 450, and the brakes of a Yamaha! But, alas, it ain't gonna happen. Just buy the machine that feels good under YOUR ***, not anyone else's. An Arctic Cat is really a Suzuki anyway as far as drivetrain goes and I don't believe they are different in the gears enough to matter. To answer tomsuzuki--my 99 will do 55 so far with stock tires and all kinds of extra weight on it. Just HOW FAST do you need to go on a machine that weighs 650 pounds?? It hurts me too much to crash like that!!!

 

those fenders are designed to pop apart under stress ya know. Mine do it too and it pisses me off, but whatcha gonna do--cut 'em off? at least you don't get too muddy and wet, right.

 

Yea, you guys are right, the flares are big and gaudy, but when all my Polaris friends are soaken wet and covered in mud, I'm dry and clean.

How is the weather up in Alaska Mark ?

It's been above average temps. down here, until a week ago, and been snowing ever since.

Did you get the heated hand grips for your Quad ?

 

R34, it was cold as a well diggers a** up here the last couple weeks until today! It started raining and since the ground was all frozen.....traffic got REAL INTERESTING this afternoon coming home from work!
About the heated grips....I believe I will get me a set of those. they are everywhere up here because of the snowmachines so I should be able to get a good deal on a set. I have been looking at all the posts here and on other forums about snorkeling and i think i need to start buying the items I will need to get started on that project here real soon. It won't be too long til i can drive OVER the water holes!! But next summer (both weeks) I wanna see if she'll swim like a HUMMER!!!

 

500zuki, is a real card. Maybe Suzuki, should hire you to test all the machines. They probably would get you for a good price. To think I used to like Alaska. Now I like it better-er. Have fun fella...
Chuck, Suzuki KQ 300, GPS & lunch...

 

I was looking at the 2001 bikes today and they have done a little work on these flars put in alittle oiece of metalto connect the flars together and i think the material in these flars has been improved. Did youhave any other trouble ,I think suzuki should go good to fix this problem a.

 

I have a 1998 Quadrunner 500 with 27" Titan 589's on it (photos in R34's photo album) and a superwinch 2000lb winch. Other than that it is factory. The Titan 589's are unreal! This summer a friend and myself hit the trails for a weekend up north Wisconsin and he has a Honda Foreman 400 with mud tires and he USED to kick my a** in the mud, but with the 589's I spent more time pulling him out of the mud than anything! Until he finally gave up and admitted his Honda couldnt beat me in the mud battles! We found some serious mud holes off the main trail and really had a blast seeing who could make it across some of them!

 

Bloodtrails pictures can be seen here

 

hey r34...Nice pics, where did you get that winch mount? i have a stock mount for the superwinch and i hate it, it gets clogged up with mud from hills and ditches please let me know where i can buy it from. thanks