Originally posted by: cc1999
The only honda that is not gear driven is the rubicon. Since the John deers are BRP traxters I do not see what the problem is there. BRP or JD dealers should be able to handle any service problems for many years to come. BRP is still building them so they still have parts available.

Originally posted by: CaptainQuint
I don't have anything against sport quads but I won't let them on my land. Too much wheel spinning and wrecking trails. If I had a special track or something fine but for trail riding they just do too much damage. It is difficult not to give a sport quad throttle and spin your wheels - it is too much fun! The problem is that all that wheel spinning tears up my trails. for the same reason I won't ride a motorcycle on my trails. A very small contact patch and wheel spin makes for dirt slinging and ruts. Just the nature of the beast. I could ride my old honda across my meadow and other than the bent grass you would never know I was there. Riding my dirt bike made ruts. Riding my friend's banshee and it would be ok as long as you putted along which is extremely difficult to do. it is just too hard not to giver her throttle and let her rip. That is fun but it makes a mess.

Back several years ago we had access to a large farm and were on the verge of getting access to neighboring land owners but a group of sport quads we called "the banshee crowd" (cuz most rode banshees) ruined the whole works. They cut fences, rode off the trails we had created and did an enormous amount of damage which ended up getting the land closed for ATVs hunting fishing camping and hiking - everything. They tore up one fragile hillside so bad it took thousands of dollars to stabilize it and as far as I know it is still a mess. Every place there was a hill they did wheel spinning hill climbs and tore up the hill causing erosion problems. Not to mention they didn't have permission to ride there in the first place. They cut fences, wrecked crops, trespassed on neighboring land which caused us to lose any chance to get access and they all had such loud exhausts that it annoyed the hell out of everyone living in the area. We had nice trails made which were carefully routed so there weren't problems with tearing stuff up and where we had mud holes and runs they were in areas where they wouldn't cause all sorts of erosion problems. It was a great place to ride and it took a lot of work and good relationship with the farmer to get access. That bad bunch of riders wrecked it for everyone. We weren't the ones causing problems but it was guilt by association. We tried to do trail repairs and to stop the hill climbing but it was hopeless and the farmer was incredibly angry about the whole thing and frankly i don't blame him. He was out thousands of dollars in trying to get the worst hill erosion problems stopped not to mention the damage they did to his fields. They would make race tracks in his crops and would cut fences which let his cattle out into fields they shouldn't be in.

I think the top thing that get trails and land closed are loud pipes/noise issues. Probably followed by going off established trails and tearing up fragile land and littering along trespassing on neighboring land.

As much as we like to bash the tree huggers (most of whom deserve all the bashing they get) the sad truth is 9 times out of 10 WE are our own worst enemy by doing things which makes it all too easy for legislators and landowners to close trails and make land off limits. In other words we need to clean up our own act of we want to have access to riding areas.