The engine braking on my recon is pretty darn good. I was out riding the other week and going down a fairly steep hill, I had to give it some throttle to keep it moving. It almost stopped on me.

 

My Polaris with the Active Descent Control is amazing on steep inclines with loose gravel or ice. When my riding buddies are puckering up, trying to keep the rear wheels behind them, I usually have one hand on the handlebars and relax.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: tripleR

The engine braking on my Grizzly 700 works fine. If I need more braking, I located some levers on my handlebars. If you place your hands around the front portion and pull towards the handlebars themselves, for some reason, it seem to help slow the bike down. I also heard there was another lever on the right side floor board too, but may be an urban legend.</end quote></div>

I'll use your post to help so I don't have to type as much. Inexperienced riders are quick to grab and ride brakes down steep declines. (The hill's I'm referring to are "actual" steep hills, not the ones you can ride your engine brake while in high gear, and not accelerate on.) Well, on these hard packed, obstacle laiden hills, riding the brake down them can be down right dangerous. Once your tires break traction, steering and control become extremely difficult. Some of you here know what I'm referring to. The tires start slidding and hopping down the hill and your quad begins picking up a lot of speed. This is the reason why engine braking is so important.

When traversing a steep decline, remember these few things, and you should be able to remain in control. Engine braking is your friend. It works better in 4wd than it does in two. It works better in Low than it does in High. If you're going down a steep decline, and you're in 4 low and the quad is still accelerating too much, "tap" the brakes, never hold them. (think of it like an ABS)

To answer the question that originated the topic... I've found that on Yamaha's belt driven quads, it's been the best for the past SEVERAL years... Lucky for everyone else that doesn't own one, other manufacturers have picked up on this and are making it better on their machines. Perhaps another manufacturer's Engine braking has surpassed that of Yamaha's... but if you're choosing an older belt driven quad, you're gonna have a hard time finding one that beats out Yamaha.

That being said, I'm not manufacturer bias... I chose the grizzly based on my needs and wants.

 

I agree with everything except that having EB that you don't control is like shifting to a lower gear in your car/truck in snow to slow down, which doesn't help. It's like having a constant brake on, if you start to slide during a downshift, you can't just let off the brakes to straighten out.

I'm just having a hard time adjusting to the EB on my new(er) grizz, so to most anyone (it seems everyone likes EB) I would say the EB on a Grizz is perfect.

 

the engine braking on the honda rubicon is very good as well. it will slow you down to 2-3 mph with its hydrostatic transmission, and is quite smooth.

 

I know this is already kinda of an old topic, but Arctic Cats have good engine braking.

 

I too believe that the Rubicon had the best engine braking on the market.

It works at all speeds and does not have to be activated or turned on.

 

i too believ you should answer the pm i sent you instead of answering a 3 month old topic

 

i'm a newb to 4-wheelers.....but i just test drove an articcat 550 yesterday, and one thing that stood out to me was the engine braking.....it was like as soon as i let off the gas the machine slowed right down really fast imo

 

The Can Am's still have the best and the smoothest engine braking.