The ride went great today. We rode for 4 hours with the wife and kids and there was a total of 225 quads. Went through everything from sand to rock to soup and streams. Had to winch once and had to pull my wife along on a strap twice, however she was riding a 2WD with my son on the back and went through some pretty amazing stuff some 4x4's might have issues with. That little Beartracker (the one on the left) is a phenomenal little machine considering it's 2WD.


At my last count at the lunch area there was 1 or 2 Kawi Brute Force's that broke on the trail, and I believe 1 Polaris and 1 Arctic Cat that broke. No Yamaha's or Honda's needed help. Polaris, Honda and Yamaha were the most common machines in that order with BRP's and Cat's and half a dozen side by sides, (Polaris and Yami) rounding it off.

I didn't take any pictures on the trails (too busy driving, etc.) but here's the lunch table that out Judo Club provided along with Westside Honda's Huntington's fund raiser.

 

Sounds like you had a good time, too bad you did not get any picks while out on the trail!

As far as machine choice goes I have had a 04 Polaris Sportsman 600 a great machine when it came to getting work done but for overall machine esp. in the reliability and ergonomics the Grizz has been twice the machine. I was a little skeptic on the Grizz over the XP but after reading all the issues with the XP (on atvconnection) I am very pleased with my decision! People will argue that the Grizz does nothing great/well but if you look at it like this that it does everything very good you will be hard pressed to find a better allaround machine!

Only you can make the choice that fits your needs. Test ride a few and go with that choice and dont look back. They are all expensive and for that you need to decide for yourself what works for you not what we say or is our opinion. I gave you my .02 and take it for what it is worth. See you on the trail!

 

No way I would buy a 550 if for only $500 more I could get a 700 big bore. There are people who spend much more then $500 on motor uprades on there mid size ATVs but still will not come close to the power and tougue of a stock big bore ATV.

Heck the old discontinued 600 and 660 grizzlies would smoke the new 550s let alone the current 700.

 

I agree with the fact that if the 550 was only $500 less than the 700 I myself would get the 700 and I definitely don't have "displacement envy".

I ride a Grizz 450 and weigh 220 lbs, have my daughter on the back (85 lbs), all my gear and extra fuel and I have never been in a situation where I didn't have enough power, so I'm thinking the 550 would in most cases be more than adequate even though it's on a larger frame.

However if indeed the 550 was only $500 less than the 700 I would go with the 700 but even though I haven't checked, I'm sure around here it will be a larger difference in price.

 

You can't go wrong with a Yamaha. They have great reliability, fit and finish, and replacement parts are cheaper than those from Polaris.

 

I just got 2 new grizzly 550 efi / eps 2009 models and they are kick ***, I test rode all of them and the grizz impressed me the most! Also the 550's have all the power we need and the 700's are animals!

 

I would have to say get the grizzly 700, after having 2 new grizzly 550's I can say that they are cream puffs and are super smooth on the trails.

 

apples to oranges. a 500 vs 700? i would look at the grizz 550 efi and find out its cheaper than the polaris and probably a better overall machine. I just got an 09 for $5780. so now the 500 polaris is over $1000 more. That's alot of add ons for the yamaha you could buy.


For the $500 extra you are getting more motor with the yamaha if you chose the 700.

 

Hands down the grizzly 550 is the way to go for value and its a sweet machine.

 

Thought I would give an update on what I finally ended up purchasing. I appreciate all the feed back from everyone. After originally asking for feed back on a grizzly 700 & sportsman 550 xp I went with neither. I ended up with a Grizzly 550 with ESP. I went to a local dealer where I live to test ride one. I have tried to deal with this same dealer with 3 of the last 5 atv's I've bought and they were always too high. So my visit was really to just test ride and that's it. I had decided that if I liked the 550 I would most likely travel 7 hrs to a dealer that I researched that had the lowest price on this atv.

Anyway, I went to my local dealer and asked to test ride a Grizzly 550 without power steering but they didn't have one. I told the salesman from the start that I didn't want power steering and he said just ride it. I did and it rode well and of course the power steering was nice but I still didn't want to pay the extra for the power steering. He said make me an offer the dealer really wants to push some atv's out the door this weekend. said okay what the hey. I offered $6300 + My state sales tax. They wanted more in the end I paid $6400 + Tax. OTD was $6810. Not bad in my opinion. I could've gotten a non power steering at the dealer 7 hours away much cheaper but hey I still did okay I think?