If most of your friends have 4x4 and you will be riding with them then get a 4x4. If you buy a sport machine then you need to ride with them to get the most out of your machine. I ride a Grizzly 660 and the people that I ride with allways end up in the mud. Its fun!

 

It's not only where you ride, and what you've ridden before, and who you ride with, and how you ride, it's an evolutionary combination of all of these.
...Most of the places we ride out here in the rather DRY southwest can be ridden by either machine. We have both, plus a DS. We started out on Polaris, and they would go about anywhere any quad can go, plus they handle well and are fun to ride fast,,well as fast as they would go,,which wasn't fast enough. So we got hot rods, and could never go back, they are way more fun, and now that we have the need for speed, wouldn't consider it.
....But the DS does not have reverse so I hesitate to take it down some trails for fear of getting pinned in. It has 22" XCT's and the stock nylon skids. Despite not having a low enough first gear it is surprising where it will go. The Raptor still has stock tires and a skidplate, and has trouble getting over any kind of big rocks or ruts. 22" rear tires on a Raptor would get you through a lot of rough stuff, you can flip the shock linkage to compensate for height. The reverse is geared ridiculously high, on the new 2002's reverse is lower.
.....But the Grizzly was too narrow and too tall for fast riding, we rolled it day two, so we put wider Douglas wheels and Spidertrax tires on it. When we ride with Sportsman, we wait a long time at the next corner for them, the Grizz comes along pretty much right away now.
.....So we've made our sports more trail worthy, and our utility more sporty. The Grizz will go anywhere, the Raptor and the DS are more fun and faster, and more fun to ride fast, where the Grizz is still a little squirrely if you're trying to haul ***.
.......I can't wait to see what the new Honda Rincon is like. And I'm hoping two or three of my friends get one so I can try it out. Even if I like it better than the Grizz, I don't think we'll get one, The Grizz works fine around the ranch pulling trailers and stuff and as a spare, a search and rescue vehicle, and for any exploration and trail blazing.
.......There's an old mine I want to find next weekend, I'll take the Grizz for sure. It just brought home Skyler's Elk.
.......Now if somebody came out with a true SPORT/UTILITY that would be different. I doubt the Honda will be that much better than the Grizz. We'll see. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]
.......If your friends are all on 4x4's and you get a raptor, you may need new riding buddies. This is also evolutionary. On the other hand you may take some of them with you to the next level.
.......Both is the only answer.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]