Best first 4 wheeler

One of the monsters from the 80s. Used to ride a buddy's a bit. Clocked him maxed out with my sister's car at 72mph. Fart can was the only mod.

 

Yup, that's bout right...depending on sprocket and tire changes.
I still get a lil giddy remembering at this ad.



I practically memorized this article in Dirt Wheels magazine.

 

My buddy was never this well dressed. IIRC his ridiing jacket of choice was a jean jacket. haha! What great times. He never changed his drive pitch. 20" Vipers were his rubber of choice. He was always fighting swingarm beearing issues due to a lot of road time and copius donuts.

 

There aren’t many Hondas from the 80’s still running. But given the number sold vs the number of others sold back then, I wouldn’t expect to see many other brands. They were great for putzing around the yard and through the woods. They were great for everything, until you tried something else. But they were built to last.

They’re likely still around because their owner switched to a Sportsman and saw the light

 

Or they wrecked their back on one of their utility quads and can't ride anything now.

You know I like honda a lot but there is zero excuse for their ride quality vs the majority of the competition. Speaking of the utility segment.

 

Most have never ridden a Sportsman or Grizzly to see what they’re all about. Don't need to if your 88 Foreman still does what you need it to.

 

This is true. If you put around and drag logs, deer, plow snow ect. You wouldn't know. Ive owned more Honda than any of the others and I'll never buy another utility Honda quad unless they really improve the suspension.

 

I remember when Polaris still had chain driven front wheels. My biggest issue with their quads has always been the freewheeling clutch and the auto 4by deal. (these may have been fixed or changed since) The one lever all wheel braking is weird too...to me. I have fond memories of lording over the 'lowly' Foremans and Magnums back at the turn of the millenium. I had just purchased an all new '02 Grizz. The looks on people's faces seeing a utility quad doing wheelies was so fun!

I have always secretly wanted a 400 Scrambler 4x4. Looked like super fun bikes to me...and they were 2t.

 

That's also back when Polaris quality was better than what it is now too. Today Polaris and quality are two words which should not be mentioned together. I'll lump Polaris in with the Chinese brands in terms of quality. A buddy of mine knows the owner of a powersports dealer who sells Polaris along with a few other brands. When my buddy was in the market for a SxS, the owner would not sell him a Polaris. Told him if he wanted one, he'd have to go somewhere else to buy it as he will not sell one to a friend. LOL

One quick search will tell you why, and these are just safety related issues.
Off-Road Product Safety Announcements | Polaris

 

This is true. Their suspension is horrible. Even the new Talons have crappy suspension.

Honda ATV's are reliable workhorses though. They are slow as molasses and have horrible suspension, so they don't make very good trail machines. Unfortunately, if you want a performance trail ATV, you pretty much only have two options, Can Am or Polaris. The rest are simply slow in comparison. I have a '14 Can Am Outlander. Only has ~12,000 miles on it, but it's been great so far. Sees WOT and gets bounced off the rev limiter almost every ride in the summer. I use it in winter for work.

 

Neighbor had one of those 2 stroke Polaris quads up until a few years ago when his tree hugging wife harassed him enough to sell it. It was old. Grey in color. Not sure what size or model. Scooted pretty good too.

 

Exactly. Lol. Reliable, horrible suspension and slow. I've had 4 neck surgeries on one lower back. If I ever got a quad it would have to be a cushy ride and power steering. That said, I'll buy a SxS long before a quad. Probably to keep my dumb azz from acting 20 again I'll get a Kubota RTV X 1120. 25 miles an hour, cushy ride and uber fuel efficient. My use would almost exclusively be on our property and neighbors 140 acres.

 

01 350 rancher does everything I need. I may never need another.

 

Mine was a snow pushing little beast as was the 450 foreman.

 

Don't agree with that. But ok

My 03 sportsman 500ho has been nothing but reliable. Change oil, cleaned up the carb a couple years ago and make sure the battery is good. Nothing else other than a voltage regulator a couple years ago too.

It rides excellent, way better than the Honda Rubicon we were looking at instead of the Polaris.

FarmerJ that's a hefty bill for repairs on that quad. I took bought the 500 due to the recoil backup starter. It has been put to use a few times. See battery, and then the regulator item I mentioned.

 

The recalls are a sign that they fix their mistakes. They are the anti General Motors of power sports.

Granted my best Polaris machine is my 03 sportsman 500ho, but I've had a good number of late 80'sto early 2000's Polaris machines and they were all excellent, well built and great performing machines.

The last new ATV we got was the 2020 Yamaha Kodiak 450, and that was great. Looked at Polaris sportsman 450's but the dealers wouldn't do what we got the Kodiak for, so that was the deciding factor.

 

Go back to what the OP wants...a basic quad for a beginning teenage rider, something reliable, but still fun, in the $1500-2000 range...can you think of a Polaris that fits that bill? I am not that familiar with the newer Polaris stuff anymore, but IMO Honda is still the ones to beat in the above category...like I said originally, I'd be looking for a nice older Honda Recon (non ES...just because manual shift/auto clutch is dead reliable, ES can cause a lil trouble sometimes...sooner or later anyways) I just missed one the other night, it was only 5 minutes away and in really nice shape (old mans quad) and could have been bought for $1000! Ya snooze ya looze!
If we were talking about monster 4x4's, then that changes the conversation...

 

At least no one mentioned not liking Polaris because of the drive belts that only last…..


4000 miles

 

The junk belts on Polaris quads are the reason why I'm scared of the CVT in our Honda HRV taking dump. Belt = bad. Read it on the Internet. And stuff.

 

That's only if the belt boxes come correctly sealed from the factory and if the primary clutch doesn't go bad first. LOL

2021 Polaris RZR Turbo S & XP Turbo Clutch/Transmission Failure

Of course if we use Horkn logic that must be a positive thing because then that gives Polaris something to voluntarily fix.