Chuck403
Active member
As some of you have seen by my post in the stolen atv section, we were victims of a theft. Both our 2012 Grizzly 700's were stolen, and subsequently written off by insurance.
Once we bought those quads, I stopped paying attention to who was doing what in the atv market. Our Grizzly's did everything we asked of them, only had 1 issue between the pair of them, which was a once in a million chance of happening. I was crossing a river, and somehow a stick popped up through a floorboard hole, hit my hose clamp for the lower rad hose beside the engine, knocked it loose, and the hose popped off. Of course being in the river, never got the steam bath, so didn't notice anything until the temp light came on. Put the hose back on, filled it with coolant, and it never missed a beat in the 4 years after that incident.
Counting up all the machines I have owned over the years, 1 Yamaha IT 400 dirt bike, 2 Yamaha 175 2 stroke trikes, 2 Yamaha 200 4 stroke trikes, 1 Yamaha Kodiak 450, 2 Yamaha Grizzly 700's 1 450 Honda Rancher ( I think it was), 1 Suzuki Quadsport 500, a Kawasaki Bayou 300,
2 Yamaha mountain max 700's, and our current Yamaha Sr Vipers. I guess you could call me a Yamaha fan.
I kept going back to Yamaha because they have never given me any grief. I have never needed to walk out, get towed out, never needed to spend a dime on them aside from maintenence, or accessories.
But now, I am in the market to buy again. Needless to say I am strongly leaning to getting 2 more Grizzly's for replacements. I have very very little experience with Can and Polaris. Rode a couple Polaris Sportsmans, a 500, and 800. Not for nearly long enough to form much of an opinion of them, but did instantly notice how smooth riding they were compared to my Kodiak. I racked up about a km seat time on a Can am 800, can't form much of an opinion based on that.
I understand Yamaha has reworked the suspension on the newer Grizzly's, but I never really felt our 2012's were overly harsh through the bumps.
I play in the mud very little, generally if there is a way around it, I'll take that route. I find road riding very boring, so wot top end speed is pretty low on my list of priorities. I found our old Grizzly's got up to speed lots quick enough when coming to smooth stretches on the trail, found them perfectly capable crawling through the nastier stuff, and really liked knowing that the only thing I needed to do to them after a ride was to fill the gas tank for the next day.
I've ruled out Honda as their closest comparable machine has that 3 speed auto tranny, (love the cvt belt drive too much) haven't paid any attention to Arctic Cat at all. Not a fan of Suzuki. Something about replacing 2 front diffs in that Quadsport in a year left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. It had stock size mud bug tires on it, aggressive yes, but it wasn't being beat either.
Does Can am, or Polaris offer anything that could sway me their direction. If I have to pull wrenches with any sort of frequency, I'll quickly learn to hate a machine, and it won't be mine for very long.
Once we bought those quads, I stopped paying attention to who was doing what in the atv market. Our Grizzly's did everything we asked of them, only had 1 issue between the pair of them, which was a once in a million chance of happening. I was crossing a river, and somehow a stick popped up through a floorboard hole, hit my hose clamp for the lower rad hose beside the engine, knocked it loose, and the hose popped off. Of course being in the river, never got the steam bath, so didn't notice anything until the temp light came on. Put the hose back on, filled it with coolant, and it never missed a beat in the 4 years after that incident.
Counting up all the machines I have owned over the years, 1 Yamaha IT 400 dirt bike, 2 Yamaha 175 2 stroke trikes, 2 Yamaha 200 4 stroke trikes, 1 Yamaha Kodiak 450, 2 Yamaha Grizzly 700's 1 450 Honda Rancher ( I think it was), 1 Suzuki Quadsport 500, a Kawasaki Bayou 300,
2 Yamaha mountain max 700's, and our current Yamaha Sr Vipers. I guess you could call me a Yamaha fan.
I kept going back to Yamaha because they have never given me any grief. I have never needed to walk out, get towed out, never needed to spend a dime on them aside from maintenence, or accessories.
But now, I am in the market to buy again. Needless to say I am strongly leaning to getting 2 more Grizzly's for replacements. I have very very little experience with Can and Polaris. Rode a couple Polaris Sportsmans, a 500, and 800. Not for nearly long enough to form much of an opinion of them, but did instantly notice how smooth riding they were compared to my Kodiak. I racked up about a km seat time on a Can am 800, can't form much of an opinion based on that.
I understand Yamaha has reworked the suspension on the newer Grizzly's, but I never really felt our 2012's were overly harsh through the bumps.
I play in the mud very little, generally if there is a way around it, I'll take that route. I find road riding very boring, so wot top end speed is pretty low on my list of priorities. I found our old Grizzly's got up to speed lots quick enough when coming to smooth stretches on the trail, found them perfectly capable crawling through the nastier stuff, and really liked knowing that the only thing I needed to do to them after a ride was to fill the gas tank for the next day.
I've ruled out Honda as their closest comparable machine has that 3 speed auto tranny, (love the cvt belt drive too much) haven't paid any attention to Arctic Cat at all. Not a fan of Suzuki. Something about replacing 2 front diffs in that Quadsport in a year left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. It had stock size mud bug tires on it, aggressive yes, but it wasn't being beat either.
Does Can am, or Polaris offer anything that could sway me their direction. If I have to pull wrenches with any sort of frequency, I'll quickly learn to hate a machine, and it won't be mine for very long.
