Which quad for wife?

[feyd]

I am looking at either the Yamaha Kodiak 450 or the Can-Am Outlander 400XT....

If anyone can comment on the pros and cons of each one that would be great. Either one have any major problems that I should be aware of?

Thanks

 

[xtremegriz]

My Girlfriend has the 450 and loves it! It can go anywhere the Big boys do and has independent rear suspension. Only thing so far is the front brakes wore out within 300 km, but she might have been riding them a little.

 

[TABSTER]

Right on Feyd... Glad the Miss likes to ride. What kinda riding do you people do? My wife likes to ride as well. She is kinda a spazz when it comes to riding, she will go anywhere. Both of your choices are great... hell all quads are better than nothing, but they all have there place and task. The biggest thing with them is personal preferance, and i would say purchase them according to your guys riding, location to the dealers for service convinience wise, and all the other stuff like warranty. I would suggest not to under power the lady's. They seem to use the power when needed, unlike the rest of us who use everything we have when we can... pretty much all the time..... but anyway. You have made some great choices.... but for the extra few bucks from the 400 go to the 500 on the outty and or the 550 on the yammi... Your beloveded will not have to struggle so much to keep up with you or your pack.... Happy trails
PS... give her someting that you would be happy to ride.... you will go more often, with her.....:d

 

[feyd]

Thanks guys....well I am not worried about my wife keeping up as I will have to slow down for her. She is very petite at 5' and 85lbs (she is 25 but looks about 17) and should handle a properly sized quad just fine.

 

[feyd]

Right on Feyd... Glad the Miss likes to ride. What kinda riding do you people do? My wife likes to ride as well. She is kinda a spazz when it comes to riding, she will go anywhere. Both of your choices are great... hell all quads are better than nothing, but they all have there place and task.

Well I do everything but she says more sand, hard pack and technical trails. She doesn't like mud or skeg too much but I think once she gets the hang of it she will be more willing to do it.

 

[TABSTER]

Well i still do not recomend the 400 then....She wants more sand that to me means more grit..... 400 = no........ But 500 or 650....good luck... keep it rubber side down!

 

[mavrick]

My wife is about the same size and she enoys my 420 is a Honda but very user friendly and efi no irs but still a nice quad. and it will keep up to 500 rubicons and the fsr roads, i am running 26'' mudbugs

 

[bigdawg]

My wife has a 500 Renegade and she loves it. Nice to ride lots of power, just a all around awsome quad. P.S. if you are looking at a Can Am go with the V-twin Motor 500 and up. Good luck and enjoy quading with the misses.

 

[leonard]

my recomendation is the 420 honda

 

[feyd]

my recomendation is the 420 honda

Looked at that too but I want IRS and a front locker which the 420 doesn't have.

 

[leonard]

rgr.

was thinking of a light bulletproof ATV for a womans first ATV. thinking of all the woman ATVers i know(this is not ment to offend) they like to just go and dont like to deal with things breaking ever. run over things squeeze the handlebars ect and ive met none of them that can actually handle a larger weight quad and honestly say they felt it was easy for them..

i understand the IRS though because our 300 honda and 350 rancher (06) can give you quite the ass paddling for a short time. but as far as when light and able to throw their weight around on it . it seems to be the best for lighter riders such as that.

they get on my grizzly and although it doesnt paddle there ass they cant do jack crap when it gets stuck ect. (i have 2 female sisters and 6 female 1st cousins lol who like to borrow my stuff).

polaris in any engine size seem to be heavy my sister has a 400 sportsman and i dont recomend its plush and rides good but ive had to pull her out of so much holes purely because she couldnt lean on it hard enough to hook it up.

Can-am id assume they are heavy in most engine sizes because they seem to look verry similar thoughout there lineup . i think there motors are just differnt stroke from what i remember when i nearly bought one Correct me if im wrong there.

Yamaha - kodiak or grizzly they are all fairly heavy imho. they have diflocks but imho diflocks overrated if you cant actually handle the weight of the ATV as a light rider.

kawi- not even sure what they offer in a smaller atv.

suzuki- do they still have eiger? they were fairly heavy anyways

I dont presume to know every single quad i just feel if i was buying a new atv for a female rider i would be thinking about quads with decent power and really light frames. as far as i know Honda is that quad right now unless i overlooked one.

 

[mavrick]

i know I have never needed diff lock and 95% of my riding is muskeg some of it up to my racks never need diff lock I figure once your stuck its to late to lock the diff,and besides with honad no belt to worry about

 

[hobiretired]

My wife rides a 660 grizzly, My daughter (5'2 120lbs) rides a 700 King Quad. My best friends wifes ride 700 arctic cats, and 660 Grizzlies. My wife says she would prefer the 700 with Power steering, so she will probably buy a new one this year. We just laugh when we hear guys complaining about their wives not being able to keep up on sleds, or on ATV's, and then we find out that they bought themselves big power, and put their wife's or GF on wimpy machines. DUH! if they have underpowered machines and can't keep up they will become discouraged, and probably stay home. I prefer to have my wife come with me. It creates a good friendship and it is a hellova lot easier to convince her I need those new mud tires! Just my two "sense" ... BTW...we never wait for them. In fact some of them can beat the crap out of us because they end up with a higher HP to weight ratio!

 

[Cumminsnorth]

My wife has the yamaha wolverine 450 4x4 and loves it. Its a great quad smaller and lighter then the other 4x4's.

 

[shmole]

I am in the same position (Shopping for my Wife as well)....we were looking at the Can-am 400, but now it is the 500.
The advantage is that the 500 shares all the technology, suspension etc as the 650 & 800 Can-Ams....the 400 (although still a good machine) does not.

Yes, I agree with the above....IRS and EFI are KEY. Before we buy though, I will take her to every shop in town and let her sit on each one and decide what she is comfortable with.

Currently she rides a friend's KINGQUAD 450 and really likes it as far as size and power go...feels confident on it. She does NOT like the 2-up 800 Outlander.

 

[leonard]

bud sleads are a differnt matter. whens the last time you needed your 700's power to *race* down a tight trail past hmm 75kmph.

a 420 honda will make a grizzly / kingquad/ brute / outlander. look bad with the right tires and a light rider to do it. ive got a pretty damn modded bike it makes stock 700 grizzlies look weak and my old man rolls right beside me everywhere with a 350 honda with some 25" Mudbugs (larger paddles than 27").and slightmods nothing big and it floats and it will do about 80kmph which yes isnt 100kmph but the last time i did 100kmph well i cant remember when that was.

speed on a utility atv is mute discussion imho.

but like i said before i can see the want for IRS. esp for a lady. if it was me looking id look for a Light IRS 4x4 ATV with Decent power. the new Bigbears are decent too .. they come with IRS i believe.. have a manual trany with a super low come stock with mudlights(i know not awesome but decent) and diflock ect im pretty sure they are lighter than a kodiak but not 100%. a 400 with bull low gears bigbears have always had good gears is a good choice to look at aswell.

and by they way not to start crap or anything.

i cant count how many times ive had to push woman out of skeg/mud on a large machine because they cant even budge it or handle it or lean on it hard enough.
and where was there husband? well he was a 1/2 a km up the pack because he just expected her to be able to fallow him on a large machine that she could not handle purely because of weight.

a prime example was my cousin she sold her BF650 because she couldn't maneuver it. she was used to the old Trikes like on the farm those she could lift out and lean on ect but this BF650 was just plain to heavy she ended up taking a loss on it to sell it off because although it was fast enough it was a pain to ride. we found her a 300TRX 4x4 1998 ( i believe it was 98) and it was about 2grand with low low km. she has put about 1500km on that bike in little over a year rides it nearly every weekend and loves it why? cuz she can handle it not scared of it nearly as much it has good power for her weight @ 110lb's and ive yet to see it get stuck lol just goes. little 2000lb viper winch on it and she rides alone alot no one to bail her out when shes stuck ect.

thats just a example and thats why if i was buying for a woman id look for lighter quad that for her had good power. cuz lets face it nearly all atv's 300cc and up can do about 75kmph easy which is fast enough to keep up anywhere.