Yeah my Dad has a BruteForce 750 and it is a really fast quad for a 4x4. I raced a friend of mine with a 450r on it and he barely beat me haha! Those BruteForces dont turn worth a damn though!

 

I'd look at the Honda Rancher, it's a utility quad but great for all around use. Good resale value too.

 

I've got a kawasaki prairie 650 4x4, its very nimble(unlike the brute force imho) and its extremely quick for a 700 lb machine, I paid 2500 for mine and it was in perfect shape, they are tough to come by becausethey are such good machines, I just got lucky with the time of year that I purchased

 

This XP850 rolls pretty good too, about 75 mph.

 

My first quad was a warrior 350.. Sold that bought a RM 250.. Sold that, bought a brand new 400ex.. Sold that, bought another 400ex.. Kept that and bought a yfz450..


I'm getting a little older and I sold both of the sport quads.. My knees and hips just couldn't take the jumping and landing anymore...

The next quad I want to get has to be a utility.. I want it big enough for 2 people but this time I can go slow and go just about anywhere... Some of the new utilities can keep up with the sport quads.. My 400ex was really good and never had a problem... My yfz450 on the other hand didn't have any problems but seemed to run like a 2 stroke.. You could just take it slow.. It was meant to go fast..

Besides going through deep mud without getting stuck looks fun... Plus with all the new mud guards and stuff you barely get dirty anymore...

James

 

Raptor 700

 

I like the 400EX's and theyre right in my price range but a lot of people i've talked to say I'll get tired of the lack of power within months. I like the fact theyre pretty much bullet proof bikes and from what ive read require less maintenance than most 450s. For a first quad that is ideal, I dont want to spend more time servicing stuff than riding it....

 

arctic cat thunder cat 1000 FTW!!! haha then you can have the best of both worlds but they're expensive.

 

Those Honda 450R's are expensive to maintain. Plus you have to rebuild the thing every 50 hours. They don't have tappet valves, they're shimmed so that makes for a PITA when you go to adjust valves. 400ex is tappet and fairly easy to adjust the valves on. Plus, for trail riding I don't think I'd want the 450r. It's more of a race quad and really hard to trail ride on. You're either makin it scream the whole time trying to keep it from lugging or you're lugging tryin to keep it from screamin.

Honda has a 700xx sport quad with IRS. The first 10k I get is goin towards that.

 

Good information. I asked my buddy about that 700xx and he quoted me like 8.5k if i remember correctly haha!! It looks like a sick bike though!!

 

I have had my fare share of ATV's over the years, Hondas, Yamahas and even a Polaris(I will never make that mistake again!)

I am you height and weight, and trust me a 400ex is WAY TOO SMALL! You will look and feel like a monkey f-in a football on the thing. If I were you I would look at a 03+ Yamaha Raptor 660 or 700. I had a 04 660 and it was a very fun machine. I got rid of it because I had 3 ATV's at the time, my gf at the time didn't like that it had a clutch and I was just too use to the power of my Banshee. So I sold the Raptor and kept my Banshee and Kodiak.

 

The only Yamaha I had was an 80cc Badger so I can't really say I know much about them

My buddy has an 08? Raptor 700. It is deffinatley fast and has tons of power. But he also has a Dodge. So take it for what it's worth.

 

The yamaha 700 is better except for the IRS and it looks better.

 

First I would decide what kind of riding you are going to do.

If you plan on ripping it up on motorcycle style courses then a sport quad is what your after.
If you plan on trail riding through trees, rocks and mud with the option to ride in the winter months then a utility quad is what you want. I love riding in the snow.

If you plan on doubling your girlfriend at all a sport quad is out. I have not seen one that will do the job safely. They are not designed for it.
Do to your size don't even bother with the small quads. Get a big bore. You want the torque for climbing hills, mud holes and such. Just because you have a big bore doesn't mean you have to ride everywhere at full throttle.

All brands have their issues some just have more than others. I lean towards Yamaha and Can Am. There are two Yamaha Grizzlys in my group (my 700 and my buddies 660) and the rest are Can Ams (two Outlander 800's and a Renegade 800X). These two brands dominate the trails out here so that tells me something. Do some reasearch on some Quading forums there is a boat load of information there.

Good Luck and happy quading.