PDA

View Full Version : rode a scrambler this weekend



Jbelknap21
02-23-2002, 07:00 PM
this weekend i took a spin on my friends 2001 scrambler 500. i was very impressed with the power, it hit pretty hard at the bottom, the power reminded me of riding a snowmobile, like normal, then a hit, then slowly calms back down, and it handled really nice in the snow. i was very impressed with it, the best polaris ive ever rode.

Juggalo
02-23-2002, 07:36 PM
yeah i got the chance to ride my friends 99 scram 400 4x4 with a buncha mods on it last monday. it was kinda cool but it was lame compared to my ex. it seemed like it topped out really fast and when it was topped out it didn't seem like i was goin very fast. and it was super heavy (sucked at jumpin). the best part was riding endos on it (very scary but cool). not a bad machine but i'd never buy one.

Guy400
02-24-2002, 06:27 AM
In my neighborhood I'm the only person with a real sport bike. A couple of blocks down there's another Raptor and the next neighborhood over has a couple of 400EX's. Out of the 6 guys that live on my immediate block there's 5 Sportsman 500's, 1 Rancher ES and 1 Scrambler 500 4x4. This is no lie, Fourstrokefan can vouch, every single Sportsman has been back to the dealer at least once for a major repair. 3 of those 5 have had the front diffs grenade, 1 had the tranny explode and the other had a rear diff problem. In all fairness to Polaris, the guys with the Sportsman's all go about 275lb. and above and they beat the he!! out of their bikes. I mean, this is the worst punishment I've ever seen quads take. I fully believe that these guys would destroy any quad given to them. But, about the Scrams performance, the guy that lives near me with one has some tranny kit in his that according to him makes the belt bite quicker and that's it. This guy doesn't talk $h!t but he's just generally uninformed. His Scram does about 85mph, climbs any hill, jumps any jump, etc. so if his bike does that my bike must do 100mph and I quadruple his double-doubles according to him. I'm flat-out not impressed with the Scram 500. The motor feels strong but that belt drive really seems to kill any power to the rear wheels. The instant you pin the throttle from a dead stop the motor feels weak (because of the belt drive) but then feels pretty strong as you accelerate but then feels weak again at 50mph+ (because of the belt drive). I'll keep my shifter bikes:D

K400EX&A250EX
02-27-2002, 10:59 PM
Around here we must be doing SOMETHING wrong with all of our Polaris bikes...because we ride them all hard and haven't had ANY problems with any of them. I've read here and in a couple of other forums about how bad the reliability of Polaris is...but we are all VERY pleased with them. Between my immediate family, my brother, and my sister's family...we have two Scrambler 500 2x4s, a Scrambler 500 4x4, a Sportsman 500, and a Scrambler 90...and we haven't done anything but maintenance to any of them.

The Scramblers will never ride the same or have the same speed as the true sport bikes...but they are a good all around bike that work for multiple purposes. As I mentioned in another thread in here somewhere, there are times when I prefer riding my 400EX and other times when I'd rather ride the Scrambler.

JustRace
02-28-2002, 01:14 PM
Yeah I don't think that Polaris has a reliability problem. My step-dad had a 92 Polaris Trailboss 350L that I beet the crap out of and it ran like it was new. My dad has a 95 Polaris Sportsman 400 that has over 3,000 miles on it and it still runs like new too. And this sportsman goes to Canada every year for a big fishing trip. The only work the 95 polaris has had done was that in 96 it got a new frame (I had a little accident). Oh the only problem that both polarises have developed is that the batteries do not stay charged.

kc 300EX
02-28-2002, 03:11 PM
Met a kid with a 500 4X4 Scrambler, it was all of 3 months old I think, Lets see.........
Snapped the swing arm and blew out the rear shock
BROKE out the front wheel drive, the shafts? yeah, they were gone, he replaced them once then said fudge it, so now its only 2 wheel drive
the funky clutch they have with the spring thing? yeah, the spring was broken in half, quad was about half speed
Polaris reliability problem? Nooooooooooo

4punksdad
02-28-2002, 05:25 PM
polaris has been around awhile now........they took alot of heat back in the day when they started making 3-wheelers (yeah, they have been around that long) and they are still taking abuse about their belt drive.

I am no fan of belt drive quads..........to include the grizzly's, but belt drive has proven to be reliable. snowmobiles have belt drive, and they have been very dependable.........

how do the quads compare to the belt drive on sleds? do they have the same centrifugal clutch like a sled has or what? if so, then there is no "tranny"

K400EX&A250EX
02-28-2002, 09:31 PM
Sounds like in the case of the kid with the Scrambler 500 4x4 the problem may have been the rider...and not the bike. I know of individual examples of almost any model of bike having problems, and a lot of time it has more to do with the rider than the bike. As I mentioned, my personal experience (and that of my family) is that Polaris is very reliable.

JustRace
02-28-2002, 09:52 PM
That kid had to really be screwing around to brake a shock considering polaris uses the fox shocks. Its people like this (the kid not the person that posted) that make **insert brand name here** have bad reputation.

DiceMan400
03-01-2002, 06:22 AM
Polaris is fine....... I have a friend with a scrambler that rides with us once in a while and he does ok...... Not nearly as fast but he does ok....... People get quads for spacific needs........ Are you gonna buy a 400 EX to do farm work????? You gonna haul logs with your raptor....... Are you gonna race mx with your polaris...... Dont think so....... See what I am gettin at here....:D

Scott
03-01-2002, 06:59 AM
4punks: There is a "gear box" of sorts on the polaris quads. 2 local friends have 'em. One's the 500 scramblere 4x4 with both front axles busted (actually it was one U-joint and the other side was the yoke that broke) and the other's a sportsman 500. The sportsman had trouble with the gearbox, hanging in gear in high, wouldn't stay in reverse, wouldn't even go into low range. There were a couple probems, one was in the shifter itself on the fender, a piece was bent. Then the gearbox assembly on the rear of the quad was tore down and a C-clip was broken and a bearing had disintegrated.

The "gearbox" reminded me of the shifting mechanism in a top-loader transmission, if you've ever seen one of those torn down exposing the shift rods.

There is some mechanical gear reduction that provides the low range side of the gearing.

2000SPORT
03-03-2002, 06:47 PM
Well here's my Polaris problems

Have a '97 500 Sportsman, It goes to the dealer about once a month for a , belt, clutch, u-joint, gas leak or many other problems

I had a '94 250 Trailboss, It never once went to the dealer. Never had a lick of trouble. Always ran good. Only problems I had was to replace the batttery a couple of times.

Grandpa has a '95 425 magnum, been to the dealer many of times for engine trouble. Runs fine one day, and the next it doesn't start. It's always having some sort of problem.

Uncle has a '94 425 magnum, never been to the dealer, except when it was wrecked. Runs good all the time. No problems whatsoever.

I guess it just depends if it was built on a MON, FRI or during the middle of the week. They seem to be stone reliable, or junk.

Quadfather
03-04-2002, 09:29 PM
I had a 99 Polaris Sport. You can see it on my site. I rode the snot out of it for 3 years, and never had a single problem with it. It was a great bike, but I got tired of the weight, and it's terrible handling characteristics. It didn't compare at all to my EX, but it was a very decent trail machine.

phatswinn
03-07-2002, 05:52 PM
ok, to me its really hard to believe they are reliable, my moms boyfriends scrambler 400 has had more problems than its worth, wen i was 13 my mom met him and the first time i saw him was wen i was gunna help him rebuild the engine because my mom told him im reall good with motors, we fixed it went out for a ride and the something happened in the gearbox, so we tore it down and replaced whatever was wrong in ther(can't remember what it was it was 2 years ago) we went to the tug hill plato to go riding and the gasket blew and the radiator fluid got in and he was burning that, so we tore it down again , put the new rings in and gaskets put it back togather and a couple of weeks later the fan for the radiator blew, we changed that then it decided it was time for us to rebuild the engine again and it decided to break a ring and have it break against the cylinder wall and make us bore it out because its an @$$hole to us, now we have it torn down because the oil injecter forgot to put oil in te gas and it ran allite to lean and burnt out, so we changed the injectors and they work just got it bored again and gettin a wisco this time... and now were gunna go riding tomarrow cuz its sapposta be 60 and sunny, we just bring tow ropes-2 of them cuz anything that touches the polaris breaks LOL weve only had to use 2 of them once

Quadfather
03-08-2002, 09:12 PM
I think the worst thing that touched that Polaris was your mom's boyfriend.

Blysster
03-11-2002, 11:56 AM
Alright, my whole familly are die hard polaris freaks (except for myself and a few others). it's kind of embarassing to admit but there is no way you sill convice any of them about getting something other than Polaris. All together they have 6 scramblers, another 5 sportmans/magnums and a few others

Big familly, i know.. but other than the occasional belt problems and the usual maintenance none of them have had any serious problems. They also take very good care of their machines. One of my uncle's old magnum overheated the first week he bought it since the electric fan wasn't plugged in and they replaced the whole bike free of charge. I am a honda guy myself but i think Polaris is the king when it comes to mudding and working..

And for the Scramblers, they will never be good MX bikes or good for jumping.. but with the right mods you can really make them fly. I have seen them beet raptors in a drag race. They are also great for those long wood races with lots of rough terrain and mud. My opinion is that they are great machines for what they were designed for... but they require a lot more maintenance then other bikes.

Scott
03-11-2002, 12:23 PM
A friend of mine has a 96 or 97 Foreman that he hasn't had any trouble with till now (ripped a CV boot). He also has a 90-something polaris trailblazer that I've never seen runing. He's talked about turning it into a wagon to pull behind the Honda. He bought the Polaris brand new and finally got sick of it breaking down and bought the Honda. I know it's a 2 stroke, and I thought it was a 250cc, but don't quote me on that.

Since Polaris is an American company, I'd LOVE to see them solve the reliability problems, shake the bad rep they have, and be comparable to Honda when it comes to reputation and reliability. But right now, I'd never consider getting a polaris. I don't like the automatic, they are way too heavy, and I still question the reliability based on my friends Polaris machines.

I would be using it for my wife to ride and to pull my mower around my yard. My friends Sportsman 500 could do the job, but the thing weighs about 1000 lbs with fluids and rider. The Wolverine did the same job just fine at half the weight. And I expect our future Foreman 450S to work just fine as well.

Evan
03-11-2002, 12:43 PM
I think its all on how you treat them to how they will treat you. I have a Scrambler 400 4x4, and the only time I ever had to get a pull from another quad was when I first go it and was jumping it and I wasnt letting off the gas like I should have been and the tranny cracked and locked up and ran all the fluid out and had to take the chain off and hook it to another polaris to pull me home. My friend on the other hand had the sam model and is a lot bigger rider and a little rougher and he had numerous problems, 3 trannies, axle, etc. Polaris has good quads if they can just shave some weight and get rid of that auto tranny. Their autos are designed for low friction snow mobiles that mostly spin, where as quads have traction 90% of the time.

04-04-2002, 08:56 PM
i just got a 2002 polaris scrambler 500 4x4 and i love it. it is too heavy but other than that it's great. i think it has great throttle response and good speed, always wants to keep going.