OK folks, I finally got a chance to ride the 550 XP this Saturday. 50 miles of some mud, steep terrain, off cambor, lots of rocky trails and a few gravel roads. I rode with an 06 Rincon and an 08 Grizzly with EPS. I think all three bikes have the same basic ride, the Rincon and the Polaris the closest, the Grizzly is a little tippier and stiffer in the rough stuff. The things I already knew about the Polaris, the smooth ride and good manners on the fast trails, the balance on the hill climbs and the flawless transmission. The things I learned this weekend, the AWD, hard to tell when it starts and you can't tell when it quits but it's seems to be there when you need it. I was worried on some of the slick hillclimbs, I was always able to flip a switch or a lever and put it into 4WD but with the 550 you just pull the trigger and up you go. On the downhill rides the ADC is unbelievable, if you just get off the throttle it eases you down, never out of control, even on the slicker hills. I tried putting the bike in low range and activated the ADC and you have to actually give it gas to go down some hills. The EPS takes all the pains out of the ruts and rocks and I wasn't the least bit trail weary after about 8 hours out. Now for the things I learned that I'm not crazy about. There is a lot of engine noise, all bikes have their share but some of the noises were strange. Sometimes there was a high pitch whine and it didn't matter if you were going uphill or down, pulling or coasting, I couldn't figure out where it was coming from except it was coming from beneath or in front of me. The tires are definitly anemic, when I was behind the Rincon (Bighorns) he came out a creek with a steep bank and made it in 2 tries. It took me 3 tries and I hit it a lot harder than he did. I think with the Bighorns it wouldn't have slowed the Polaris down. The Grizzly went around the bank, also with Bighorns, and with it's ground clearance it would've had no problem. All in all I'm very happy with my first impression, if I put a set of Bighorns on this bike there won't be a better bike in the woods. I hope the reliability for this bike is good because I'm taking a lot of heat bringing a Polaris into Honda and Yamaha country. This is all from a first time Polaris owner on his first time out. I'll keep the throttle pinned and I'll let you know how it turns out. Oh, 50 miles and I used 2.6 gals of gas and I didn't baby it a bit.
darrell4wd
