ATV Tests

HONDA CHAMPIONSHIP MINI 80 Zac Willet has been riding ATVs for over a decade, start­ing out on a TRX70 in ’88. By the time he was ten, he had stepped up to a new TRX90. He also had an oc­casional spin on his dad David’s Four­Trax 250X. It was at that time that his dad saw the potential for a racing ca­reer in Zac’s future. Thus the Honda Championship Mini 80 was born. The father/son team from Henderson, KY, began racing Suzuki LT80s in the south­eastern part of the country. By the time Zac was 12, he had raced…

4x4 WAR: HON vs. SUZ. The hot news so far in ’98 has been the two all-new, big-bore, four-wheel drives from Honda and Suzuki. Called the Honda Foreman 450S and the Suzuki QuadRunner 500, the two machines were only recently introduced to the press, with our first rides reported in our last two issues (DW Feb. ’98 and DW Mar. ). In the never-ending  4x4 War: Hon vs Suz. This issue marks the first time these ma­chines will do battle in a head-to-head shootout situation. The January Dirt Wheels featured a shootout…

Many new sport and high-performance quad models got their start in the bonanza year of ’87. Since then, on­ly a few more “just-for-fun” four-wheelers have come our way. Some, though, like the Yamaha Banshee 350 and Kawasaki Mojave 250, are still go­ing strong well past their ten-year anniversary. https://dirtwheelsmag.com/tag/kawasaki-mojave/ As far as Kawasaki goes, the Mojave has stood as its only sport or a high-performance machine for nearly that same amount of time (the two-stroke Tecate-4 250 was also offered…

march 98 HIGH-PERFORMANCE TWO-STROKE For the past ten years, Yamaha’s High-Performance Two-Stroke, liquid-cooled, twin-cylinder, Ban­shee has stood atop the throne of ATVing. Since its introduction in ’87, it has been the ultimate roller-coaster ride among sport ATVs, and one of the best high-performance two-strokes ever made. Few, if any, of its chal­lengers have had the staying pow­er and all-out performance that has marked the Banshee’s reign as the king of speed. From the rat-a-tat-tat sound of the…

Living with it four ways By the staff of Dirt Wheels *To subscribe to Dirt Wheels Magazine in print or digital form click here https://hi-torque.com/product/dirtwheels. POLARIS RZR PRO XP ULTIMATE Have you ever looked at the prices of cutting-edge, high-performance UTVs and wondered, “Exactly what factors motivate a guy to pull the trigger on one?” Specifically, we are thinking of the Polaris RZR Pro XP Ultimate. We had an initial test of the machine where we went to a strange area and spent a good deal of time…

There are many choices for youth ATVs out there including the Kayo Fox 70, but the most important thing to consider when choosing one is safety. Picking one that is size-appropriate definitely helps, too. We’ve seen all too often parents putting smaller kids on big quads. To be safe, you want your kid to be able to manhandle the machine, not the other way around. We found a compact 70cc quad with an age recommendation of 6 years old and that weighs under 160 pounds.  Called the Fox 70, this is the smallest…

From our March 1998 issue of Dirt Wheels. MORE INFO:  https://dirtwheelsmag.com/ultimate-off-roader-honda-trx600/  PROJECT HONDA FOURTRAX TRX 600: BUILDING ULTIMATE OFF-ROADER “Honda should have made this years ago,” said reigning Grand Na­tion­al Champ Shane Hitt after his first ride aboard Dirt Wheels’ Project TRX600 sport quad.  had just put the machine through a grueling test ride at DW’s exclusive Club Moto torture track—a track, mind you, that few “race” quads would feel comfortable on, much less a…

**Editors Note- Test from our DEC 97 issue. Pair of Duncan Doughnuts. When it comes to reliable performance, Dun­can Racing is extremely confident of the products that it sells. So confident, in fact, that it offers a 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee with all of its performance products. If you are not happy with the performance, quality, or reliability of any Dun­­can Racing product, send it back and your money will be refunded. We wanted to put Loren Duncan, the owner of Duncan Racing, to the test, so we had…

Feb 98 **Editors Note-A test of a one-off prototype racer to replace Honda's FourTrax 250R. Rebel Star one-off racer.  A replacement for the Honda FourTrax 250R? Ever since the wildly popular Four­Trax 250R disappeared from Honda’s line­up in ’89, racers throughout the country have been screaming for a ma­chine as good as, if not better than, the FourTrax. Sure, there are plenty of other sport and performance machines on the market to­day, but none are as fast on the racetrack (in the modified form) as the…

*Editors Note: A  look back at a Team Alba  Racing set up on our 1998 Yamaha Wolverine. The folks at Alba Yamaha near San Di­ego, California, hit upon a unique marketing concept several years ago. Instead of simply selling ATVs in the pure stock form like everyone else, they began to jazz up brand-new machines with trick aftermarket parts and then put them up for sale at the regular manufacturer’s suggested retail price. The idea proved to be pop­ular, not only with riders in their lo­cale but with other off-road…

One crazy ’88 By the staff of Dirt Wheels PROJECT ATV: HONDA TRX250R This exceptional Duncan Racing 1998 Honda TRX250R two-stroke build is not restoration in the classic sense. Restoration is a faithful return of the machine to the exact condition it was in when it hit the showroom floor. This one has been returned to better-than-new condition, and it has more stock and original parts than most of the TRX250R builds we see. It has also been upgraded with seriously trick aftermarket parts—the best that can still…

FIRST TEST: 2021 POLARIS SPORTSMAN 570 LE. As good as it gets By the staff of Dirt Wheels 2021 POLARIS SPORTSMAN 570 Don't forget your base. Polaris Industries may be actively engaged in expanding the UTV market, but it hasn’t forgotten the 4x4 quads that helped grow the company. Polaris has sold 1.6 million Sportsman quads, but they admit that sales of 4x4 quads are roughly half of what they were before the UTV boom. That is still a large number of quads leaving showrooms. One of the other…