ATV Tests

 By the staff of Dirt Wheels A Look at the 2021 Polaris Sportsman XP 1000S  SPORTSMAN XP 1000 S.  Fast and furious combined. As we inspect the photos from readers of ATC90s and other early three- and four-wheelers, it is hard to conceive the massive and muscular 2021 Sportsman XP 1000 S growing from those tiny, underpowered, and unsuspended machines. The 2002 Polaris 250 Trail Blazer weighed in at 461 pounds, and it looks (and felt) positively spindly in comparison. None of the new twin-cylinder 4x4 quads is…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels 2020 POLARIS PRO XP ORANGE MADNESS LE Polaris has introduced a new limited-edition model to its 2020 RZR Pro XP model lineup. The new machine comes with an updated Orange Madness color scheme that consumers have been waiting for. The LE model is equipped for “ultimate trail performance” that Polaris claims can only be found in the Pro XP line, including a 64-inch width and 22 inches of usable travel for outright comfort. Coupled with its performance, the Pro XP Orange Madness LE also…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels Photos by Harlen Foley FORD BROTHERS HONDA 450R GNC MXERS We take a close look at Cody and Bryce Ford's ATV Championship quads. The boys had great success on their potent Honda TRX 450R's. Bryce is a first-year Pro rookie, while Cody has a year on the pro circuits. Both of these racers have made a name for themselves with their Ford Brothers Honda 450R GNC mxers. To call 2020 crazy would be underselling it. Like all forms of sports, the ATV MX National Championship series was vastly…

 By the staff of Dirt Wheels The rear 19-inch-tall Maxxis tires have a round profile, which helps float in the sand but won’t slide around corners as easily as a flatter 18-inch tire. 2020 HONDA TRX90X Honda’s 2020 TRX90X is one of the most rambunctious and enticing mini quads of its class. The current iteration of the 90 was born into production as a 2005 model, and it has soldiered on with few upgrades throughout the years. It remains the only youth quad in its class that is built with a 4-speed…

By Lane Lindstrom, Photos by Ken Hill ’99 LAEGER’S TRX250R REBUILD From his first ride on a 1987 Honda TRX250R to his latest ’99 Laeger’s Racing 250R project bike, quads are in Andrew Humphrey’s blood. Even so, he had been absent from the ATV scene for nearly 14 years. He decided it was time to get back into the sport in a really big way from the looks of his new project bike. Time for Andrew's newest project: ’99 LAEGER’S TRX250R REBUILD. His jump was precipitated by watching his cousin Adam Johnson buy a…

A welcome Limited Edition for the General family By the staff of Dirt Wheel 2021 POLARIS GENERAL XP 1000 LE It is easy to be a fan of the Polaris General line. A basic premise is a machine with a body that can work atop a chassis that can play. Each version features a chassis not too dissimilar to the RZR 900 in design and suspension. With the 2020 introduction of the General XP 64-inch models with greater wheel travel, larger wheels, tires, and more features, it is even easier to find a General you like. We…

TRICK TRAX TEST The multi-time GNC Four-Stroke National Champ, Jeremy Schell, had just put together back-to-back champion­ships aboard his Laeger-chassied, TC Racing-modified four-stroke Honda. Unlike the football players who said they are going to Disneyland right after they won the Super Bowl, this 23-year-old Missouri youth de­clared he was heading out to California to ex­perience the sights and sounds of ATVing’s own Disneyland: the Glamis sand dunes. THE NEXT RAD BAD DUDE TRICK TRAX TEST…

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…