The 900's - General thoughts

[diamonddave]

The 05s do get a lot of badmouthing for some reason (and even reading as many posts here as I do, I still haven't really figured out why)

Just my personal opinion

If you had been involved with the 900 crowd as much as you are now, you'd know why. 05 and 06 were very frustrating for the guys that bought these things new. We owe those guys a great deal IMO. I think even MH would agree that the percentage of good performing, non-problematic 900's compared to the headache/heartache, I'm getting out of the sport owners of 900's was about 50/50 in those first two seasons. I've been involved in some very sketchy and technical 1 and 2 day recovery missions....900's cranks, stators, flywheels. Spending all night getting out of drainages we dropped into as we couldn't climb out of with runnability problems, belts blowing (one sled blew 3 in a day) and returning at 4:00 am.

Two of the 900's I ride/rode with would typically end up at the dealer each monday morning those seasons...

You'd never believe it these days...Now the 900's are the most reliable Polaris'...???


As for the 05 and 06 chassis...once you ride an 06, you'll never want to ride an 05 again!!!

 

[guidoxpress]

You'd never believe it these days...Now the 900's are the most reliable Polaris'...???


As for the 05 and 06 chassis...once you ride an 06, you'll never want to ride an 05 again!!!

HAHAHA...great points Dave...

and i will be the one to judge on the 05 and 06 900..i have yet to ride an 06...but once my build is done...its on, lol...

 

[94fordguy]

If you had been involved with the 900 crowd as much as you are now, you'd know why. 05 and 06 were very frustrating for the guys that bought these things new. We owe those guys a great deal IMO. I think even MH would agree that the percentage of good performing, non-problematic 900's compared to the headache/heartache, I'm getting out of the sport owners of 900's was about 50/50 in those first two seasons. I've been involved in some very sketchy and technical 1 and 2 day recovery missions....900's cranks, stators, flywheels. Spending all night getting out of drainages we dropped into as we couldn't climb out of with runnability problems, belts blowing (one sled blew 3 in a day) and returning at 4:00 am.

Two of the 900's I ride/rode with would typically end up at the dealer each monday morning those seasons...

You'd never believe it these days...Now the 900's are the most reliable Polaris'...???


As for the 05 and 06 chassis...once you ride an 06, you'll never want to ride an 05 again!!!

Good points Dave I am sure there were many many problems out of the box with these sleds... luckily they have had lots of time for guys to dial them in so the rest of us know which parts to buy on our first day, lol.

One thing I will argue with you on though is the ride of the 05 vs the 06... I like the way my 05 handles better than my buddies 06, mine seems to be a bit tippier than his and I like it that way... seems like less effort to hold it on its side. It may simply be the difference between my Ryde FX shocks and his Zero Pros on the front end of our sleds, but they are just a tad different in the ride stability, again, his being more 'stable' (and yes, I have ridden his sled a lot in the last 3 years).

I will say this tho, when all we have to argue about is how many revolutions to pre-load our springs, we're getting pretty good IMO

 

[guidoxpress]

I will say this tho, when all we have to argue about is how many revolutions to pre-load our springs, we're getting pretty good IMO

LMFAO!!!!

ditto...hahaha...

 

[IceCap]

The 06 has the engine mounted lower in the chassis and the jack shaft is also lower.

This makes for a shorter chaincase.

The 06 is a 4 injector motor and the 05 is a 2 injector motor.... also the 06 is ported more than the 05.

The 05 was suppose to be 149 HP and the 06 was 153 HP.

The 06 had improved spindles and steering geometry.

The 06 makes more power with a SLP pipe and airbox than the 05 with a SLP pipe and air box.

94fordguy , your 05 is more tippy than your friends 06 is probably due to the engine and jackshaft position in the chassis.

 

[mountainhorse]

The chaincase is shorter which drops the jackshaft but the Driveshaft remains in the same place as IceCap said.

The engine is in the same place (it cant go any lower in the chassis without hitting the steering drag link)

The 2006 has more evolved porting, 4 injectors (that run at double the psi). The SLP performance package on the 2006 does not require porting...the 2005 does.

 

[Alli Icelander]

So from what I'm reading here, no one is actually ready to go ahead and say it out loud, buy the '06 instead of '05 ?

By no means do I think the '05s are bad machines, I've seen top notch performance from those, it's just that parts are VERY expensive where I come from and there is no guarantee that required updates have been done.
And I might be exaggerating here, but reading a few pages back of this fine forum would lead one to think that most problems confronted by us 900 riders take place in '05s seems to me that 3 out every 4 threads have to do with '05 problems.

And on more think, directed to guidoexp..
Converting and 06 Fusion to the 09 plastics....would I run into many fitment issues?
For example, I have the SLP airbox and the stock radiator, I would need to eliminate both am I right ? Will the stock pipe give me any headaches ?

 

[mountainhorse]

The 06 is an evolved version of the 05 in many areas... motor mounts, pistions, wiring layout, porting, drivetrain geometry, spindles and some other small items.

The negatives IMO to the 06 are

1) the double the normal fuel pressure from ALL the other CFi's including the 2005s... this loads the the stator much more and there are more stator failures than the 2005's.

2) The steering post has more of an angle on it where it exits the hoop.. this gives less intuitive feeling to the steering action as there is more of an arc than a pivot of the bars compared to the 2005's

Other than that... I can say that the 2006's are a more refined sled.