Got a little seat time on an 850 Poo.

[WillowAce]

A dealer here has the Polaris demos sitting in their lot as they head to the Wausau demo days and I had a chance to take one for rip. Engine is definitely different than the 800. I would say linear is the best way to describe it. The quick revving rubber band feeling is gone, but it pulls harder than the 800 everywhere except off the line. Not as fast as a sidewinder once you hit boost, but will pull ahead until the boost kicks in. I didn't get a chance to run it out, but I would guess they did nothing to increase top end speed. Is it fun engine to ride, yes, as much mid-range as you could ever want. Will it challenge a winder top end, not a chance in hell. Rode both the switchback XCR 600 and 850 back to back and would say the 600 will out run it in the twistys, but as soon as there is a straight stretch all you would see is snow spray.

 

[cannondale27]

How about the suspension? Did the sled react to rider input as well as a axis? Did it feel light?

 

[WillowAce]

How about the suspension? Did the sled react to rider input as well as a axis? Did it feel light?

Absolutely, you couldn't tell the difference between the chassis other than a little more weight up front. Shifted back on the seat going about 60, grabbed the throttle and walked it for about 200 feet.

 

[Kkurz]

I did a mutli-day group ride up north and there was a 850 Renegade with us. I didn't ride it, so I can't comment on the power/speed, but I was amazed at how much oil he used! We did 750km over a few days, and he went through a whole 4l jug of injector oil! I thought that was the whole thing about the E-tec! He was always with the fast group, until he blew a belt... and his trip ended sooner than ours because a hose clamp came loose and he lost all of his coolant. Nice sled...

 

[yammitrip1]

I did a mutli-day group ride up north and there was a 850 Renegade with us. I didn't ride it, so I can't comment on the power/speed, but I was amazed at how much oil he used! We did 750km over a few days, and he went through a whole 4l jug of injector oil! I thought that was the whole thing about the E-tec! He was always with the fast group, until he blew a belt... and his trip ended sooner than ours because a hose clamp came loose and he lost all of his coolant. Nice sled...

The OP is referring to a Polaris 850. But I do agree with them 850 skidoos are pigs! Belts and oil!

 

[Kkurz]

Sorry, I wasn't reading properly! Serves me right for reading late at night...

 

[number1kyster]

There certainly is a lot of hype around the new 850. Hopefully every one who ordered one doesn't end up being a test dummy. It may take a couple seasons to find out how reliable they area.

Hopefully they improved economy on them. My boss has an 800 Pro S and it gets about 10 MPG.

 

[snowfever27]

Hopefully the 850 Patriot engine will be more reliable than the 08-11 800 Poo engines. Those things would blow with 1500 miles on them. Like clockwork. Horrible engine from the factory. The rebuild kit helped but you shouldn’t have to rebuild an 800 with 1200 miles on it.

 

[thrasher]

Have over 2200 miles on my new 2017 Polaris 800 Switchback Adventure. Kept mileage records for 2600 km(1625 mile trip). Overall fuel economy was 15 mpg imperial or 12.5 mpg us. Oil consumption was 13 litres for the trip, or 1 litre per 200 kms, which is about 1 litre per tank of fuel or 1 litre oil to 44 litre fuel tank, so oil ratio about 50:1. I don't know what the etecs are like. Fantastic clutching, smooth as a hot knife thru butter, great riding position, great engine, rear suspension is good, front end still heavy too steer and required snowtrackers to eliminate the darting, surprisingly very little ski lift on cornering even with the higher riding position. Would be made better if could get a Yamaha triple four stroke in there for reliability and eliminate the need for 2-stroke oil.