I'm happy with the purchase and don't have any regrets. But in some ways I was a little disapointed with the machine. The first thing I noticed was the suspension. It's way to soft and kept bottoming out on me. I adjust the shocks and still had the issue. This week I ordered Crutchfield Stage 2 shocks for the front of my machine and the HPG shocks for the rear. The second thing that took a little getting use to was the Visco-lok. I just sold my Sportsman for my Outty. I was use to creeping through the woods and just bulldozing anywhere I wanted to go. My first ride on the Outty I was spinning my tires till the 4x4 would kick in. Another thing I wasn't happy with was the protection. I knew a head of time that I was going to have to buy skids. But you think that a XT model would come with them. But a quick phone call and my Ricochet skids were here in a couple of days. Another upgrade that I felt was needed was with the headlights. Once again I was use to having 3 headlights on my Sportsman. Now having only two 35 watt bulbs that hardly light the road had to be fixed on my part. I ended up putting in some 80/85 watt Osram Silverstars in my machine. Now the road & trails are nicely lite. As for the CVT intake and getting water into the system I personally haven't had a issue with it. But to be safe I did install a Yamaha drain plug on my CVT cover and as I type the high temp paint is curing on the exhaust wrap that is on my snorkel system.
My most recent gripe is the coating that is on the racks, bumpers, etc. When I first got the machine I thought it looked like the Line-X that is is my pickup. But one 70 mile ride showed me otherwise. The coating rubbed right off down to bare metal. At least with the glossy powdercoat on previous machine I could just hit the racks with a rattlecan and make them look new again. The textured finish is kind of limiting me on doing that now. So after I do some mods to my XT bumpers for better protection I'll be taking the racks, bumpers & extensions to my Line-X dealer & have them coated.
It may sound that I'm nitpicking or bashing the machine. But it's farther from the truth. As mentioned I don't have a regret in my purchase. But I did my research before hand so I had a idea on what to expect. For the average trail rider the machine is great. But with anything there normally is room for improvement or tweaking to fit a riders needs.
