ATV Review - Can Am Renegade 800

I have been fortunate enough to have owned two Renegades in recent years. My first Renegade was a 2007 800R, and it was actually my first 4x4 ATV. I grew up riding three wheelers and eventually graduated to sport quads but it took me a long time to get into 4x4's. I just didn't see the point. Riding for me was all about going fast and getting air, that all changed when I was in my mid twenties and injured in an ATV accident. It was as I lay on the ground after the accident, my life flashing before my eyes I realized that I wasn't 10 feet tall and bulletproof anymore. The thought of not being able to provide for my family because of my hobby really knocked the wind out of my sails. So I sold my quad and decided to take a break from ATVing for a while.

Check out my article Renegade vs Outlander

It was still in the back of my mind even though I couldn't ride. I missed the freedom, the nature, the excitement riding gives you. Little did I realize that I didn't have to give up riding, it was how I rode that needed to change.

One day, as I was on YouTube and I came across a video by a guy named Ostacruiser and decided to watch it. Osta was and still is big into Can Ams, which was a new brand that I had heard about but knew nothing of. I sat there and watched him and a couple other guys ride into a swamp with only their handlebars out of the water and this intrigued me. But what really got me was the noise these things were making, I had never heard anything as beautiful as the low rumble of these V-Twin engines.

So I started researching Can Am, reading every review and watching every video I could get my hands on. I was concerned about their build quality, we had just had a bad experience with a Chinese brand ATV I bought for my son and I was skeptical that this was possibly just another Chinese re brand. Besides, I was a dyed in the wool Honda guy, the brand that is all about quality, craftsmanship and reliability. But I couldn't leave those Can Am's alone. They excited me like I had not been excited in a long while. I wanted that engine rumble, I wanted that power. So I discussed it with my wife, convinced her that I needed this bad and the hunt was on.

I decided that the Renegade was the machine for me, I loved the aggressive style which still had the sportiness of the sport quads but with all the capabilities of a 4x4. I also decided that I wanted an 800, a 500 just wasn't powerful enough even though a 500 still would have been more powerful than all the machines I have owned. Problem was a Renegade 800 isn't cheap. I already knew that buying new wasn't an option but even the used were quite a bit out of my price range. $5000 was the limit my wife and I set but most were selling for $7500 and up. I obsessively scanned Kijiji and every other ad source I could find for weeks finding nothing. I schemed how I could come up with another $2500 but I couldn't.

Then a month later, while scanning Alberta's Kijiji ads, I came across a 2007 Renegade 800R, only slightly over my price range. It was at an Alberta Can Am dealer which gave me confidence in making a long distance, sight unseen purchase. It had 6000kms but I had seen many Honda's and Yamaha's with much higher and so I didn't think it would be a problem. Besides, it already had a winch, skid plates and a pipe which were things I wanted and would have to buy later. So this was a good value.

Ugliest homemade bumper ever!

I made arrangements to get the dealer to crate it and get it shipped to Saskatoon (approximately 500kms) and I wired them the money.

I was on pins and needles and the day it arrived I was like a kid at Christmas. It was everything I had hoped it would be, it was cleaned and detailed and looked awesome. I started it up to hear that amazing exhaust note and was not at all disappointed. I even took a video.

It was the middle of winter but that didn't stop me, I had a large parking lot at the place where I was storing it and would frequently go for short late night rips. They had to be short because there was an apartment building very just to the other side and I knew they would be calling the police about the noise that HMF pipe was making.

With the snow on the ground I couldn't get enough traction to really see what kind of power it had but I could tell it was far beyond anything I had rode. Switching on the fourwheel drive gave me amazing acceleration on the snow and make sideways drifts possible.

I stripped the factory decals and bought a wrap off of eBay

And that bumper....well it just had to go.

Eventually the snow melted and on the May long weekend we headed up north so I could give the Renegade its maiden voyage. It didn't disappoint. The other guys I was riding with were amazed at the power, but not more than me. We have a trail that goes along the East side of the lake at camp, this trail follows the telephone poles and is reasonably straight. I opened up the throttle along this straight away and literally scared myself. Every machine that I have rode in the 20+ years I have been riding I could out-ride it, meaning that even when it was giving me all it had I wanted more. The Renegade on the other hand could out-ride me. No matter how I pushed its limits, it always had more. More power, more speed, more acceleration. It was amazing.

Later on in the summer we went to a camp and I was able to try mudding for the first time.

As the video title suggests, I was indeed a mud virgin, I had no idea what this machine was capable of. With my sport quads I avoided swamps and water, it was a huge eye opener to see what a 4x4 ATV was capable of going through.

As you can see in the video it did ok, I was running the factory wheels with factory Holeshot tires. They really are quite horrible in the mud, but they weren't designed for that either. The video also brings up one huge drawback of the Renegade, and that is fender coverage. The Renegade is a sporty looking machine but fender coverage is minimal. I had to get used to getting both muddy and wet pretty much every time we went riding.

After getting completely covered with mud and seeing my friends who ride other ATVs completely dry, I decided I would buy some fender extenders. I was very torn, I liked the functionality of them, they kept some of the mud and water off of me but I felt it took away from the aggressive look.
The next mod was some Maverick wheels\tires, these were a 12" beadlock rim with 26" Bighorn tires and they substantially increased my traction.

The last modification I did was a Rubberdown Customs rack adapter which allowed me to put an Outlander composite rack onto the Renegade. I never did use the rack to hold anything, just liked changing the look.

I sold this machine in the fall of 2012, after owning it for nearly a year. I had it in a shop and discovered that the bearings on both the input and output drive shafts from the transmission were worn and needed to be replaced. This required removing the engine and splitting the engine engine/transmission. A job that would have cost $1500 at a minimum and potentially more than that if other worn parts were found in the engine.

Conclusion

Even though I sold this Renegade, I did purchase another shortly afterwards. That in itself should tell you a lot. The Renegade raised the bar, and made me as a consumer want more.


I still love Honda and always will, but I feel that they and the other Japanese brands have fallen behind their North American counter parts when it comes to raw fun factor. That being said, if I was a farmer, rancher, surveyor or oilfield worker and required a workhorse ATV that would work all day, 365 days a year I wouldn't look at anything other than Yamaha and Honda. 

It was a great machine and a great introduction into the Can Am brand. In the future I would stay away from higher mileage machines.

If you are looking for a sporty, fast ATV that will give you years of enjoyment I highly recommend the Can Am Renegade 800.

Tiger Tail Tow System Review

 

It's about time that I give my report on the Tiger Tail that I received from the boys at Team Tech Engineering back in the early parts of summer. Many of you have heard of these as they have been talked about quite a bit, but for those of you who have not let me fill you in on what it is. To make it very simple, it is a retractable tow rope that attaches to a hitch on your ATV. The retractable part serves two functions, one is that it is easy to pull out and put away, the other is that you don't have to worry about running over the line and getting it twisted up in you axles as there is never any slack on the rope.

There is another version of the Tiger Tail made by KFI, which to my understanding bought the manufacturer of Tiger Tail and retails it under their own brand. The products are identical other than color.

Product comes in a very nice retail package

 First impressions were that the product looks good and rugged spoiled only by plastic cap which presumably covers the spring retractor. This cap does not have the same rugged look as the rest of the product.

Price is a big factor in purchasing the Tiger Tail for most and I will get into that more later but one of the things that causes the price to be as high as it is, is the mount. Pictured here the mount is in two pieces, all three are then bolted together. The mount is heavy, very rugged thick still with big carriage bolts. This assembly, once built to fit your machine stays together in one piece and easily slides in and out of your hitch receiver, held in by a hitch pin.

 

Even though it may look like you can still use the hitch I can tell you right now that you can't.

 If your machine already has a hitch receiver you are lucky and this will reduce your cost substantially. My Renegade did not come with one and therefore I need to buy and install one before I could use it.

 

 

This is just a picky thing that my OCD would like changed, but because of where the rope attaches to the spool it is impossible to get the rope to wind nicely on the spool. Purely cosmetic and picky.

 I had mixed reactions to the final result. As much as I liked the functionality the Tiger Tail would give me I thought it made my machine look funny, rear end looked bulk and the florescent orange made it so your eyes couldn't miss it. I also felt like it somewhat made my Renegade look like a tow truck.

 Once dirty it was nowhere near as noticeable. If that is a factor for you you may want to buy the KFI version as it comes already black.

So what about using it?

I will tell you that this product performs exactly as promised. That being said, I didn't use it as much as I thought I would. Your going to use the Tiger Tail either to pull yourself out, or someone else.For pulling out a buddy it works great, just like the video you back in, hook up, pull out and retract. So fast and simple. For getting unstuck I am less likely to use it when given the option between it an my winch. My winch is slow and controlled and I like that, especially when you see the gumbo I get stuck in. The other factor is that you need a buddy to pull you out (which mean you have to suck up your pride and say "hey, I need help") where as you are still independent with your winch...even though it will take you at least 10 time as long to get unstuck.

When I first introduced the product to my group I was amazed at how critical many were without knowing much about the product. One of the main criticisms was that the recoil mechanism would break. I am happy to report that after many tugs and submerging the until in water repeatedly as well as being covered in mud, it has never had even the slightest issue recoiling. 

When I was at camp I used it along with my tree save to yank deadfall out of the bush and it worked great. Very strong, I never worried for a minute that the rope would pull off the spool.

The cost

This is the biggest reason most people will not buy it. The Tiger Tail and the mount retail for $230 USD when buying directly from their website (http://tigertail.us/), add shipping, duty and conversion you are looking near $350. I believe the shops around my area are retailing the KFI version for $299. There are not many people I know that will pay $300 for a tow rope...even if it looks cool and and is super convenient to use. I had to add a hitch receiver to my quad which jacked the price up another $150.

Conclusion

Quality construction, heavy built, professionally marketed. Works every bit as well as promised. Great product, I will continue to use my Tiger Tail for many years to come. Team Tech Engineering was kind enough to give me special pricing on the unit so my investment is lower than what the average person who buys this will be. I am not sure I would have spent $300 on it.

Chinese ATV Experience

My son on his New-To-Him Baja 90, his first quad

My first experience with a Chinese brand was back in 2009 when I was looking to buy an ATV for my kids. I found a used Baja 90 on Kijiji for half the price of the brand name kids ATVs. Baja was a new brand carried by one of our large retail stores here in Canada called Canadian Tire and the Baja 90 was basically a Yamaha Raptor 80 clone.
I was skeptical of this unknown brand but I figured that if Canadian Tire sells them they must be good. My bad.
We got probably four good rides out of it until and was reasonably impressed with my purchase. That was until one day when  I was teaching my son how to cross a ditch, he approached it at an angle as I instructed him and when he came to the bottom the wheel snapped over in the other direction. I watched him struggle with the handle bars but they looked like they were stuck. Frustrated and figuring he was just too weak I got off my machine and attempted to turn them, I couldn't. This blew my mind becuase I saw how slow he was riding when this happened, it really defied logic to me that some was wrong with the machine. Eventually I put it on its side and with all my strength I tried to straighten the wheels but they would not budge from the full lock position they were in.

As terrible as this machine was, it did survive our father son camping trip

I ended up having to pull it out of the ditch while lifting the front end and dragging it to the road. I rode my machine home which thankfully wasn't that far away and drove back with the truck and loaded it up.
At home I tried a prybar still with no luck. I eventually pulled out my tools and pulled it apart to find that the tabs to prevent the wheels from turning too far had bent and gone over top of the bump stops essentially locking the wheels. I pulled it apart and bend the tabs back into place but when the handle bars were straight, the one wheel was slightly toed out but the other wheel was completely toed out. This meant there were more components bent.
So I called Canadian Tire and asked for their local Baja service center, after being on hold for a while they have me the name and number of a guy, not a company. Confused I called the number and spoke to the gentleman and described my problem. His first response to me was to ask how I got his number? I explained that I got it from Canadian Tire and they they told me that he was who they recommended for repairs. He thought that was rather humorous but sure he would take a look at it.
He pulled the front end apart and tried to bend some pieces back but said that these machines had such soft metal that even if he could get it perfect it would likely bend back the first time it got hit. It looked a lot better but was still toed out pretty bad. He priced out the components that would need replacing and told me that IF he was able to get them that with labor it would likely amount to the value of the quad.
The first ride afterwards revealed that it was basically unrideable, the toed out front wheels would grab and pull the quad to either side without warning.
The baja sat in the shed for a couple years before I finally sold it for parts for $100.

My son is now 15 and rides a full size machine. Last year we bought a Raptor 80 for my girls to experience ATVing for themselves. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that this machine is build like a tank and has had no issues and is all the machine that the Baja had hoped it would be.

Update

Well, the 2014 summer is coming to and end and the weather is reflecting this. Riding season has not and I will be continuing to ride well into December.
I have not posted since May which wasn't totally unexpected as I want to make the most of my opportunities to get out on the trails. My GoPro has been sitting in it's bag and I have not used my GPS software for pretty much the whole summer. I decided to just enjoy riding and not worry about the technology.
I haven't had any new maps submitted from other users for at least 6 months.
Over the summer we had some great adventures which I will post here soon. One major change for me is that I have sold my beloved 2009 Renegade 800X you see pictured here:

 And replaced it with this 2011 Outlander XMR 800, a decision I am still questioning

More to come.

Quad River Rescue

Dramatic rescue of ATV and rider as they got swept away by the South Saskatchewan river.  This is an area in the Nisbet Forrest that we have ridden many times. Thank God for well inflated tires that kept her afloat. Very happy this story has a happy ending.

Penland Exhaust at idle on Can Am Renegade 800

Product Review - Muzzy vs Penland Slip On Exhaust

Muzzy Renegade pipe in black

I purchased my 2008 Can Am Renegade 800X in January of 2012, and unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating. At the time I am writing this article I have only managed to get in two rides on the machine, the first ride was with the stock exhaust and the second was with the Muzzy. So my thoughts on the comparing the two are nice and fresh.

Last season I rode a 2007 Can Am Renegade 800 with an Penland exhaust, so I will be bringing my experience with that pipe into this review as well.

Penland  

The Penland exhaust installed on my
2007 Renegade 800

The Penland pipe came installed on the used 2007 Renegade I purchased earlier that year, I wasn't sure what to expect from this pipe as I bought the machine used from a dealer nearly 800kms away and had it shipped to me. My jaw dropped the first time I hit the starter and heard the purr. I had never owned a twin cylinder machine, it reminded me of the sound of a Harley.
When I finally got it on the trail in spring I realized some of the problems with a loud exhaust. On the trail, a normal cruising speed would be somewhere in the range of 35-40kph depending on the terrain. It seemed like this cruising speed was also the speed where the RPM created a droning sound that nearly rattled my fillings out of my teeth. It rattled my eardrums enough that by the end of that ride I was seriously considering buying another pipe.
Funny thing is that somehow I got used to it, I cannot remember any other time riding that season that I was affected by that droning sound, at least not to the same extent.

We tend to ride around a lot of cabins, camps and lakes on trails in the Northern part of the province. At one of the smaller lakes that we ride at there was a comment about how my machine could still be heard on the other side of the lake. I was sufficiently embarrassed by the comments that when we went back to that lake later in the summer for family camp, I chose to ride a quieter machine and leave my Renegade at home.

Factory

When I bought my 2008 800X I had never heard what a factory exhaust sounded like, so when I heard it start for the first time I was reasonably impressed. It still had some growl to it and wasn't nearly as anemic sounding as I thought it would be. That being said it had to go, after having the Penland on my other Renegade stock was just too quiet.

Muzzy

Muzzy pipe (in polished finish) installed on my
2008 Renegade 800X

I decided that I needed something quieter than the Penland but louder than stock. Surely there must be something in the middle. When reading on the forums I came across the Muzzy brand. It was more expensive, but from what I had been reading online most people were saying it was a quality built pipe and quieter than a lot of the others. The decision clincher  for me was the fact that the Muzzy had a removable "Quiet Core", meaning that you could make adjust the loudness of the machine for your situation.So I ordered it up.

Install was quick and easy, basically two bolts and a clamp and it was on. Unfortunately it does hang a couple inches lower than the factory pipe, probably not a big deal for most, but for me it meant that I could't close my tailgate on my truck.

My first startup with the pipe surprised me, the sound was nowhere near near as loud as what I though it would be. In fact I had a hard time telling the difference between it and stock. Maybe it was because I was expecting something closer to the Penland but I was disappointed. On the trail you could tell it was a bit throatier, with a bit more growl but not as much as I had hoped.

As of the morning that I am typing this review, I realized that the "Quiet Core" that I mentioned earlier is actually pre-installed. So I will be removing it very shortly and updating this review at that time.

*Update - Once I removed the quiet core I was much more satisfied with the volume than with it installed. Removal was quick and easy and once removed I never did reinstall it. It was that happy medium I was looking for. 

Funny how things change over time, I have now sold the 2008 Renegade 800X and am now riding a 2011 Can Am Outlander XMR 800. I purchased the machine used with an HMF swap series pipe installed. I have never complained once about the loudness of the pipe even though it is likely as loud as the Pendland pipe and have come to enjoy it.