Early Impressions: By Mark Lester
We’ve been able to card more than 100 miles in November on our IQ 800 121 and IQ 800 Switchback.
So far we’ve come to respect – even more than we did with our initial evaluations last year – this enormously powerful and torquey 800 twin.
As we reported in SUPERTRAX, this engine is ultra smooth – almost docile at trail speeds. Only when you press down on the love handle does the CleanFire’s second injector kick in resulting in an arm-stretching explosion of power.
There is amazing power here but never have we seen it extrudes so evenly from a 2-stroke.
Thus far we’re impressed with ride quality from both the 121 base 800 and the Switchback (not a Dragon).
We do have some reservations as to whether the Switchback with electric start and high windshield will capture the imaginations of those Polaris buyers who gravitated to the M-10 128 inch LX Cruiser last year.
While the Switchback is calibrated softer delivering a nice ride, it is not as plush as the LX.
So far fuel economy has been impressive considering neither of these units is fully broken in.
We’ve been able to clear more than 15 mpg on at least one occasion and the numbers are going up with every tank.
At the 15mpg level the 153 HP 800 CleanFire is getting close to the 600 CleanFire engines we tested last year.
