Ask the Editors: Coming Back to the Sport with Performance
Back in the day, probably around 12 years ago, I was really into quads (as much as a 13 year old can be) , rode around on a little 250 EX, had a ball with it. Then life happened, and I stopped the hobby, became more focused on building fast cars and so on…
Last time I knew anything about quads, people were still complaining about how the 400EX needed liquid cooling, and that how Honda produced nothing that could compete with the 660 Raptor… Cannondale and Bombardier were still around too…
So, I’m not quite up to speed as far as research goes, but I would like to buy a new sport quad in about 3 months when I return from overseas.
I live in Tucson, AZ, so would definitely be riding some trails around here, also maybe head over to Glamis at times, who knows…maybe some MX, but that’s less likely.
And now I’m trying to decide on what quad to get. I’m not too worried about maintenance, I’m a mechanic by trade, I have about a 9k budget.
A part of me says go all out for the Honda 450R, but I’m not sure if it fits the bill for my intended purpose. No reverse seems like it would suck. Killawattz89
Welcome back. We have a whole lot of good news but our answer depends heavily upon how married to the Honda brand you happen to be in your search. For starters a budget of $9,000 will put you in very good positioning, regardless of which make & model you ultimately decide on. Many of the 450s yet on the market (like Kawasaki’s KFX for example) actually contain reverse right off the showroom floor. Any of these would be your absolute best bet for dedicated MX use and contrary to common misconception, can actually be trail ridden fairly effortlessly assuming you aren’t rock crawling or hardcore mudding with them. Additionally, the Yamaha Raptor 660R has since been replaced with the more versatile and overall-improved Raptor 700R.
Both of the brands you mention are alive and well- Bombardier has since returned to its Can-Am brand name and while their DS650 is no longer offered, they have one of the most versatile sport ATV lineups anywhere. Click here to give it a look as we recently answered a question very similar to yours on the subject.
Even the defunct Cannondale Cannibal still lives on in the form of the ATK 450R, though we have to be honest here, you may have an easier time tracking down a living Sasquatch then demoing one of these particular models but ATK insists they are still building them, so you never know. You can reach their official site here.
Finally, if it absolutely has to be a Honda and you’re looking for a model that can much-better compete with Yamaha’s flagship Raptor, we’d have to point you in the direction of the used market and the potent 700XX. We’ve seen some absolutely screaming deals on low-hour examples from 2008 and can assure you that while the 400EX may not have been up to snuff to run with the 660s, the 700XX certainly was.
