I went to our local spot this past weekend and there was a guy on a new LT-R 450. They are nice bikes! They look a little goofy with the spaceship style headlight, but they are still mean machines. Well I was ridin around and, of course, he comes up wanting to race. I don't believe quads were made for drag racing, so Im not going to give you one of those "I beat him by 3 quad lengths in a 300 ft drag" post. NO! Quads were built to be run on rugged terrain with turns and jumps, and that is what this race was. This is S. Florida...so the area was somewhat wide open with some straights, whoops, and tight sections. It was not an actual track, but rather an area that we outlined for the race. In a basic summary it was close but the ol' 250R got him in the end. Now keep in mind my R is set up for this style racing (XC) and the LT-R 450 is an MX bike. The holeshot was close but he got me out of the hole. I caught and passed him on the first turn and I was in front until we hit a long stretch. He pulled ahead of me a good distance as you would expect from an EFI 450cc 4-stroke. But next came the whoops. I pulled him all the way through them. My R just glided atop them while the LT-R went into them. The rest of the track consisted of turns and I stayed in front. The finish line was at the end of about a 500ft stretch. He started gaining on me, but couldn't make the pass before we crossed the line.
My conclusion: The LT-R is the best 4-stroke available today. The power was very impressive, especially for being stock. If I were to buy a new 450, even though I am a Honda man, I'd get an LT-R. But, I just don't think you can beat the chassis and handling of a TRX250R. This was my impression of the LT-R. Im sure elsewhere 250Rs get beat by LT-Rs, and Im sure that eventually I will get beat by an LT-R. But this past weekend, this is how it went down.