I see on Cannondale's motorcycle website that they tested the DS650, Raptor and 400EX against their new FX400. They show a chart that documents the weight and power at the rear wheels for each quad. The FX400 killed them all but the DS650 surprised me because it came in second. I would have figured that the with the extra weight of the DS650 it would have lost to the Raptor and maybe even the 400EX. The reason it won was because it had so much more power than the other two! 37hp for the DS compared to 28hp Raptor and 21 hp 400EX. If you want to look, it is at www.cannondalemotorcycle.com

 

no skin off my nose either way.... but I know my bike dyno'd at 39hp stock... I do realize that each dyno is differnet, but isn't that low for the ds to??

 

You raise a good point- the power figures do look exceptionally low for the 400EX and Raptor.

 

Keep in mind that the numbers they are using for the power to weight comparison are the peak horsepower numbers. Peak horsepower means squat. The average horsepower over the normal operating range is what you need to use. For example assuming an operating range of 3000-6000rpm, an engine making 30hp at 3000rpm that has a consistant increase to 50hp at 6000rpm would have an average of 40hp. Going to extremes, given the same operating rpm, an engine that makes 10hp at 3000 with the same curve making 60hp at 6000rpm would have a peak of 10 more hp but an average of only 35hp. Too many people get caught up on peak hp and "seat of the pants" feeling. Line them up and run them. That's the only way to test performance.

 

Peak horsepower is the highest amount at any RPMs. I do not know what goolio is talking about. That chart is wrong!!!!