Well its time for a new(er) quad. I started shopping around for some used quads and there are very little around here. Found a DS650 but its a two hour drive from here, and i want to find out if its worth my while to check it out.

Ok so for all you DS rider can you answer me this;will the DS be good in the following conditions

Back country roads
Bush trails
Gravel pits
Mx tracks
and of course mud

I am trying to find an ATV that can almost do a double duty. One day i may be riding with banshees and mx bikes, and the next riding with sportsmans, and big A-Cats.

I kinda like the size of the ds being a big guy (6ft. 240lbs) but its also a very heavy bike(as far as i know) so i am concerned about that.

I know its kinda hard to have a quad thats the best of both worlds, but who knows?

Also any problems with the 01 model ds? Reliability issues?

Went to the local dealer today to see if they had one in stock i could sit on and get the feel for, but they had none...damn

Any input would be appeciated

 

I just sold my first quad which happened to be a '01 DS650 and that thing was an absolute blast. I rode all the terrains you stated except MX. I put a set of Mud Lights on it and was crossing mud pits that even the 4x4's didnt want to touch and the tall nature of the DS helped there keeping water and mud from getting in the airbox. It did great on gravel and brush but my biggest complaint was the size and lack of reverse. I would go trail riding with my buddies and I would constantly be getting myself into situations where I had to throw it in nuetral and get off and push it back so I could make the tight hairpin turn. Also Im kinda of a small rider so the DS was a real chore to throw around when needed. Also accelatration was unreal with this thing and it didnt have the tendacy to want to throw you straight into a wheelie like the rappy's do. I had no problems holding my own again lightly modded shee's, piped and jetted raptors, and anything else that didnt have $10k in mods and I was stock. Im now lookng into getting a KFX400 because of my size and also the fact that it has reverse. O yeah and I ran the crap outta mine and it never gave me a problem except the tendacy to overheat due to the fan switch not wanting to kick on. I eventually made a jumer wire to manually kick the fan on when the switch wanted to crap out on me. You wont regret it and BTW, I sold mine for $3500 which is $500 more than what I paid for it 1 1/2 years ago so the deals are out there.

O yeah watch out for the MX tracks, my only expirience on one was scarey. The track I was on has a section where it narrows down to one bike wide and the DS650 was so wide compared to the others that the tires were actually riding on top of the ruts in the grass instead of in the dirt and it kept kicking the front wheels from side to side.

 

I don't have one, but I hope to get one for the sand dunes. I know some guys that ride these and they love them. I like the suspension,power, and comfy ride. Only drawback is they are a little wider than most sporties. Will only give you fits on real tight trails. The suspension is great in rough sections, just open it up, sit back and hold on, it'll ride right over the bumps. You get one of these and it's less mods youwould have to do compared to other sporties.

Good Luck and have fun

 

O yeah I forgot to mention some of the potential problems with the older model DS's. The main ones, for me anyway, is the headlight is glass instead of plastic like the '04 + and the quads seemed to be a little "darty" at higher speeds which made the ride a little scary. I think they fixed that in '03 or '04 with new A-arms. Nothing I would consider a deal breaker but I rolled mine my first time out and broke out the headlight and snapped the oil fitting of the oil tank and had to get a brass replacement.