Well here's my .02 cents....

Last weekend my buddies from NJ came up to ride and one has an '07 YFZ450 SE, the other has an '07TRX450R .......

The YFZ has been piped and jetted, and the Honda has the HRC hop up kit with cams and everything .......

They are both very fast, so fast that I cannot really tell which one was actually faster ..... they both pull strong all over the band.......

The Honda has a wicked down low hit, I mean a rip the bars right out of your hands low hit that never stops......

The YFZ is more of a mid-range monster but it pulls hard the whole time.......

The biggest difference was the handling ..... stock for stock the Honda is very solid and goes exactly where you point it, while the YFZ is a bit more floaty and requires you to pay more attention........ after the YFZ had spacers on the rear and the front rims flipped it was a good bit wider and more stable than stock ....

I think the Honda is a better fit for me, but the Yamaha was not uncomfortable by any stretch ........ I just felt more comfortable and more confident on the Honda, and to be honest I expected the opposite since I've ridden a couple YFZs already several times...... if you offered me a choice right now I'd pick the Honda by a slim margin.......

Of course you didn't factor in the QuadRacer 450...... I might pick that one above all the others but I'm Suzuki biased ........

 

i agree with ss. i love the ltr-450 myself. and im not suzuki biased. the only thing that makes the suzuki a little tough on trail is it is wider than the other 450s.

 

How do you guys think a 2005 predator 500 would do on the mx track and trail and in the sand?

 

On the MX Track, it would depend on how big you want to go. If you want to be competitive, forget about it. We've had guys out on our private track with Predators and they've faired alright if you're not flying more than 35 feet or so. I know someone that broke his wrist on the top of a 50 foot tabletop (not quite clearing it to the downside) with a Predator as well. I believe Polaris's intended use for the Predator was to be a fast 5-speed trail quad.

In January of this year I had a decision to make. I was either going to go with a Predator 500 or the YFZ450. I had to try to look ahead to see what sort of riding I was going to focus on. I decided I wanted something a lot lighter than my current quad at that time (a Scrambler 400). I decided I'd want to jump consistently with it, something my Scrambler wasn't taking too well any more. I took both out for a ride, and personally I felt at home on the 450. I'm 6 foot and 175, and it's perfect. With the kind of MX riding and jumps I'm doing now, I would have been very disappointed with the Predator.

Like I said though, evaluate the kind of riding you will be doing. You may be happier with something like the Predator or Raptor if you're doing mostly trails. They are all great machines.

 

How about the Predator with the fox resivor shocks? i plan on getting 2+ a-arms and rear wheel spacers on it if i decide to go with it.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Tapper1823

How do you guys think a 2005 predator 500 would do on the mx track and trail and in the sand?</end quote></div>

Probably good with the right rider ..... I rode a Pred once and it was pretty fast. I did not care for the handling that much, it felt kind of loose to me on the open MX track.

On the trails it was fine, seemed to handle the rough stuff well enough....but it felt tall to me. Not unstable just tall and big. I'm sure after a few rides that would go away though as the rider perspective it different than what I was riding at the time.

I would imagine they would be great in the sand but I don't know I never rode one there. I have heard people say that the engine lacks a little punch for the sand but that would probably depend on perspective.