Finally!!!

I went to Glamis this last weekend and saw a DS. Completely stock. It was pretty fast, but not blazing fast. Yes, it was broken in, and I had a short conversation with the owner. The guy didn't hill race all that much, but he did beat a stock Banshee, but did NOT beat my friends Banshee which has only pipes and reeds. The DS was back about 2 quad lengths at the top of olds hill.

Other notes about it - The DS seemed to kick quite a bit in the whoops at the base of the hill, every time. I guess that stiff rear suspension they mention in the mags is a bit too stiff for large whoops at speed.

Since this was my first experience seeing one run (and only one), I'll leave my conclusions to this - it's a nice quad, and pretty fast to boot. I still think it will get better as the model years progress. Right now, I can't think of a reason to get rid of my Banshee for one though.

 

SandmanBlue: What model rear tire did the DS650 have? What model rear tire did the banshee w/pipes & reeds have? The DS is a dog in deep soft sand with stock tires.

I had to reduce the compression & rebound damping in my rear shock to make it less rigid. The adjustments have a dramatic effect. My rear end is fine now.

If you are a 2-stroke guy then you buy a banshee. If you are a 4-stroke guy you buy a 400EX or DS650. No 2-stroke is a substitute for a 4-stroke and visa-versa. Each have their advantages & disadvantages. It is a matter of personal preference.

ScoobyDFW
'00 Dune Sport DS650

[This message has been edited by ScoobyDFW (edited 01-24-2000).]

 

Thats a good question about the tires. I've heard that wheels are not available for the DS650 yet and dowbt he would dismount his brand new tires for paddles. Without paddles, it would be a sad sand ride indeed.

 

I'm a proud owner of an awesome 98 Warrior and had the chance of sporting high performance machines such as the Screaming Yamaha Banshee, powerful Polaris 500 4x4,the awesome Honda 400 ex. All of these quads are very impressive, but...I had the chance to test ride the Bombardier DS 650 at a local dealer. (Who I thank very much for that special favor.) This quad by far surpasses every quad that is available to the public. I'm a die hard bang for the buck kind of guy and for 7k that's a bargain compared to what it would cost for upgrades on other quads. I will be purchasing the DS 650 when the second production comes out. I'll keep everyone informed. The bottom line is that Bombardier has delivered their first High-performance quad with such a punch that it has all the other brands scratching their empty heads in amazement. Thanks Bombardier... for all your efforts, because you have a fan in this quadaholic... Wake up Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, there's a new king of the hill..

 

you gota hand it ot yamaha, the bacnshee is a great machine ti weights a lot less than teh DS650, and is a whole 300cc's less! and it still CAN hold a candle ot it


Chirs

 

The only Credit I'll give Yamaha, is the fact they KEPT producing pretty decent adult sized sport quads, during the 10 years of the consent decree. There is no more credit due to them since they did nothing else worthy of mention. Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki- they all rank poorly for those 10 years. Suzuki gets credit for producing the LT250R all the way up to '92, but not producing ANY full sized sport ATV at all for the last eight plus years takes away any credit I would have given them. Honda and Kawasaki both produced beginner level sport style quads through the 10 years, so at least they did have some offering. Later Honda did take their 250R blueprints out of storage and slapped a XR400 engine in the cradle. This does warrant some definite credit, but they couldn't have put any real effort into it! The 400EX is almost exactly the same as a 250R, heck 95% or more of the parts are interchangeable right down to the plastic! They must have spent a good 15 minutes re-hashing that one. (They were working from a good base, but they could have made SOME EFFORT to improve/change it for 2000... - NO! I don't mean 'Bold new Graphics.') Kawasaki now has an all-pro race team one of them being a 250 2-stroke running in a pretty sweet Doug Roll chassis! All that, and a year later, NO NEW Products - not even a factory hint! Lets all hope this delay will mean what and when they do offer some new model, that it was worth the wait. (I know they didn't set up an ATV race team to sell more Prairies, if they wanted to do that, they would have made a deal with Remmington or Winchester.) Now Bombardier... From what I've heard, Bombardier spent 4 years producing the DS650. If that is true, and considering the machine they call the DS650 which I have *Personally* examined, I think they deserve a TON of credit for putting so much effort, and of course so much money into producing, a sport ATV. And to think, they started the work on that 4 years ago (again, this is what I heard, no proven fact) when "Sport model" ATV's were a joke, and there was really no market for them. In fact, there was such a small market for them, people were willing to buy the new ones with Bold new Graphics even though every single other part was 99.99% exactly the same as the year before. As was said previously - for $7000 you can buy a quad, with suspension which is getting compared to full race suspension, and, on the MX track, comes in a mere 3 seconds behind a FULL RACE BREAD Honda 250R (about $10,000 est. in USED condition - NOT brand new!) What do you need to do to get 3 seconds faster? Would adding a $200 pipe do it? Whatever it is, I bet it's not $3000. Did you know, you can buy, right now a Lone Star Racing "Rebel Star" for around $15,000, new? Yep, for a mere $15,000 you can have a race ready, brand new 2-stroke, Honda 250R style racer - which probably has +2 A arms, +2 axle, etc etc etc…(hrrrm same as a DS650?) Or for $7000, you can have a new DS650, which is only about 3 seconds slower on the race track. Wow, 3 seconds = $8,000. I'd rather buy a second DS650 for that amount of cash and have TWO awesome ATV's instead of just one. I really don't think there is any true comparison.

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-Chris Olson "The Black Hawk"

1990 CT LT250R 1987 Mojave Green&Mean



[This message has been edited by BlackHawk (edited 01-27-2000).]

 

To answer the tire question - The DS was running 8 paddle haulers and the Banshee was running sand skate II's. Both were hooked up fine.

Did some of you think I was biased enough to post what I did if the DS was running stock tires??? C'mon. There's no way I would have done that. I may own a Banshee, but that doesn't mean that I'd compare apples to oranges just so that the Banshee would win.

 

Thanks Juvenile,
Some one else who sees that $7000 for a machine of this caliber is a bargain. Heck the Dirt Wheels Full race 250R was only 3 seconds faster around the track the a stock DS, but it cost $10,000,00!! 3 seconds for $3,000. No thanks!

I am also waiting for the next (3rd?) production run..

RoostKing...

 

The race I witnessed was in the sand, the ds had sand skateII's, and the banshee had 8 paddle haulers, Difference here was the ds won. The banshee had vforce reeds, and toomey t5 pipes, tuning was right on. The other diffence was this was a flat drag, not an up-hill battle. We finally put the ds on scales it tips them at 515lbs full of fuel and all. It would probably be easier to tell in the up-hill drag that the banshee's got a distinct weight adavantage. As far as hookup, the ds has adjustments some people just don't know how to use them to gain an advantage.

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88' TRX 250R

00' DS650



[This message has been edited by alock (edited 01-27-2000).]

 

Just wanted to let you guys know I'm getting my very own DS tomorrow and I can't wait. As a dealer it is very easy to forget just how exciting it is to get a brand new fourwheeler , let alone the fact that it is the new DS. I have been fortunate enough to know about the DS from early in the summer and ridden one quite a bit but now I'll have my own at home so I can learn more about them from an owners perspective rather than a dealers.