I ride mostly desert cross country (but also some trail), so please limit you comments to XC riding, NOT duneing. I have a 400EX. The 400 is at its best when ridden as a trail bike, and I would prefer to keep it for that if possible. But, I would also like a special purpose desert XC machine. I have the option of moding the 400 (440 kit, extended a-arms and axle, and suspension), waiting another year for Honda to come out with a 650EX, or the DS Baja. We also have a 300EX which is a great trail ride, so if I mod the 400 I would still have a trail bike available.

So, I need your opinions on the DS as a pure XC desert machine. I'm 5' 7" and 220 lbs., and I can muscle a big bike around if I have to, but I've gotta be honest and say that the bike seems to be huge and bulky!! Desert riding isn't just flying down washes at top speed, there is a fair bit of tight stuff when you go up canyons and the like, so a bike with some trail riding ability is necessary (I ride with a lot of Bahshees, and they die in the tight stuff, hehe). Anyway, what are your comments and opinions?? Was the DS Baja 2000 win for real, or just a fluke?? Moded Hondas have won Baja over and over, so the 400 is certainly a capable ride. Thanx!

 

I think that to take a DS thru some of the more technical parts you will have to be a fairly skilled rider. It is big-wider, and heavy, but not so heavy that it is un-ridable. With this machine you simply have to know what you are doing to keep yourself out of trouble. remember it's got no reverese. AND before you really go out in the open to play, you should know that the rear tires kinda suck. The different tires on the Baja edition are supposed to be better. But I don't know if you were planning on buying that model or not.

As far as the DS winning the Baja 2000, no I don' think it was a fluke. There were Raptors in the race that were ahead for the 1st part of the race- they were fast. But the Baja being a endurance/durabilty race, in the end the Raptors failed. (transmissions exploded-a reacuring problem for 2001 Raptors)The DS is a very strong and well built machine that I feel has been looked over my most people because Bombardier is the "new kid" in town. And I "trail rode" my DS all the time with my friends on their 4x4 wheelers- I just went over the rocks and thru the mud a little differently. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] It made for some interesting rides, but a DS was more then capable of going almost anywhere if you get creative enough....

 

A Fluke, Go back to the Honda Web site!

 

The DS can be ridden in technical stuff. Well over 50% of our riding is on trails that are very tight. It is a workout though. A steering stabilizer helps some. I have flipped mine twice now. Steering stems aren't very strong. I bent a set of stock and also Renthal bars. Nothing else was hurt on the machine. We did bend some stuff at the hare scramble, but they are simply too wide for a tight trail race. I bent a tie rod and my friend bent two. The Raptors were breaking tie rods. The DS is a tough machine. I work for the company that does the Clymer manuals. We looked at all the quads and decided that the DS was the best built out of all of them. It does need a few mods to make it better, but does fine in stock form. My friend raced a Cannondale and it was almost dead even until the DS hit the limiter before a shift. The DS started gaining when they ran out of room. The guy on the FX was surprised. Yes, he could ride too. He was ripping it around on the trails pretty well. MHO on all fronts, but I have been surprised with most areas of the DS. Soaks up bumps like nothing else in stock form.

 

Now Now Hendrix, be nice to our guests.

YZGUY, are you 57" tall or 5'-7" tall because if you're 57" tall the bomb is not a wise choice. I'm 5'-8" tall and 170lbs, I ride with guys on ex400s through all kinds of terrain including tight trails and sand washes. The only reason they stay in front is because they whine about my roost[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]I try to keep it down but its hard to moderate the torque of that thing[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
Unlike the banshees shifting the DS is an option not a necessity. You will undoubtedly love it as much as the rest of us.

See.. didn't even mention how great it is in the dunes.

 

YZGUY the new Honda sports quad still might come out it is 3 or 4-day show. Remember you never show all your cards on the first day in Lost Vegas. If they did the place would be empty after the first day.

 

Speaking of roost, one of the magazines did a shootout (the DS got rated as the best desert racer by the way-at least out of the box), and they said the swingarm was to long. That puts the bikes weight to far forward, and you lose traction. We learned this lesson the hard way in the early days of Mountain Biking. My first bike (ca 1980) had 18" chainstays. You couldn't climb a thing without the wheel slipping. Now chainstays are like 16".

Also, didn't the DS have some problems early on with the stearing geometry, that made the thing handle squirley. Have they fixed that?? When the DS first came out, I was out at Dumont Dunes and the people camped next to me had a brand new shiny DS. They dumped it over maybe 4 times on the first morning, and bent the bars all up. After that the wife wouldn't even get on it. I think it was an early one that had some problems with the stearing???

 

Nothing serious with the geometry just toed in too much. Simply adjust the toe-in to 1/8" and problem solved.
I ride Dumont often (in the winter) and never crashed hard enough to bend anything. The sand soaks up most of the impact when you crash. Maybe they rode/crashed in the washes and sandstone hills there where there is plenty of hard pack. The steering was never bad enough to cause a wreck, that was my own falt...

 

I'm sorry, JSsDS, I got carried away. I have owned several Honda's (250's and 400EX), and they are great and real reliable bikes but don't offer the kick the DS does. Especially for big guys, 6'4", 205 lbs., like us. I need something to hang on to. Ride on..............

 

I like the way the DS handles on fast trails, it is only the slowest rocky sections that are a problem, and that is because of gearing. If it, or the Raptor had a low first gear in a six-speed gearbox they'd go about anywhere any 2-wheel will go. That low-end torque
will pull you through a lot of slow stuff anyway. 22" rear tires help a lot to give you a little extra ground clearance that makes a lot of difference out there in the rough stuff. Fixing the steering with aftermarket A-arms is way better than using a steering stabilizer to hide the problem of not enough caster, especially on tight trails where quick steering response is needed. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]