here's my theory on why the ds gets bashed in most of the magazines. It's is a magazines nightmare.

Everyone wants the most comfortable, most powerfull, most reliable, most stable, most versitile quad made.

Of course the DS is in the top end of all those qualitys.

first off, lets start with what I beleive is a complete myth.

-the DS fills a small niche in the market, it's a specialty bike only meant for the dunes.
This is BS. sure yamaha sells massive quantitys of their banshee, blaster, and raptor quads. And tons people by honda's on their reputation of reliability (which they deserve) alone. And suzuki/kawasaki is sold as a faster 400ex so their popular now. But the number of ds owners is significant and growing.

The DS market is not as small as a niche as people think. It just happens that the ds offers alot more than the other quads do. So a new ds owner is less likely to go buy aftermarket parts than if they owned another quad. Less demand for aftermarket parts means less companies advertising in their magazines.

lets face it, the only thing that any of these magazines can say about the ds is it's big and heavy and the price is high. I can think of alot more bad things on a stock 400ex than a DS. The price is the number one killer on the dealer's sales floor. It's hard for some people to justify plopping down $6800+ for a quad when there are a half dozen other choices that are $1000+ cheaper. I know it was a real battle for me to convince my wife, expecially since it required selling my wife's 400ex that she loved so much. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] The problem I have now, is I had to use the "It already has everything" argument to sell my wife on the deal. Now that I want a new exhaust, jetting, filter, nerf-bars, hid lights, etc... etc... it's a lot harder to get past my wife than it was on the EX.

It's my beleif that the big manufacturers' (honda, suzuki, yamaha) advertising dollars are only a small part of the reason that the mags bash. I think it has more to do with the products that thier advertisers are selling. Think about it, as a magazine, why would you tell the whole world to go buy a DS when their advertisers don't carry any parts for it. It's just not good business.

Once the DS sales go up, and more fab shops start making cool stuff to bolt on, and the advertisers start carrying those parts in their product lines, I think we'll see the shoot-outs come out a little different.

Who knows, I may be completely wrong. The thing that really pisses me off, is that I actually took the time to find a logical explination for the magazines' gross misrepresentment of the DS, instead of just using it to wipe my a$$ while caming at glamis with my DS.

nuff said...
-Tom

 

that brings up another thought not many speed shop work the ds, but woods did and that made it hard for the other shops to just throw something at it. i think there is enough on pami to say they are good at the rotax, after that the speed parts drop off, with the head ache angry is seeing, and others it seems things can go side ways quick.

 

When I first bought my baja about a year and a half ago every body who saw it would say " I was readin' about that thang and they say it is big, heavy and slow " . I got so sick of this eventually and the first words out of my mouth were "NO IT'S NOT A PIECE OF SH%T". Man, the BOMB gets 0 credit in damn near everything I've ever read about it. I've ridden many different quads in my day and nothing, I mean NOTHIN' compares.

 

Did these test riders ever ride a quad before?! Well here's one "little" person who wouldn't trade the DS for any else except for maybe another DS!

 

Anyone who believes all of the garbage that the magazines print is just being setup for upset. Just wait until they get their DS killer and get roosted by a stock DS650. I know that drag racing is not everything, in fact, it's the least of what I do with my DS. But just take a look at the suspension that these things have! Low end torque, mid range kick and top end speed with suspension, dependability, comfort and looks to boot. You can't go wrong with the DS.

Most disgruntled previous DS owners bash it after talking about how wonderful it was while owning one. Why's that? Why the sudden hatred? Perhaps self justification for buying a lesser quad and being dissapointed.

My 2 scents (shoowee).

 

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me, but I believe most of the information in the magazines are correct. Before I bought my DS650 I went through my pile of quad magazines, and at the end of reading the test and comparisons, I knew the DS650 was the best quad for me. Now after owning my quad for about a year, I can’t think of reading a single thing that was false about the DS650. Some of the comments that I do recall are: heavy, wide, expensive, twitchy front end, heavy front end and rear tires spin. From my experience these comments are true. That doesn’t mean that they are all bad. Most of the comments are a double edge sword. I love the width and wouldn’t mind it if it was wider. If I’m having difficulty on a steep hill, I’m happy the front end is heavy. The heavy front end was actually a plus when making my decision, because I was worried about my wife wheeling over riding up steep hills.

Now what I do disagree with the magazines about, is usually the final conclusions, on how the different quads stack up. I disagree with how most test are on a motocross tracks, when most quads never see a motocross track. I think they weigh in the importance of motocross performance way too much towards the end conclusion.

That my two cents.

 

you must have missed the latest shootout that dirtwheels did with the ds involved. it came in last or second to last for dune riding.. this is utterly rediculous. (I think it was either the feb or march issue)