i HAVE A 2000 DS WITH WELL OVER 3000 MILES OF HARD MOUNTAIN RIDING( THAT MEANS LOTS OF BOULDER CLIMBING) AND HAVE HAD NO BREAK DOWNS. i HAVE WORE OUT 4 SETS OF TIRES AND THE BEARINGS THOUGH. NOTHING IS FUNNIER THAN WATCHING A RAPTOR RIDER GOING UP HILLS THAT ARE OVER 1OOFT HIGH AND STRAIGHT UP, THEY ONLY COME DOWN THE HARD WAY. THE DS IS THE BEST CLIMBING QUAD OF ALL TIME AND SUSPENSION DOES MATTER. BUT I LIKE THEM (RAPPY) AS LONG AS I DONT HAVE TO RIDE IT.

 

The DS has a pretty expensive and small aftermarket choices. I don't know but I assume the KFX has even less being a auto and less sales then a DS. So I would say stick with the DS. Now after saying that, I want to get your head all boggled up again and say that the new yammy coming out looks very cool, from what I heard. Thaht machine is going to be a big seller if they work all the bugs out.

 

Funny how things always get turned into a Raptor vs DS thing. Still trying to figure out how the guy brought the Raptor into a DS and Vforce discussion.

My choice here would be the DS. The Baja version to be exact, hands down. My brother rides his in the mountains all the time. You can even see a picture of him rock crawling in our local mountains in my photos page.

DS, better, faster, stronger and looks better then the Vforce. That first part sounded like a 6 million dollar man comercial. LOL, hmm did I just give away my age? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

Ooops, my bad. Theres a picture of him there on the other side of the creek but he hasn't started up the other side yet. Incase you realy wanted to see it, click here

 

Glad to see he's protecting the front bumper.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Wouldent want to scratch it.

 

I have never ridden a DS, so I have no first hand comments about them. I do own a V Force and I can tell you that in the trails it is an absolute blast. Once you get used to the strange noises the CVT makes (all normal, but disconcerting to a newbie) it is really a lot more fun than a manual. I never thought I would say that, but the CVT on the Kawi works so well that you can really blast through trails for a longer period of time without getting fatigued. It also helps concentration so you avoid accidents.

From reading the specs, the DS seems like an odd bird in the trails. The proportions seem to favor duning as many have already pointed out. Since you said you would be mostly trails and pits, I would say that the V Force makes more sense. Also consider the shaft drive, sealed rear brake and over 6" ground clearance, all good things for trails.

Do not let the weight worry you. I have a Warrior and the V Force feels much much more nimble than the Warrior which is over 100 pounds lighter.

Additionally, the fact that the V Force is a V Twin makes a lot of difference to me personally. The V Twin has a ton of aftermarket potential and is amazingly smooth. I feel that the aftermarket for the V Force will be very strong and the sound of a dual exhaust V Twin is intoxicating.

Good luck and I am sure that you will fall in love with whichever you pick.

 

You see, most of us DS riders ALSO try to say that the weight of the DS650 don't bother us because of the GREAT suspension set up and it really don't FEEL very heavy but just big........ My point is that you are waisting your time with that statement because from past experiances the people that don't OWN the quad you are talking about think that it is a heavy piece of $hit and it isn't worth thier time because their quad is 20 pounds lighter or whatever. JMO..... Like I said it's just from past experiances......

 

LOL, Not realy sure why he took the helmet off. If memory serves me I did the same. It's a very technical area for about 10-15 feet up hill. Slipping the clutch and pulling it back in at evry crest of the rock. You'd think we would have been smart enough to leave the helmet on incase a mistake was made and we flip it over, especialy with the light front end I have.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

 

True...From my experience, DS riders tend to be more mature and fair than Raptor owners. Not sure why this is, maybe the DS being a bigger machine attracts and older crowd. I am fairly certain that the average age of the V Force crowd is older (and hopefully more mature) than the average age of the Raptor clan.

According to most Raptor owners, my V Force is so heavy that it creates small seismic events in Los Angelos when I ride it in Louisiana; not to mention that I would have my *** handed to my by a 250EX if it were piped....

My excuse for buying the big V Force is that my *** is too wide for the others.....

 

I wouldn't neccesarily say that....... I'm 15 myself. I'm pretty mature for 15 though.....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: HomeDawg
Not sure why this is, maybe the DS being a bigger machine attracts and older crowd. </q>

uhh i think me, pushin, tyrespinner n a few others are an exception to this [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
n altho some of these guys are older they still act like they're still in high school [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]