thomez,

Honda and Yamaha started making these machines when they started making their crf450s and yz450f bikes. I think Honda and Yamaha have better things to do than try to copy a bankrupt bicycle company. Your friend with his "dale" beating all these crf based racers, i don't think so, unless he's a really good racer. Whether you like honda or not, there's no denying that the crf based racers are awesome. I believe the Cannondales could run with the 450 crf quads, but they wouldn't beat by much.

 

So Honda hadn't made a powerful dirt bike since a 2 stroke in 1989? Cause that is how long it took to put out another performance quad. With your logic they should have been putting bike motors in quads each time they developed a new bike. Didn't happen. Only with pressure. Only with a competitor starting off that was legitimate. They built and built bikes for years and ignored the ATVers and gave them a what .. 26HP 400EX as the best thing available. Don't make excuses for Honda ....

They didn't want to copy a bankrupt bicycle company. What a statement from nowhere. Yeah, they company was really bankrupt when they started R&D .. right? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Nah .. it was just spanking everything they made so bad that they had to respond. People in the know were expecting a new eschelon of sport quad from the companies they were loyal to. 3 years later they come out with them and everyone wants to praise them. Wonder how long it would have been without some pressure. Like I said before you'd be ridin that 400EX til 2010.

 

For the doubters: stock Moto

Stock Moto - won 250 pro-am national MX championship in 2002 - AMA MAXXIS MX GRAND NATIONAL ATV SERIES.

Also if you know those bikes, 5 of the rest of the list was CRF based quads. Those usually have 20k in them. just an FYI.

 

Man this one got silent....

 

everybody went to the cannondale site were all of the honda guys are hanging out

 

well the reason why it doesnt come MX ready stock is because of the casual trail rider, to which no 450rs will sell to. The attitude is that we're gonna give you a quad for the woods, and if you wanna MX race it, then you gotta buy loads of aftermarket. They should just come with factory extended swingarms and axles and if you want to casually ride it, buy a Z400!!!!!!

 

I think extended A-arms would do a lil more for ya than the extended swingarm [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I agree with justdirt. One of the guys I ride with has a piped 400ex and is highly skilled. I can barely keep up with him in the tight technical situations but leave him in the dust on the high speed stuff where the power matters.

 

I can not give cannon credit. (i sure there credit sucks with vendors getting shafted on payments from them) I do give them props for deciding to build a quad line. But there own stupidity ruined it before they got the bugs ironed out. They would never be a player in the motorcycles and should never have tried. Had they put a motor in the quad that was tried and trued they would probably still been in business. Most the local racers around here that bought a dale ran them with out aftermarket upgrades (3 stock, 1 modded) 3 of the 4 have sold them at huge losses and the 4th one is stuck with his. It is obvious that the big manufactures did not think they were ahead of the game cause you do not see aluminum frames/back wards motors/ fuel injection on the new 450's. Seems like the dales get faster the longer they have been out of business. lol In perportion to the other brands the dale is on the end of a tow strap a lot more. I have ridden a few dales. Dealer let me ride it one night at the MX track in Mossier Valley and it only made it through the first practice session. Blindfolded you could have put people that have never been on a quad and they could not tell you which quad was fuel injected between a raptor and cannon. Then the magazines finished them off. (should have paid them more) You could have put a few of the great quad riders on a lakota and they would still win.


To the red 450 fans sorry about the rezzie deal. Totally missed that. lol

 

Ive heard enough out of the thomez's mouth. Man just because you can't afford one of the newer quads out and you are jealous doesn't mean you have to bash honda and yamaha. Saying that a 400ex is 80's standards is just ignorant. I dont think anyone of the big four is worried about a bicycle company that can't even stay in business, considering the big four started the atv industry. Do us all a favor and don't ever come back to the forums again!