Speed aside, which would work better in the woods? I know that the raptor will beat a 250EX but my favorite kind of riding is twisty stuff in the woods. I am afraid that a sport quad that's faster than the 250ex will simply be too fast. I want to slow it down and be able to maneuver it. I did notice that the raptor has a 6 speed gearbox so there is a chance that it can be driven slower than others. Also I am concerned about reliability. I don't want to maintain much of anything and I know that the 250EX is supposed to be good at this because of it's automatic cam tensioner and rear differential with a shaft instead of a chain setup so that appeals to me, but I don't know how big of a deal and a pain in the *** maintenance on the raptor would be.

 

My riding buddy rides a rap 350 and all we ride is tight woods (there are no trails where we go, we force the quads through usually) and powerline...

Raptor 350 is definately a good woods quad, manual clutch can be a pain but if you know how to use it right it has its benefits for woods riding.

Don't worry about it being too high-strung for the woods, first gear is low and you can blip the clutch a little if you need to go lower.

Raptor 350 on paper should be faster than a warrior but I doubt it's enough to make a big difference between the two..

250ex and raptor 350 really shouldnt be compared all-around, but if all your doing is tight trail riding it will be a better bike. Smaller bikes with tight turning radiuses win in the woods.

Once you get out in the open with bigger bikes the 250ex will fall on it's face though.

Just depends what kind of machine your looking for.

BTW, my buddy isn't the most mechanically inclined guy and he has no problem maintaining his raptor. Chain drive is not as much of a pain as people make it out to be.

 

Also, the thing is that I don't really want to get a Yamaha, I'd rather stick with a Honda. What about a Honda 300EX or 400EX? How would they do in the woods? I ride at Turkey Bay in LBL in western Kentucky where there's like 2,300 acres with one main loop that is as wide as a road that goes around the whole thing but then in the middle there are a bunch of tight trail through the trees and some pretty crazy loose hill climbs. I have never ridden a high performance ATV so I honestly don't know what to get.

 

Corndoggy, Ive rode at LBL on Sportsman 500's. I would not really call those trails "tight" Any of the quads talked about in this thread would do fine. The Warrior/Raptor, 300ex, 400ex and 250ex are the pictures of reliabilty!! The Raptor thrives in the woods like mentioned. The best part of it compared to the others is the front end is not nearly as light. Meaning it is harder to flip over backwards when going up steep hills. Next in the line I would say, is the 400ex. It does not have reverse which can be a problem if you don't pay close attention to where your going. The 300 is a great machine. I just feel "big" on it. Other than that, it does really well in the woods. I'd say, test all of them and get the one that feels right to you!!!! I don't see you going wrong with any of them.

 

According to the websites I've been looking at, an 05 400EX does have a reverse. I would agree that most of Turkey Bay isn't tight, and in fact most of it is very wide open. I used to go there every weekend but I still haven't seen all of it. In the middle of the big loop there are in fact some tight trails and I love them, I could barely get through in both a Geo Tracker and a Jeep CJ5, both of which are very narrow for SUV's yet I would still scrape my doors on trees. I know a quad is a whole nother story but I still know you'd be doing a boatload of steering to get around the trees and you're not going to be able to be going 60 mph through the areas I'm talking about. As for the hills... well, those things scare me to death. I want something that is safe and reliable on the hills but I'm going to purposely avoid the worst ones. I have been in two situations in my jeep up there where I literally thought I might die. Once I got off camber and diagonal over the top of a huge rut on the side of a huge hill with 8 jeeps below me, and another I had my wife in there and we started going down this hill and couldn't stop, I had to basically do a controlled slide for about 200 yards. I have heard multiple stories about people having to bail and watch their quad bounce down the hill to it's death. So yeah, I want to have fun, but highly elevated risk of bodily damage or property damage doesn't really appeal to me much anymore, I guess I'm getting old. I mainly like taking off real fast and slinging rooster tails in light mud, I don't like swamping anything though. .

 

id say go wiht the 400ex. you know hondas are reliable for one, not that yamahas arent, but also you have 50 more cc's not that thats alot more, but youll have a little extra torque and power to get up and go, or get thru that mud puddle you didnt think was so deep. i dont know how much rappy 350s are but arent they around the same price as the 400s.

 

Yeah, less than $400 difference for today's prices for the 2005 models. I'm going to try to get the 400EX I guess. Sorry to hijack the thread, I started out with the same debate that this thread was about. I just don't like the risk of death-defying hills and going 85 mph so hopefully I won't look like too big of a poser with a 400EX. I just want something for casual woods riding but when I feel froggy, it had better JUMP and not think twice about it.

 

I use to own a 250EX, and my friends that I rode with every weekend had an RM250, two 300EX's, and a warrior 350, and I was always the fastest on the trails. The trails I ride in are rather tight at times, and always between 3rd and 4th gear for my old 250EX. They also have powerlines which are somewhat windy and whoops every quarter of a mile..sometimes opening it up into 5th.

I would always be ahead of the pack and waiting every once in a while for everyone to keep up. The 250EX is a bit smaller than a raptor350, and also has an automatic clutch which is very handy when the trails get really tight. It was real simple to maneuver around tight corners and was just really simple to ride overall. It had enough power to get through the trails fine, and it was real easy to whip around corners. Goin down trails around 30mph my old 250EX was able to just ride right over rocks..giving it the nickname "rock hopper" from my friends.

Maintenance...haha what maintenance. Every weekend I would refill the gas tank, and every once in a while change the oil. The only two parts I replaced were the rear tires (put some holeshots on them after the stock ones wore out) and a front A-arm because I let an *inexperienced* friend of mine ride it..and they slammed into a very large rock.
Other than that I would take it out, ride it, wash it when im done, and put it back in my basement, refueling when needed and changing the oil once in a while.


I hope that answers some questions you may have

 

Between the 300ex and 400ex, I would definately take the 400ex. The 2005 and 2006 models have Reverse which is a big plus. Also don't forget that if you want to do trail riding and be able to ride at slower speeds and avoid stalling, you can always easily modify the Gear Ratios on the Raptor 350, Warrior, 300ex, 400ex, etc. They operate with a chain and sprocket so all you'd have to do is put a smaller front sprocket on or a bigger rear sprocket. The Engine will rev higher but the speed will be slower. Take these numbers as an example (all in first gear):

Stock: 10 MPH @ 5000 RPM
Modify: 8 MPH @ 5000 RPM

This will lead you up to a slower top speed but Torque is more readily available. I eventually plan on getting a 400ex, gearing it really low and then put my big 25" Swampfoxes on it. I bet it will be a beast!

I wish I could modify my Cavalier's gear ratios...

 

How do any of these handle in light mud? I know I can't swamp them but I figured I could play around in light mud. I'm mainly wondering because I live in the land of the rednecks and most everybody has a 4x4 utility quad and just based off of what everybody else is using I'm halfway afraid that I'll be kicking myself for not getting a 4x4 but most of those guys don't ride at Turkey Bay either though, they go down to Ballard County and go duck hunting in the swamps. Sorry for the dumb questions, but I have honestly never been on a performance quad other than in a parking lot.