I recently sold my race car, 99 Cobra, and went out and purchased a bright orange V-Force last week. I was making a trip to visit my family in Muskegon Michigan so I figured it would be a good time to buy the V and try it out at Silver Lake. I also own an 01 Raptor and had a blast with it on the dunes. I kinda expected the Raptor to do better on the dunes but I was very impressed with the V-Force. I started out by breaking it in on some tight windy trails in Twin Lake called Cedar Creek. These trails are designed for ORV's 50" wide and narrower so it was a little tight. About 3 hrs into riding I caught a root that sent me into a tree and bent the left ti-rod. I was surprised since I was only going about 10 mph. I pulled the ti-rod off and straightened it enough to get back to the truck. The next day I welded a peice of cromoly tubing over it to get me throught the weekend, worked like a charm. I might just leave it on there. I liked the CVT for the tight trails vs the manual in the Raptor but the suspension felt rather stiff compared to the Raptor. I only weigh about 160 so I figured the V-Force might be a bit stiffly sprung for my weight which seemed to be the case. The following day I took the V-force out to Silver lake for some high speed duning fun. Over all the V-force did exceeded my expectations. Even with the stock tires I couldn't find anything I couldn't climb. I even went form a dead stop at the bottom of the steepest dunes and had no problem getting to the top. I raced a father and son on their Raptor and Warrior up test hill. I didn't have the shift selector locked in to drive and when I took off it popped out of gear. I quickly got it back into gear and made up the 10-15 bike length advantage the Raptor had on me and caught him by the top of test hill. The warrior was no where to be seen. In all honesty it was so rough out there the winner was decided more by who could withstand the choppiness rather than who had the fastest quad. Later that day I ran with a group of Z400's, all wearing paddles, and had no problem catching them racing up the hill.

In the end I was very pleased with my purchase and can't wait to try it out in the hills of Kentucky were I reside. If nothing else, this is by far the best sounding quad I've ever heard. I love being able to gas and go with the CVT. Maybe I'm just getting old. I can't say its a better quad then the Raptor, just depends on the person. I feel the Raptor is faster in stock form and the suspension seems more compliant for a rider of my size. The more I ride the V-Force the better I like it though. It certainly feels more stable than the Raptor. Only problems I had with it this weekend were the weak *** ti-rod and pulling it out of the soft sand, man that sucker is heavy.

 

hehe, if you thought stockers do well, try some paddles or some pro-wedges. I used my pro-wedges in some sand and it was alot better. I went back with my stockers and all I was doing was spinning. I love my V-Force too, its great. I wouldn't go back to manual tranny quad again.

 

Con-Grats, hipsi
I want to load up the quads and head up there to Silver lake dunes also sometime, that is the only thing I have never ridden on before ...dunes & sand....think it would be a blast.

...and you will like it the more you ride it!

have fun>>>>>>>!

You guys notice how all of these post "first ride reviews/impressions" are sounding quite familiar and consistent...regarding the V-Force...

and my favorite is still..."the more I ride it"...."the more I like it."

I think once you get over the mental block of it being an auto tranny and 500 lbs, you then realize that it rides,handles and feels as light as/or better than most other sport quads..........tarrat