My dads friend is just starting to get into atv's. I was having a conversation with him about which one he should get. He likes the Yamaha 660 Raptor. But i think it will be a little more than what he needs. I told him to either go with the Yamaha Banshee or the Kawasaki kfx400. He is just going to be riding around and having fun. I am going to let him ride my Mojave to get a feel to riding an atv. What do u all think would be the best quad for him?

 

Out of the shee and kfx400 I would go for the kfx because its a thumper so that meens less screwing around with, less mentinence just all around easier to deal with then a 2 stroker espesially 2 cylinders, carbs, etc. Its really up to what your dad likes and power wise of what he may have a preference for, he may like to screw with things so he may like the banshee, I dont know, but he should shop around and check out his options in his riding ability and style.

 

It really may not be. If the raptor fits him well it could be a good first bike. As long as he rides it with sense, and learns the techniques or riding and throttle control before he goes *****-to-the-wall. Focus on finding the bike that fits his body the best first.

I'm in full agreement.

 

Thank u all for the help!!

 

Well, Gump 91 I feel I should tell you that the Banshee is more quad than the Raptor. The Raptor probably is not a bad first quad for an adult with some common sense in reguards to knowing ones limitations. The Banshee is one the greatest quads of all time, however its much more dificult to ride. Keeping the mighty twin 2 stroke in its power band takes some getting use to, plus if a newbee were to have the banshee hit its power band at a ackword time it could get messey for him. FYI,the new raptors are going to be EFI and 686cc's. I would however like to also through out a recomendation that he look at the Kawi V-Force as a powerfull very low maintence sport quad, that also hapens to be an automatic which I think is always a good choice for a new rider since it allows the new rider the ability to pay more atention to his riding with out the wore of what gear he is in or is going to need to be in to get up that hill, ore balancing in offcamber situations with out the what gear am I in and working the clutch in tight wooded areas. Age hight,weight, price range and intended use would also be helpfull for getting the best recomendations for your dads friend.

 

He is about 36 years old. He is Probubly 6 ft 2in.. Basically all he is going to be doing is riding out in feilds and woods. I don't know what his price range is but i think since he was considering on buying a new raptor it should be pretty flexible.

 

Are the feilds and woods rides an all day kind of thing or just playing around for a few hours at a time? He is about the same age as myself and most of my friends, we all kinda left the sport quads a few years ago. And went to big bore sport utilities. We all still like playing around allot ie. doughnuts, wheelies, and powerslides but none of us really ride as hard as we did 10 years ago ie. big jumps, wild moves that sort of thing. Responsability for family,jobs, and kids kinda killed some of the risk taking we use to do. Two quads come to mind 1st more for short rides and playing around on sunday afternoon kinda riding the V-force would be a good choice, second I would say a Brute Force 650 (prarie 650 with new name and plastic) It still has the solid axle like the V-force but adds a slectable 4-wheel drive for playing in the mud also adds racks if he likes to hunt or going on a big all day trail rides were packing allot of gear and supplies like extra fuel cans, water, food, extra clothes and rain gear are important. I had a V-force back when they 1st came out and found I liked riding my Prairie 650 more mainly because the v-force was not that much faster and the prairie was much easier on the body (smoother riding). They are both priced about the same. The brute 650's here in my area are going for around 5700.00 to 6200.00.

 

NEVER too old for a Sport Quad.

I'm 33 and I've seen tons of guys/gals a lot older on sport machines. I can't ride the utility quads, they bore me to death. I'd LOVE to have one for work and trail-blazing and trail maintenance, but when it comes to riding for fun and stress reliefe there is no comparison. In fact I don't even really like to ride CVT type trannies at all. I could see running a no-stall manual clutch type system but I still need to shift and I prefer a real clutch. Just because it's a sport machine doesn't mean you have to jump it and race it at full speed.

And speaking of 4x4s I got a bone to pick, these things do more damage to trails than any sport machine. Some of the hills I used to ride on are all but ruined because all the guys on the giant 700lbs utility beasts like to climb in the mud and leave 15inch trenches in the hillside. This is a big deal on a one-line hill in the woods, it makes the trail impossible to climb on anything with less than 10 inches of ground clearance. My father on his 4x4 Scrambler took about 5 tries to finally get up. I had to find another way since there was no way I could get up, I tried several ways. And they just keep getting bigger and more powerful, and the tires keep getting bigger and more damaging. It's not a good trend IMO for the industry.

 

I will say that most of my bud's would still have at least 1 sport quad in our stables for dune riding if it had not been for Kawi and its v-twin prairie chassis solid axle quads like the Brute 650 I was recomending. There is no comparison in the what I and my buddy's call the fun factor between the prairie/twin peaks and a polaris sportsman or yamaha grizzly with there Independent rear suspesion. Not long after getting our first prairie 650's we found our raptors just collecting dust in our shedds, we all ended up selling our raptor since even when we went to place like the dunes were still wanting to take our prairie and leaving our raptors at home. Last year I had got a wild hair when I ran accross a BRP dealer that was dropping the line and closing out all there stock, I had decided to go ahead and buy a DS650 from him since he was making me such a heck of deal to get rid of it. We took it to the dunes that next weekend and we had 3 Twin Peaks and 1 P650 on the trailer with the DS650. I road it about 10 or 15 minutes and hated it, I swapped with one my buddy's to let them give it a try, in less than hour after getting to the dunes we had all tryed it and the DS was back on the trailer and I was back on my Twin Peaks having a blast. I sold the DS650 2 weeks later, We all aggread we are spoiled now by our Prairies/Twin Peaks. Point being that the Brute 650, Prairie 700, and Suki Twin Peaks are kinda like good ole muscle cars where as the other large bore utes with IRS type suspension are more like ole big block cadilacs (Fast and powerfull, but not very sporty). It is all still subject to allot of personal preffernce, I am just trying to share some of the experinces we have had with different types of machines. Hopefully Gump91 can print out this thread in a few days when it winds down and give it to his dad's friend to help give him some ideas of what he wants in a quad so he can go shopping with a good idea of what he wants and what models might suit his needs best. I recomend he at least test ride a few of his top choices before purchasing.

 

You might like the new Bombardier 800......Dirt Wheels says it's a monster, more power than the Brute Force. YIKES!!!

I guess it's a matter of preference. I just don't have as much fun on a ute, I like to bang gears and I like a light machine under me. I don't like to get tossed around by the machine, I get that in my truck. I like to toss the machine around like it's a big 4-wheeled mountain bike. I like the challenge of sport machine, I like the work out. I get all lazy on a utility. As it is my KFX is making me more lazy since the thing handles so friggin' good.