Ok this is a steaming pile of BS...in less it was a 10 year old girl driving & she had never rode B4

I raced a 660 the other day & out of the hole I had him till 4th by a quad then he started to catch me, 5th he was passing me just by a tire. but I'am still takin it ez & a shead was coming up quick..

 

Yeah, it's about like when the YFZ 450 first came out.

It was supposedly whipping up on everything, plus had the feel of a 250R.

Well, that wasn't far off, it's an awesome bike that's VERY track fast.
But nobody remembered to mention that on long open drags it winds out quick and other machines will run it down.

Good to hear some guys are getting the KFX450 though... it's going to be interesting to see how it fits in today's picture.

 

if i may throw in some insight... recently my brother in law purchased a YZR 450 ( 06).. at the same time my uncle purchased his Raptor 700 (07).. and just this past saturday i bought my KFX 450... we took them all out.. and they all run relatively equal.. i was not pushin mine too much, so i never opened full throttle, however, on the whole shot, i had both other quads beat ( both of the other guys are more experienced riders as well).. the KFX is much better in the turns as well, the raptor tends to lean towards the front too much, and the YFZ, althogh a very good quad, seems very stiff to me...

On another note, the KFX does potentially have an issue.. later that day while riding.. the chain on my KFX came off as i was shifting into second gear.. now whether this was an issue with the dealership i bought it from not having the chain adjusted correctly, the chain then rotated thru ( motsly bc i had thought i accidentally went to neutral) and in doing so, it pushed the shift lever through the bottom of the case ( comepletely cracking the case)... my quad is now at sportland ( dealer in champaign, il) and although it will be covered by the warranty, kawasaki is sending someone from japan to look into the issue of a potential flaw in the model... ill keep posted on any new findings when they inform me more...

other than that, i could not be happier with my KFX, and to squash any potential rumors, or therein.. it WILL beat a raptor in a str8 race..

 

Well, that puts it in a more fair prospective I guess.

The YFZ 450 is hard to beat out of the hole with someone experienced with the machine. Very fast.
It's also very fast "track & trail" wise.

It winds up and out fast though.
It has a close ratio it seems to me.
About 2 seconds between shifts to the top out of the hole.
On a long drag the big boys will catch back up though... due to the trans and gearing differences.

The handling is sharp... really sharp... but unfortunately, so is the ride...

So to me, it does sound like you have been on a YFZ and can compare in that respect.

Maybe somebody I know locally will buy a KFX450 and I'll get a chance to try one. If it handles like you imply, rides better, pulls the Yam 450 & 700 out of the hole and can keep them behind it on a long run... well then it ought to be something!

Did you ride in any tighter woods at all? I'm asking because I myself think the YFZ was a thriller for sure, but too much machine in the tight woods, and better suited for someone 10 years younger when it came to ride. I was thinking more along the lines of a more practical machine for my next ride. Like one of the 400's. But I've also been thinking about the Raptor 700 and KFX450 due to the EFI and more trail-bike-like looking characteristics.

 

as far as that goes, my one downfall is that the KFX seems to be very high strung.. a few times taking off, from a slow start i would kill the quad, simply because of tuning or clutch issues, either way, it was very easy for the quad to just die. as noted before, i didnt get the chance to really woods ride it, i was more attempting to break it in before what happened occured... however, i have trail ridden the raptor 700.. and other than the fact that im not big on the twist grip throttle, its very affective on a 'hairscramble' type of course. it has great low end power for quick acceleration... the raptor's thing is that it seems ALOT heavier than the YFZ or the KFX, but the reverse on the raptor and the KFX are very handy as well.. they all have their perks, and would all make a great quad, i know speaking for my brother in law and my uncle, that none of us would trade our quads for the other.. i highly reccommend all of them.

 

How is the top speed? Any comparisons?

 

Got this from another froum

69.8 MPH on the Garmin Etrex legend gps with stock front sporcket...

73.4 with the new 15 tooth front sprocket...

 

as far as top speed, i can only compare the raptor and the YFZ, mostly bc i didnt wanna go full throttle on my KFX on the first day out... i have however watched two experienced riders go head to head on a YFZ and the raptor, and as far as that goes, it appears more often than not the raptor tends to edge it out.. but not by much at all... i am going to try to get a friend of mine who has a radar gun to see what the speeds are when in top gear full throttle... let ya know what i find out... being new to this forum, i havnt figured out how to post a picture or anything.. so if someone will explain that to me, i can post pics of all three quads running together..

 

Welcome to the forum's Flostang11 [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

Wish I could help ya with the pic's, but I hav never done it myself hopefully someone else will chime in here, I would like to see them [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Gotta hand it to ya there junior, you did give us a good run on that one good holeshot you did, and had you not ended up on the grab bar by the top of first gear, you might have tied the yfz. Although, when your 15 year old cousin rode that kfx for you, it did only get beat by the yfz by about 2 quads and less than 6 by the raptor. It was a good ride though, we had fun, and we never even complained about waiting up for you in the woods. My 10 year old son racing you on his ktm 65 sx dirt bike was pretty funny though, you beat him by what, 4 quads? :-) Just keepin ya straight buddy. lol

We actually all did go riding on our new rides last weekend. Josh on his new KFX, me on my new raptor 700, and chase on his new yfz. I gotta tell ya, after riding a heavily modified banshee for the last 11 years which I ran hare scrambles with for years, these new machines are amazing. As for drag race testing, we did NUMEROUS drag races as well as dozens of 1 lap races around an oval section at the start of an old hare scrambles track my uncle owns. In the straight on drag races, the yfz and the rap are very close. It basically ends up with who got the best traction or wholeshot. The raptor will pull slightly on the top over the yfz but not by much. The KFX with a highly skilled rider was barely behind the yfz. In the oval races the yfz was the clear cut winner due to a lower stance and better suspension vs. the raptor needing better front shocks (fixed by this weekend) to help it to not lean as bad in the corners. The KFX I would say definitely handled better than the raptor but was really up to rider level to see what is faster. The SE raptors which come with the same front shocks as the yfz DEFINITELY handle better than the base model. Another factor was tires. The stock tires on the YFZ are actually really good. The raptor tires are good for basic cruising but get to really riding hard and they will leave you wanting. I will try a new set of supergrip stingers which should cure that. Guys, these quads are all really good units. My thing, if you wanted the best motorcross quad, I would say get the yfz. If you run hare scrambles are just want brute torque, get the raptor. If you want to do both and need reverse, get the KFX.

Can't wait to see ya get that thing back junior, did a little tweakin on mine, lets see if I can open that gap from 6 lengths to about 10............................:-)