I live in Utah...Dealers here are not known to be class acts so take this information with that in mind.

Went by a Yamaha/Kawasaki dealer in Centerville today after riding with my son (him on his little zuk motorcycle and me on my daughters ozark...what a fun little quad that is)...was looking for a a couple of items for my Prairie so I stopped at a dealership next to the freeway on the way home. There setting out front is a shiny new V-Force 700...GREAT LOOKING QUAD

So i ask the salesman for the items for my prairie and like everyone he has nothing in stock and has to order in every thing i ask for. So i start talking to him about the V-Force. Tells me its a great quad. I ask him if he has had it out...he tells me he has and the thing has "Spunk"...

I then ask him if they have ran it against one of the Raptors and he tells me they havent...said it would be no comparison as the Raptor is a bit faster and far quicker...based off our comparisons he said. I looked at him and said really...mags seem to think the 700 is one of the fastest stock quads made. Now I have not dealt with this dealership before and so i take the guys word at face value ... but then he tells me that no automatic will ever be as fast as a manual shift and therefore i shouldnt expect it to compete with the raptor...said the V-Force is a good recreation quad for those that want a little get-up-and-go and do not want to deal with shifting...but the Raptor is still King.

Would like to hear from someone who has one and get their thoughts on this...my partner was going to get a 700 but will probably want to relook the Raptor if this is the case. I am wondering if this is his spill as they had 3 Raptors setting there and Kawi only sent him one 700. I couldnt ride it as it was there only one and i wasnt really looking to buy it. hmmmmm

 

The Raptor is a good bike. But to me it seems like an overblown 400ex with reverse. In lieu of the 400ex, z400, blah blah blah, it just seems like more of the same only slightly faster. I've ridden Raptors and I like them but I was never overwelmed enough to buy one because like I said above, it seemed like a big 400ex. The V-force is something different, very different. It took me a while to figure it out because I USED to be a staunch anti-belt quad type of rider. But the motor is so smooth and strong and the tranny is snappy. It is big but it's power handles it well and I find myself doing the same stuff I do with my other bikes only easier and I have more fun doing it. Will it beat a Raptor in drags and top speed? I will find out soon. I've been reading alot of stuff so far, some say it will, some say it won't, I don't think you'll get an honest answer until you see it for yourself. Stock vs mod. Mod vs stock. Who's to say? The playing field is pretty even with alot bike now-a-days so I guess it's boils down to what you like and what bike can do the most things the best. The way I see it, the V-force will hold it's own ANYWHERE and still be ridable by someone who's never riden before, ever. Let's see a Raptor do that.

 

The next time you're there, ask him what the angle of the helix in a CVT does or ask him what installing a heavier set of weights in the primary clutch will do. My guess is he won't have a friggin' clue and that'll tell you all you need to know about him. 99% of the people in the world have no clue how a CVT works, how it is tuned and what kind of performance you can get out of them. Tell him to go ride a 100MPH snowmobile once and see what a CVT can do.

 

Exactly.

 

From another dealership that sells both Yammies and Kawies, they said the v-force is quicker. Their test is very limited to distance, but that is what they said, even swapping drivers.