I have never said anything bad about a c-dale I love these quads, the thing is you are looking to defend a quad on made up values.
The Cannibal was made to compeete w/ the 400ex z400 and such it was detuned cheeper shocks and tires, bars and pipe. So in this test I think the conclusion is right, yes it is faster but it also requires more maint. and takes more skill to ride fast and has no reverse.
Stop and think for a second, the mag is advising buyers that if you want the all out speed you will give something up if you are willing to then get the C-dale if not then you are not a pure high performance rider and would be better off on the Z. When you see that less than 1% of the quads sold are raced which is suited more to the 99% rider?
This class is a High performance class, now the Blaze and Moto are in a race class.
I think the shoot out was very good to the Cannibal, the mag showed the high points and lets face it if you were looking for the fastest quad which would you buy? The shootout winner of the quad that was fastest in every test?

 

I don't think the Cannibal is detuned even though it has a different map than the speed. The speed and the Cannibal are the base models and the blaze and moto are tuned up if anything with the other exhausts and maps. The FX400 came first and then the full on race bikes came later. If your going to use an mx track and drag races and what not for the basis of your shoot out doesn't the winner of these tests win the shoot our? How can you say the Cannibal beat the Z on the track in a drag and whatever else but since the Z is cheaper and easier to work on it wins. What is the basis cost and maintanence or performance? I own a 400ex and yeah it's easier to ride but less hp and soft suspension is always easier to ride if the handling is decent. This is no different than last years sport shoot out. All the test riders put in there best mx track times on the Cannibal and all but one rider put in the second best mx times on the 400ex. The Cannibal won all drag races and the raptor won the shoot out. Even the test riders in the ATV Action shoot out thought the Cannibal was the winner but the editors didn't like that idea.

 

Lower max RPM different map cheeper shocks, tires and rims yes it is detuned. No lot to the point of cam and compression and such but detuned from the Speed, Moto and Blaze. It's mission in life was to go head to head w/ other sport quads. W/out reverse and ease of use it does not do that.
Now IMO stepping up to the Speed is well worth the money and then it becomes a whole different world. I do not see the polaris winning to many shoot outs w/o reverse either.
Now buy then you will see special shoot outs for non reverse quads Polaris vs Canable etc.

 

I guess you could say what they did to lower the price makes is detuning it but it still does over 70 mph and has an arm pulling throttle hit that you wont find on any of the other sport quads it's supposedly competing with.

 

What makes a speed so much better than a Cannibal? The speed has better shocks, seat cover, and handle bars. WOOOOOO.

Hell, I don't see why someone would build up a Speed for MX... kinda off topic but every advantage that the speed has over the cannibal would be replaced if your building it for MX, so you would pretty muchly just waist $1000.

 

By the time you add the better rims and tires pluss shocks you are looking at about $2500 dollars. If you ride both you will see a big difference. Now for the average rider the Cannibal is a great choice but you are starting about $3000 behind just getting it up to the speed in aftermarket goodies, that is why I think the speed is such a great deal.
IMO (now like I said before I like the c-dales) but a person looking just to trail ride and fart around would be better off on a quad w/ reverse and less frequent oil changes.
The C-dales are specialized quads and I will not knock them for that but if you try to enter a market that is general riding with a segment specific quad then you can not win. Look at the BOM DS it is a great desert quad but who would MX or woods ride it stock?
Again I am not saying anything bad about the c-dale IMO the Speed is the best $value on the market the Cannibal is less of one when viewed at the market it is greared toward.
Now for someone like me who rides hard all the time but does not race much anymore then the Cannibal would be the best most logical choice however for what you get for the few dollars more I would save another few months for the speed.

 

Doesn't the speed have a higher rev limit as well as a different map?

Personally I want a Cannibal so I can put the shocks, wheels, tires, pipe and bars I want on it. It' ll end up costing more but the parts I put on it will be better than the parts on the speed.

 

Rods Quad,
dont know if this was mentioned but you said for $1000 you could then hand with a cannondale. That may be true, but for the Pirce of a slip-on and a Moto remap, your KFX is right back to square one, in the back. the above mentioned Cannondale will then hang with piped Banshees, its going to take alot more from your KawaZuki todo that. The magazines are biased, just admit it..

RoostKing...

 

Dude, think about it for a second. The speed has crappy wheels, just like the Cannibal, the speeds shocks aren't up to par w/ MX, just like the Cannibal, and the tires aren't MX tires... just like the Cannibal. So even if it did take almost 3K to get it equal to the speed, that doesn't matter, cause turning it into a speed wouldn't be the goal your tryin to reach. If you buy a-arms, shocks, wheels, tires, handlebars, pipe, and moto mapping for both the Cannibal and the Speed, they would both be equally good (only difference would be the color of the plastics), except you would have payed an extra grand on the speed because of the speeds MSRP. So like I said, what would be the point in spending the extra money buying a speed and setting it up for MX when you could set up the Cannibal exactly the same and it cost you a grand less? If you like the plastics so much, that would only cost you about $250-$300.

 

You are assuming I am going to set it up for MX! I ride woods not MX, the cannibal shocks are not rebuildable so shocks alone are 790 front and 650 rear that is just to get to the units on the speed. Now it is not just mapping that is different it is the programable ignition that you can switch on the fly between 3 different settings so now you need to buy that then you will add aloy bars for close to $100 and a grip seat cover is nice when it get wet so drop $50 or so on that. If you still do not think the speed is a bargan you need a job with the goverment.

If you wish to build a MX quad I would get the MOTO you can not build the Cannibal to that spec. for the difference in price.
Lets face it C-dale has a great quad but they went after a very narrow market, can you honestly tell me that 90% of the riders out ther could even dream of coming close to the potential a C-dale has to offer? Heck most would be slower on a C-dale than a 400ex from pure stupidity so why worry that the Cannibal lost a shot out to a quad aimed at that great group of winners.