OKAY HERE IT IS! ARE YOU READY! SPIN YOUR 400EX, PREDITOR, RAPTOR, 400Z "GREEN OR YELLOW" OR
DS650 11,600 RPM'S AND LET'S SEE HOW LONG IT LASTS.

 

I don't understand how so many people could be having problems, I have never had a single mechanical problem out of mine. Maybe I'm just a lucky one. Guess that means the guy that might be buying my C-dale will be one of the lucky ones too.

Just to let you know though... the YZ 250f's are reliable too and they run 13,400 RPM's!

 

You are right BUT only two wheels.

 

The only bike you listed that has been out long enough for a real realibility test is the 400ex and maybe the DS650 because we all know that thing is bullet proof. When a z400,raptor, predator, or Cannonbail have been around for about 5 years, then you can talk about reliability.To say a quad is reliable because it revs to 11,500 or even that it has been around for 2-3 years is not any reflection of relaibility. I am not saying that Cannonbail is not reliable, or any of the others for that matter, I am just saying that reliability is more that a couple of years without a breakdown. Can you honestly tell us that when you look at the plumbers nightmare,computers, and the high pressure Fuel Injection System you don't know how to fix, on that Cannonbail you don't get a little nervous about what might happen in a few more years? I had a Moto for a while, thats why I sold it. It hauled a$$. Just made me worry.

 

What I meant by my statement was that there are a lot of Cannondale bashers out there. A lot of them say that Cannondales aren't reliable. But Cannondales tend to be riden alot harder than your average sport quad. At least as far as the engine is conserned. The Cannondale rev limiter is set much higher than most. Of course two strokes are high, they dont have valves to open. I wasn't bashing the other quads, just defending Cannondale. Yes, there is some issues that need to be addressed. But keep in mind this thing really takes a lot of abuse. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Upside down,
You are right, most of the people riding those are really using them. That is a good point. I say consideering the situation (never made a motor vehicle) they are super reliable, and I don't think too many people give them they credit they deserve. Too bad they bit off more than they could chew.

 

I like Cannondale and what they did as well but I don't see how the rev limit point has any validity. Cannondales are designed to rev that high and in doing so you must design the engine to take that kind of abuse. If you reved a 400ex to almost 12k it would probably have a lot of issues but then again it was never designed to do that. You could say cruisers the Honda VTX or Valkerie wouldn't be reliable if they reved as high as a crotch rocket as well but they were never meant to.

 

If I putted around at 7500 rpm's or less, I think my engine would last longer. That's my point!
With that in mind, I'm not trying to bash an other atv maker.

 

High rev's are a killer of engines.

 

I understand that but that engine is designed to be able to rev high and to handle it. 400exs are not designed to do that that's why they take some serious engine work to get a lot of power out of them. I agree high revs hurt engine but high revs are the way of the future even for performance cars were they take smaller engines and make them rev higher so they can ge more out of a lighter motor. Thes car engines just like crotch rocket engines, indy cars and even cannondales are designed to be able to handle it they don't just take any motor that's the size they are looking for and make it rev to the moon. Besides there are other issues that aren't directly related to high reving. I think if Cannondale had it all to do over again they would have waited another 6 months to a year to release the quad. If they had more time to have serious riders beat them hard to see what would break or fail I don't think we would even be posting in this thread because they were well on their way to sorting it all out. With the exception of the changes to the engine case and a few other odds an ends they had it mostly sorted out before these changes.

I even think if they get bought up by someone with a lot of cash and the connections to outsource some manufacturing and retain the engineers I think they'll get to a point of average to above average reliability easily. If someone has the cash the opportunity is there if they got the b@ll$ to take it and I hope they do because no other company has done more for sport quads since 4 wheels were introduced or the 250r.