Hey guys,

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT LET MY PROBLEMS INFLUENCE YOUR DISCISION IF YOU ARE THINKING OF PURCHASING A PRED. We ride with many of them and they are very reliable bikes. Mine is simply a lemon.

That said, for those of you who followed that whole saga with my Predator,(the aptly named "Nemisis") i thought you may be interested in hearing what might be the final conclusion of the whole situation. This weekend we went riding in Baldwin and it was A BLAST!!! However, a few days before the trip, the Predator got hard to start. With the trip approaching quickly, I pannicked and had vacation time scheduled so i could fix it. Checked the valves, they were fine, checked the compression, it was fine, checked the plug it was perfect, but replaced it anyway, cleaned the carb, cleaned the airbox, cleaned the air cleaner, but none of these things made the predator easy to start again. It still started, just not very willingly. (another note: once it started it wouldn't idle for about 10 mins, then it would, and it ran great after that.) So i figured i had done all i could and said screw it. I could start it, so i may as well just take it and sort it out when i get back. Well the first start of the day saturday went fine. still not good, but it started. This was around 10AM. By around noon, the Predator had developed an interesting aversion to going into 4th gear. THe shifter simply refused to go up sometimes. Shortly after missing it a few times, (6 times in one particular straight-away) we stopped for gas and food.
WHen i came back to the Pred it refused to start. A simple pull-start got it running again tho. The Tranny problem seemed to get worse the longer i rode the machine and then developed other symptoms, it began to double shift occasionally. One particular straight, it shifted from 3rd to 5th with just one click of the shifter. In the time it took me to say "wait why am i in fifth?" however it dropped back into 4th with the gas full on and a resounding clunk. That can't have been good for it... Another time it dropped from 5th to 3rd with only one click down and almost made me wash out a corner.
Come Sunday, was the worst starting yet. Pull starting it was starting to not work, and it had to be drug around bogging for a while before it would finally start. For the rest of the day, when i came to stop signs it either died, or the idle stayed revved way too high. Fortunately if it did stall, it usually started without a pull.

For those whoe didn't want to read all that, (don't blame you. It's long.) The long story is sumarized as follows: I'm going to sell this hunk of junk as soon as it gets out of the shop and PRAY to get $5k out of it. If i can, i only lost $1500, and thats small compared to the repair bills i'll be facing when the warranty expired July 8th if the near $7k worth of warranty repairs since i bought it are any indication. (that does not include whatever happenned to it this time)

also: I have changed my oil every 10 hours and alwasy used Polaris oil. And as for the transmission, i'm VERY easy on it. I really probably overuse my clutch, keeping the load on the tranny down... But the way i figured it a clutch was cheaper to replace. GUess i never figured that even if i babied it the tranny would come apart... looking back should have beat the crap out of it... dang luck this happenned 2 weeks before warranty was up.

'07 KTM 525 Quad will be mine if it really gets made... Guess the Scrammer will have to tide me over until then... Sorry for the lengthy read...

 

wow walt, thats terrible. i cant belive how much time and money you've put into that pred. good luck with getting rid of it.

 

You are talking july 8th this year right?

 

yup. The thing broke again just 2 weeks before the waranty was up, after a solid 2 months of operation with no problems. I'm just glad it happenned now... I sincerely hope they put the 525 KTM motor in the Predator for '07, that will at least make trading it in worth it b/c i'll get a faster machine. IF not i may have to goto an ATK or something like that... (ATK Homepage) those things are sick.

 

i told my dad about the new predators, he just looked at me. i love my predator, and ive put alot of effort into it, but im actually considering tradeing it in. i think a new quad every year is like becomeing a habit. year before last was the 800, last year was the predator, this year... who knows

 

Honestly, the only thing i think might take down an ATK is a KTM motored Pred. Those things are amazing! they are EFI dual overheads and when you put the 11,600 RPM fuel map in them they pretty much can't be stopped. The hand welded aluminum frame is nice, but they're kinda maintenance intensive, which is why i hope so miuch for a 525 pred.

 

ATK are the canondals quad they bought the right of it when canondale stoped building them.

 

get you a favor and get a 400 polaris sport or scrambler/trailblazer whenever,with a lot of mods and weight removed,they don't brake unless you start mx'ing them like crazy,,low maintance 2 smoke with a lot of potential
to go always faster.

 

too heavy

 

scramblered, That's a good idea, as i already have a scrammer and it has been BULLET PROOF! but i need something which will be legal in the XC series as i would really love to start racing hair scrambles here in MI. I also ride a lot of wooped out trails and no matter how you slice it, the Predator chassis simply out-handles the sport/scrambler chassis. I wish there was something i could do to my scrambler to make it out handle my pred, but it would cost so much that i may as well just buy another high-performance quad...

Another option... (hate to say it...) might be team green. That new KFX looks awesome... still would rather buy american though... Oh well, i just pray for the KTM... No one knows where there is a KTM 525 motor for sale for $1500ish do they? Thanks!