This is funny.

Just picked up a copy of All Terrain Vehicle Magazine off the newstand the other day.

They give the Predator a review. Fairly thorough it appears.
2 weeks earlier I just read the Dirt Wheels review of the same bike.

What's funny is that the one thing DW ragged on was the front shocks.
In ATV Magazine, they had almost a full paragraph devoted to how the shocks are the best they have ever tested on any sport ATV. In the same issue of ATV Magazine, they had a shootout between a Raptor and Z400, and in this article they HATED the front shocks of these quads. Said they were basically a cheap pile, and that the Pred has a few legs up on them in this department.

Another interesting thing to mention is that when they were testing the Rap and Z400 (in ATV Magazine), they said that on both the Rap and Z400, the rear axles were REALLY soft, and that they had a collection of bent axles while jumping these two rigs (Rap and Z400) for big air.

They did mention doing the same things with the predator, they could NOT bend an axle ever.
Said that is was S-T-R-O-N-G.

To summarize, it was a clear indication of publication biases in product reviews.

We all know how Dirt Wheels does things....

 

I found the All Terrain Vehicle Magazine article to be very well written and informative. They said the truth. You can't really get a review of the Predator until you've had it for atleast a week and that means no Polaris reps sitting over your should saying what and what not to do to the quad. The Z400 VS Raptor article was very good, finally someone spoke the truth about the axles. I think they are are not biased and comparing them to Dirt Wheels is not fair, Dirt Wheels is a crap magazine because of so many reasons. I still read it mind you but I don't look to them for truthful reviews or remarks.

 

Not to mention that they were testing a prototype, not a production quad. I ordered a Troy Lee Limited, and to be perfectly honest, maybe I should have waited a year before I did that. We'll have to wait and see the reliability of it, but with what I have read so far, it seems to me to be the best handling quad on the market. And again, it could end up like the Raptor, with several changes made from the 2001 to the 2002.

 

I would say the magazines have there favorite brands. for years dirtwheels barely acknowlegded that polaris made anything but sportsman 500s, they seem to be slowly giving the scrambler the credit it deserves. I don't know what they will do if the preditor is as good as they say, I know one thing, I am sick of reading about the z-400, it is a honda copy with a little more power.But knowing dirt wheels they will treat it like the canondale, do a few articals on it and then push it to the back pages, and start talking about the knew honda sport quad to be released(can't wait!!) you Know, first drawings, then spy photos, then secret info from honda, ect. But biase or not I still love all the atv magizines,