Alright...

Anyways, I bought a magazine of ATV action yesterday and they had a high performance shootout between ...

Honda 400ex
Suzuki Z-400
and
Yamaha YFZ 450

I do find it kind of unfair that the YFZ is in there considering what it's capable of, but they even mentioned that it's kind of hard to classify the YFZ so next time they'll create a new category called "competition".

Anyways, the 400ex did well in every category...even though it placed third (last) and ahead of it was the Z400 and the YFZ got first place.

The YFZ won on the drag and the lap, the Z400 2nd and the 400ex placed last[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]
There wasn't much distance between the Z400 and 400ex though, they were only 1/2 a second in between each other, while th eYFZ was 3 seconds ahead of the Z400 (on the drag).

I'd like to say that in many categories, all three machines got 5 stars. The YFZ got 5 on every category except for 1,2 or 3 of them. They also mentioned that the 400ex has to be redesigned to be able to keep up with the other 400's and have a reverse.

My thought on all this is that the Z400 is the better machine. It's got a reverse system similar to my trx250 which will make it easy to put in reverse.

That's all.

 

I have an 03 Z and it is a great bike for my type of riding,(mainly trail) but i ride with a 400ex, and yfz450, sometimes with warriors. all of the bikes do well in the woods but with the ex i do see him wishing he had reverse sometimes, and we have to wait on the yfz from time to time. When riding with the warriors i had to wait quite a bit, we had a rook with us but even without i was leaving them far behind. If i had to buy a new quad again i would still buy a Z400 i think it is a great bike for the price and it performs well. I think $7000 dollars or more is to much money to pay for trail riding. just my .002
later sparx

 

Pretty darn close and will rip an EX up in the mid range!

 

if u go down a tooth you ll have more low end and less top end im sure of that

 

Yes it's a known fact and it makes sense mathematically.

Could it also be possible that going down a tooth may increase your torque as well as top end? The reason I think this is because if you have a stock sprocket, perhaps the engine cannot rev to it's maximum RPM because it's too hard pulling bike that way. Go down 1 tooth, increase your torque and maybe the engine can rev at full RPM because it can pull the bike a lot easier. Just my $0.02

Oh and Sparx277, why are you giving us a fifth of a cent[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

The raptor isnt that big... It seems perfect for you cause it will smoke the 400ex... The rappy is not really any bigger than the z in size.. its barely any bigger than my warrior

 

I heard parts for the Z are a lot higher than the ex. Thats my only downside about it.

 

Jed, sorry dude, that's all i can afford right now. the check is in the mail.

 

u have the idea of goin down a tooth on the front sprocket all wrong. the engine puts out a certain amount of torque, the only way to change that is to mod the engine, or to get a better differential )which sport quads don't have) or get geared hubs (which sport quads don't have). also, the sprocket does not limit the RPMs of the motor. the motor will have trouble gettin up enough RPMs if u run a gear or 2 high. going down a tooth on the front sprocket will give u more low end power, and less top end speed. every gear will be slower, but u will be able to run a gear high into corners and climb hills a lot better.

 

Get a Z/KFX you won't regret it , straight drag tires , rider , weight come in play but Z will win most of the time .
Out on the trail the EX wont touch you . As far as parts/mods go the pricing is starting to go down .

The Z is geared perfect , if you go to the dunes or do a lot of hill climbs the 13t will come to your advantage against an EX
other then that you will always be faster stock vs. stock