I can't believe that guy told somebody to buy a craptor, i never seen a bigger pile of crap. I agree that the Z has some problems when racing them but to tell someone to buy a craptor is a joke.

 

Personally Bartlett Racing isn't coming accross as a professional business but a bunch a youngsters out trolling.

 

i didn't even realize that it was a business. i don't think that it is good business practice bashing other peoples quads but i guess they can do whatever they want. I wouldn't buy anything from them anyway i would rather go to a company that would help you out rather than talk about how bad your quad is.

 

That's pretty much how I feel.

 

Bashing my Z..... ahh.... NO!!! I had 2 of them up until just a month & a half ago. (Actually a KFX) But my point being, as stated above, is if you RACE it, & you are an above average rider, you will need to eventually gusset & repair the weak spots sooner or later.
As far as "trolling" goes, I'm not trying to sell anything, or start any Z400 bashing here.
The Z is a great quad, that will stay in my stable here, as a spare & backup quad this next season.
Now that Suzuki lit the fires under other manufactureres ***** (THANKS BTW!!!) I will have a new race quad, that will hopefully be able to better take the abuse of a few seasons of racing & ridin hard!

 

What kind of racing are we talking about though? If I just drive around with my friend (with his 400ex) and pull wheelies, jump, race him across a field, etc, will that break the frame? How costly is it to fix the weak frame?

 

Man, I hate to quote or refer to Dirt Wheels but here goes.... They stated the 04 models have the frame issue addresses along with the exhaust system and chain adjustment. Anyone remember reading this? Anyone compared an 03 frame with an 04? Zillrider02 just bought an 04 KFX400....

 

i've also heard that they were fixing problems with the 04 frame, i recently looked at an 04 but it looked the same as the 03 to me.

 

k th v has craked frames my friend just cracked his today at the chock mounts or it looks like it is craking. all suzuki did was make the tubing a few guages thiker but that doest really helpin the long run because there is still strein being put on the frame. and when dealers say they wont replace it something because its been ridden the wrong way ask them what ATV stands for. if im not mistaken the last time i checked it was ALL terain vehicle.

 

We've all seen this before...

When the raptor came out in 01, most people rode it for a while and they were ok. Soon though many consumers reported problems with the transmission. This became epidemic in the atv world and many riders, Gary660R to name one, have been soured on yamaha because of their lack of attention and admittance of the problem. Its no coincidence that the 02 models had very notable changes, yet yamaha never officially acknowledged the problem, and they stuck many owners with the bill. It was later discovered that the reverse gearing greatly contributed to this problem. A feature which was rev/speed limited in the 02 models. The reverse gearing, however is still too tall. but that is another issue

Fast forward to the polaris predator. To a lesser extent, these machines had tranny problems as well. There are many posts on this forum regarding tranny failure, mostly in 3rd gear. Polaris did not offically recognize this either. And once again it was no coincidence that this years new pred has a beefed up transmission, specifically 3rd gear, fork, and gear ratios.

The suzuki is much like these cases. Not officially recognized, but well noted in the atv industry. IT IS A PROBLEM. Now just because it does not happen to everyone does not mean that it doesnt happen at all. There are widespead reports that the frame was altered mid-year. To what extent, it is not known for sure. Some claimed it was thicker in certain areas, some that it was a different alloy, and some maintain that it was not changed at all. In any case, it is documented just as the other cases are, and it would be suprising if suzuki did not make the appropriate changes in the next years model lineup.